On September 2, 1945, the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan, was docked, and the battleship will be recorded in human history. Under the attention of the whole world, the Japanese side signed the instrument of surrender, and World War II came to an end.
But because of this, a problem also arises. Japan was forced to surrender instead of 100 million pieces, was it the United States that dropped two atomic bombs to force Japan to surrender, or did the Soviet Union send troops to force Japan to surrender?
For a long time, the prevailing view was that Japan eventually surrendered because of the american atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This view is mainly upheld by Western countries and Japan. But now, more research has shown that it was not the two atomic bombs that forced Japan to surrender, but the Soviet Union's troops.
So this article is discussing why the atomic bombing was not as effective as the Soviet Union's military intervention in Japan's surrender.
In this regard, the research of two American scholars is representative, one is the Japanese scholar Yoshinobu Hasegawa, and the other is Devo Wilson.
Combined with the two scholars' research on the reasons for Japan's surrender, as well as a large number of historical materials, it is shown that the reason for Japan's direct surrender was not because of the atomic bomb, but because of the Soviet Union's troops.
The first reason was that Japan had suffered a large number of air raids at that time and was accustomed to air raids. Each air raid destroyed Japanese cities extremely badly and caused many casualties, and although the atomic bomb explosion would deter Japan at that time, it was difficult to scare them into surrendering quickly. Specifically, the destructive effect of atomic bombing and incendiary bombing was almost the same as that of other Japanese cities during this period.
From March 1945, the American B29 American SuperFortress bomber began to bomb Japanese cities on a large scale. A total of 68 Japanese cities were bombed throughout Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed as a result of atomic bombing, but the other 66 cities were bombed by B29 bombers carrying large numbers of incendiary bombs.
As we all know, Japanese cities are still dominated by a large number of wooden structures, and a large number of incendiary bombs poured from B29 bombers can be said to be the destruction of Japanese cities. As far as the destruction of the city is concerned, Hiroshima, which was bombed by the atomic bomb, can only rank fourth in all of Japan. In terms of the proportion of destroyed urban areas in the entire urban area, Hiroshima only ranks 17th.
The Japanese authorities were also studying atomic bombs, and the difficulty of their manufacture was also known, and it was unlikely that the United States would want to mass-produce atomic bombs at that time, so Japan also concluded that it was impossible for the United States to continue to drop atomic bombs. In terms of damage, incendiary bombs cause far more casualties and property damage than atomic bombs. Even in this case, Japan did not choose to surrender.
The second reason was that the Soviet Union sent troops to completely break Japan's dream of negotiations. One of the reasons Japan was dying in the late stages of World War II, knowing that it was still holding out its defeat, was to maximize its domestic interests. By killing and injuring a large number of US troops, the capital for negotiations is obtained.
After Germany's surrender, Japan also knew in its heart that it could never win a war. But they tried to end the war without losing face too much. For example, you can maintain Japan's independence, but you can also preserve Japan's imperial system and Japan's political system. Even more egregious is the continued desire to occupy certain lands from China to Southeast Asia
To this end, they pinned their hopes on two aspects, one was to ask the Soviets to mediate between Japan and Britain and the United States, and the other was to engage in a decisive battle with the US army on the Japanese mainland, so that the US army would increase the bargaining chips in a river of blood. In 1941, the Soviet Union and Japan signed a neutrality treaty that had not yet lapsed, and the Soviet Union and Japan had not yet formally declared war. At this time, although the Soviet Union conquered Germany, it faced a more important problem. After the occupation of Germany, the Soviet Union and Britain and the United States faced each other directly in Europe. If Japan is also beaten down by the United States, and Japan is also occupied by the United States. Then, the whole Soviet Union will face an east-west attack. The Japanese speculated that Stalin did not want to see the United States become extremely strong in Asia, so he did not want Japan to be brought down.
But with the Soviet Union declaring war on Japan, Japan's delusion went bankrupt. First of all, the Soviet Union sent troops to attack Japan, so it was impossible to expect the Soviet Union to become a mediator. Second, the Red Army quickly defeated the Kwantung Army, in the southern part of Tun Hyogo Island. Use Sakhalin Island as a springboard to attack the Japanese mainland.
