GeopoliticsHistory
Update: The significance of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the Japanese surrender
Alright so I’ve done some more research on how influential the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were to Japans surrender.
The general consensus is that the war was going badly and the bomb was, to the Japanese leadership, really no different than a regular bombing. They were already planning on surrendering due to the impending invasion by the U.S and USSR. The bomb simply provided an easy excuse that they could point to, in order to cover up the fact that they were already loosing the war.
It meant that they could preserve the ‘perfect emperor’ façade because it wouldn’t have been his fault, it was the allies that had suddenly created this magical bomb that forced the Japanese to surrender! Basically they were power hungry dictators.
So I was wrong about not believing that the Japanese leadership saw the bombings as ‘just another’ bombing. They were willing to keep being bombed if it meant preserving their power and pride.
TLDR; The war was going badly and the bombings were a good excuse for Japanese leadership to ignore their failures during the war.
Monday October 9, 2023