On August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Less than a week later, on August 15, Japan announced its unconditional surrender, and the anti-fascist war was finally won. We all know that nuclear weapons are very powerful, and we have always believed that the reason for Japan's surrender was the two atomic bombs of the United States, which has misled people for 76 years, and the reason for Japan's surrender is not as simple as two atomic bombs, so what is the real reason for Japan's surrender?
On December 7, 1941, japan did the unthinkable thing by bombing the Pearl Harbor base of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, temporarily gaining the initiative in the battlefield. But the direct result of this incident was that the United States participated in the anti-fascist war, declared war on Japan, the Pacific War broke out, and World War II reached an unprecedented scale.
At that time, the United States, as one of the world's largest powers, their military strength has always been comparable to that of the Soviet Union, and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, even Japan's allies felt incredible, and Hitler directly scolded Japan with the word "stupid pig".
After the accession of the United States in World War II, World War II officially entered a white-hot stage, and anti-fascist alliances such as the United States, the Soviet Union, China and Britain were established in the world.
On September 9, 1943, Italy announced its surrender. On May 8, 1945, Germany announced its surrender. So far, only Japan was the fascist aggressor country in World War II.
On July 23, 1945, in order to reduce the material input and the casualties of the Us army, the United States decided to carry out the military operation of dropping atomic bombs on Japan, and issued a written order. On July 24, U.S. President Harry S. Truman formally approved the order and decided that on August 3, an atomic bombing would be carried out on one of the four Japanese cities of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Ogura, and Niigata.
All countries know the power of the atomic bomb and know the devastating damage that would result if the atomic bomb were dropped. The United States also revealed to the Allies after deciding on this matter that in the days leading up to the bombing, Allied planes had been hovering over major Japanese cities and dropping millions of leaflets from them. The leaflet said that if Japan did not choose to surrender, it would be subject to large-scale aerial bombardment. However, until the first atomic bomb was dropped, there was no surrender from Japan.
At 2:45 a.m. on August 6, American bombers carrying the Little Boy atomic bomb departed from Tinian Island in the Mariana Islands, along with two other aircraft on observation missions. At three o'clock in the morning, the three planes had arrived over Japan, and after monitoring the weather over Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Okura respectively, they found that the cloud cover over the target site was low, had better visibility, and met the bomb dropping standards. During the reconnaissance in Hiroshima, it was found that no enemy patrol aircraft were seen, and the anti-aircraft artillery fire was also weak. So the U.S. military decided to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
At that time, the Japanese residents could be said to be accustomed to American bombing. The people of Hiroshima even saw three planes hovering overhead, but the air defense siren had already sounded once when the three planes were monitoring the meteorological conditions in Hiroshima, and the three hovering planes were seen for the second time, so the residents of Hiroshima were indifferent to the second air defense siren. But what they don't know is that a catastrophe is coming to them.
At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, the "Little Boy" atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima, killing most of the inhabitants of the explosion center almost instantaneously, and the rest of the escapee were also physically damaged by a large amount of nuclear radiation, and finally died. Later, according to statistics, 343,000 residents of Hiroshima were killed as high as 177,000 on this day.
Truman issued a statement on the international news on the same day that if Japan still did not surrender, the United States would continue to drop atomic bombs elsewhere. But even though the people of Hiroshima suffered a devastating blow, Japan still said in the newspapers that the bomb was not terrible and that Japan had a solution, that is, the Japanese government still refused to surrender.
In fact, there has been polarization within the Japanese government, with one faction vowing not to surrender and the other believing that surrender can reduce Japan's losses. While the Japanese cabinet was still discussing whether to surrender over and over again, the U.S. military was already preparing for the bombing of a second atomic bomb.
On August 9, the United States originally dropped the atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Kokura, but the bomber carrying the atomic bomb malfunctioned shortly after takeoff, and the gasoline in the entire fuel tank could not be used, and captain Sweeney, who piloted the plane, roughly calculated that the amount of gasoline carried was enough to complete the task, so he flew to Kokura. However, there was still a situation, and when he flew over Kokura, he found that the weather conditions above Kokura were very poor, the clouds were thick, and he could not see the city on the ground at all, and he could not accurately drop bombs.
After another 30 minutes of wandering, the news came from the radio that there was a high probability of intercepting fighters over Kokura, so Sweeney did not have time to report to his superiors and directly sailed the plane to Nagasaki. After the plane flew to Nagasaki, the weather on Nagasaki was also cloudy, Venice wandered for a while, found that it was still unable to find the target, looking at the amount of fuel left in the fuel tank, Sweeney decided to harden his scalp and drop the atomic bomb anyway, and then he chose radar aiming, and finally dropped the "fat man" at 10:58.