The whole of Japan was busy defending the American army in the south, and the Soviet Union in the north wanted to attack its homeland, which Japan never expected. As a result, the Japanese needed to deal with both American and Soviet forces on the mainland. The Soviets attacked from the north, and the Americans attacked Japan from both sides from the south. Wanting to fight a decisive battle with the United States and the Soviet Union on the Japanese mainland, Japan was far from being prepared for this. Moreover, compared with the U.S. army, which would not attack until November, the Red Army could invade the Japanese mainland from the north in about ten days.
In the eyes of the Japanese decision-makers, the Soviet army landed on the Japanese mainland before the US army was very deadly. Due to the national nature of the Soviet Union, Japan would rather be occupied by the United States than by the Soviet Union. Therefore, after the Soviet Union started the war against Japan, the Japanese authorities felt that the situation was very critical and hurriedly made the decision to surrender.
In addition, there is much evidence that Japan did not attach much importance to atomic bombing at that time.
For example, according to existing historical data, after the large-scale air raids on Japan by the United States, the Supreme War Guidance Council, Japan's wartime highest decision-making body, only mentioned air strikes twice in its meeting.
Japan itself is studying atomic bombs, so Japan knows what atomic bombs are. The hardliners and the war faction also said that the United States only has one or two atomic bombs, which is no big deal. A few days later, he also said that the atomic bomb was not as scary as the incendiary bomb.
The main and representative foreign minister, Togo Momoku, also told others on August 7 that although it was getting more and more severe, it was not desperate.
After the atomic bombing of the island, japan's supreme meeting did not take place for several days. Even the Japanese foreign minister's proposal to convene a meeting to discuss Japan's atomic bombing was rejected. In sharp contrast, news of the Soviet Union's declaration of war on Japan reached Japan in the early hours of the same day, and the Supreme Council of Japan was hastily convened at 10:30 a.m. and discussed surrender. When the Japanese Supreme Council was discussing the Soviet union's troops, Nagasaki was bombed by atomic bombs, but the japanese highest level did not know about it in the afternoon.
The United States actively invited the Soviet Union to send troops, but the Soviet Union did not immediately give a reply. In the face of the international situation, the Japanese authorities also began to panic. Japan believed that the Soviet Union's entry into the war was crucial, or that it would determine Japan's fate. On August 7, Dongxiang also paid an urgent visit to the ambassador to the Soviet Union to inquire about the Soviet side's attitude toward mediation.
So why do many theoretical theories now emphasize the victory of the atomic bomb?
In fact, after World War II, both Americans and Japanese were more willing to attribute Japan's surrender to the atomic bomb. As far as the United States is concerned, the atomic bombing of Japan and the forced surrender of Japan at the end of World War II are things that put gold on the face of the Americans. In addition, in the later stages of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union also created a gap in the European issue. The United States deliberately emphasized that the power and role of the atomic bomb had a great deterrent effect on the Soviet Union, which had not yet had an atomic bomb. For example, at present, Britain and the United States even take the fruits of the victory in World War II on their own, and deliberately ignore the contribution of the Soviet Union in World War II. Therefore, the United States claimed that it had forced Japan to surrender with atomic bombs. The United States has conveyed a message to the world that it is the savior of the world and the greatest contributor to the end of World War II.
Why did the Japanese also attribute their surrender to the atomic bomb? After World War II, Japan was controlled by the United States, and of course it would pander to the American point of view. In addition, Japan's rendering of surrender by atomic bombing is actually putting some powder on its own face. First, he was also a victim of the atomic bomb, weakening his image as an aggressor. Dressing yourself up as a victim of World War II weakens international condemnation of Japan's war. Second, to attribute his defeat to the atomic bomb, he can say the reason for Japan's defeat in the war, and no one can resist such a large weapon as the atomic bomb that no human can imagine. Reduce the frustration of the Japanese in defeat and preserve the dignity of the poor defeated!