The "Fat Man" exploded in a larger range than the Little Boy, but because of Nagasaki's terrain surrounded by mountains on three sides, the damage was smaller than Hiroshima's, causing 130,000 casualties.
At this point, the two powerful atomic bombs of the United States completely broke the hearts of the Japanese people, and under pressure from all sides, six days later, Japan announced its unconditional surrender.
In fact, the two atomic bombs of the United States were only one of the reasons that prompted Japan to surrender, which caused 300,000 casualties to Japan, but Japan's about 7 million troops were not affected. But even without the impact of the American atomic bomb, Japan's defeat would have been an irreversible fact.
There are many reasons for Japan's surrender, which can be roughly divided into two aspects: Japan itself and abroad.
The domestic reason is very simple: an island country like Japan invaded other countries in the first place in order to compete for the natural resources of other countries. Japan is not as vast as China, it is at the junction of the Eurasian Plate and the Pacific Plate, and it is still an island country, so Japan has many natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis. Moreover, Japan's land area is only about 378,000 square kilometers, and in such a small land area, 75% of the mountainous and hilly areas are very scarce, and natural resources are very scarce.
Although Japan's military capability is very strong and the army's combat ability is not weak, the perennial war has long stretched the Japanese national economy, and in the end, japan's armaments and logistical support for the japanese army have been seriously insufficient. Under such circumstances, domestic contradictions were quickly aroused, many people and even soldiers no longer wanted to live under war, and there were serious differences between some senior officials of the Japanese state, but the Japanese emperor they believed in was still insisting on war.
There are many foreign reasons, which can be mainly divided into four points.
The first was the decisive counterattack of the Chinese people and other countries in Asia that had suffered japanese aggression. Especially on the mainland, the domestic situation on the mainland in the early period was very chaotic, the Japanese army occupied a lot of the mainland without effort, and the Nationalist government has been suppressing our party, and there is a civil war in the country. However, after the establishment of the anti-Japanese united front, the people of the whole country united in their all-round resistance to Japan caused great pressure and blows to Japan, causing the Japanese army to gradually retreat in China.
The second was the surrender of Italy and Germany. As we all know, the fascist aggressors in World War II actually took Italy, Germany and Japan as the axis. The surrender of Italy and Germany indicates that the European battlefield is over. Japan became the only country on the opposite side of World War II, when all the countries invaded in the world began an independent revolution and anti-fascist war, and the spearhead of the war was all aimed at such a small island country as Taipingshang. In this case, Japan is completely isolated, and it is only a matter of time before it surrenders.
The third was that the United States had fought the Pacific War with Japan since Pearl Harbor and successfully defeated Japan's Pacific Fleet and reached Japan's territory. Moreover, the United States often bombed important Japanese military sites, resulting in serious damage to Japan's heavy industry. In addition, the United States took advantage of the characteristics of Japanese wooden houses to drop gasoline bombs on them, resulting in the displacement of Japanese people, unable to live, and naturally could no longer become the basis for the army to provide supplies. Not to mention the power of the two atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Japan.
The fourth is the influence of the Soviet side on Japan. The three northeastern provinces of the mainland were once completely controlled by Japan in World War II, and Japan has established complete military bases in the three northeastern provinces, and the main force of the Japanese army is mainly stationed in the three northeastern provinces, which is fully capable of countering China. However, on June 30, 1945, China and Japan signed the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, which stipulated that the Soviet Union would respect China's absolute sovereignty over northeast China, and sent Vasilevsky as the commander-in-chief of the Soviet Far East Army, gathering 1.6 million Soviet troops to fight against the Japanese Kwantung Army in northeast China.
At that time, the Soviet Union was a world power alongside the United States, especially in terms of military, weapons and combat capabilities far exceeded those of the world, and Japan's proud main force was defeated in less than a month under the fierce offensive of the Soviet Union. And the Soviet Union said that if Japan did not surrender, the Soviet War against Japan would be carried out to the end. On August 9, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan again, and Japan faced pressure from the world's two major powers, and if it did not choose to surrender, then the nation would really disappear.
So the reason for Japan's surrender in the end was not only the two atomic bombs of the United States, but the reason for the joint efforts of many countries. In the confrontation between various countries, Japan, which was fighting alone, faced many factors at home and abroad, and if it did not want to be completely destroyed, it chose to surrender unconditionally.