Among other "dirty tricks". I'm only arriving at that conclusion based on the actions of our leaders and the eye witness testimony of men like General Wedemyer, General MacArthur, Senator Robert Taft, Senator Joseph McCarthy, JFK, et al... and Chaing Kai-shek himself. This information was widely known 70+ years ago. Today, it is long since down the memory hole.
Stalin was out of position, ill-prepared, and ill-equipped. Had the Allies accepted Japan's surrender when Hirohito first began to make it known they were prepared to negotiate a surrender, Stalin would never have been able to get his army in position to assist Mao. The Russians fighting the Japanese was not what Stalin moved south for - assisting Mao in defeating the Nationalist Chinese Army was. Stalin just needed the Allies to buy him some time; hence, the war needed to be prolonged.
Sorry to ask an ignorant question, but how did making the war with Japan go on allow the Russians to assist the Communist Chinese? Why would the Russians not have been able to do that if the war had ended a little earlier? Are you claiming the Japanese were keeping Chiang Kai-shek's forces preoccupied? From what I have read, the history books make it sound like the Communist forces took most of the brunt of fighting the Japanese. Are you claiming that having the Japanese occupation forces still there was just an excuse for the US to try to impose a temporary ceasefire to prevent Chiang Kai-shek's forces from wiping out the Communists before the Russians could provide assistance?
Mao did not have the strength necessary to defeat the Nationalist Army. Had the war ended, Chang Kai-shek would have benefitted from acquiring most of Japan's resources left on the mainland. I'm sure Mao and the communists would have scooped some of that up too, but as long as the Nationalists were preoccupied with fighting both Mao and the Japanese they couldn't consolidate those resources. Beyond that, had the war ended, Stalin would have been invading a sovereign nation. That certainly would not have played well politically as the U.S. was ostensibly supporting and supplying Shek. Chang Kai-shek would have been able to focus solely on the communists from a much stronger position. That certainly would have made it much more difficult for the Allies to play the ceasfire/diplomatic retreat and defeat game that ultimately defeated the Nationalist Army. You also have to remember that there was a lot of anti-communist, anti-Stalin sentiment within the ranks of the U.S. military. Stalin's invasion had to take place under the cover of the existing war. Chang Kai-shek wrote about all these things, as did some of the patriotic U.S. Generals. Forgive my faulty memory, I can't remember the titles of the books. To be sure, these facts never made it into the "official history".
You read the wrong books. That is the line pushed by Mao & his political descendants and one that has found its way into some western histories, but it isn't true. Nationalist forces not only fought the Japanese all over China, they sent several armies into India & Burma to aid British & US forces there and keep supply routes open. It is true that after the first few years of the Sino-Japanese war Chiang often chose to conserve his forces, but having lost control of most of the industrial areas of China he often lacked the ability to take the offensive absent massive outside aid. That said, he did inflict numerous defeats on the Japanese throughout the war. His forces were also the primary target of Operaction Ichi-go, an 1944-45 offensive that was the largest Japanese land offensice if the war. The PLA did harrass the Japanese, but they fielded a fraction the forces that Chiang did & took an even smaller percentage of the casualties. Like Chiang, the Communists often chose to conserve their forces for a resumption of the Civil War after japan was removed from the equation. It would be most accurate to say that neither the nationalists or communists committed themselves as fully to fighting the Japanese as they might have, but that the Nationalists did the bulk of the fighting, suffered the bulk of the casualties and inflicted the bulk of Japan's casualties.
Also destroying two huge torpedo factories, including the factory that made the specialized torpedoes that were used to defeat Pearl Harbor's defenses. Because "not nuking them" might have resulted in Japan refusing to surrender. What you read is incorrect. Truman gave no orders to attack Nagasaki. The military had been given orders to use the bombs as they were ready for use. Truman only learned that the second atomic bomb was dropped after it had already been dropped. I am not sure what you are saying. It is certainly true that the first part of your sentence is not a fact. Japan did not present us with any surrender offers until after both atomic bombs had already been dropped.
Kill more people and cause more pain and suffering? Many people don't realize that Japan had most of the Asia still. Most of the pacific Islands, etc. The U.S. used a novel idea of island hopping - just take a few of the islands necessary to get in range of attacking Japan itself and bypass everything else. We were going to bypass the Philippines as well but McArthur's ego had to be stroked. Every little island everywhere as well as the entire coast of Aisha would have to have been retaken.
Nuh - Uh ! The "bomb" saved Japanese lives in the final analysis. Moi Japan Was Like Treatment of "Eskimos" ! Ignore and let Malnutrition, TB, Diphtheria, etc. do the rest The Bomb was the Cultural Cure!
I think he's referring to the fact that, had the war continued past the point when it ended, the Japanese people would have suffered far worse than they did from the A-bombs.
Oh sorry, I misread your post as I think you previously misread mine. I believe dropping the atomic bombs was the correct choice and I also think it saved many lives.
Please see Hell to Pay by D.M. Giangreco. Had we not used the bombs, an invasion of Japan would have been hellish, and might even have failed.
I have a suspicion that had we not used the bomb, there would've been a North Japan and South Japan. The Russians were getting ready to invade, weren't they? Russia declared war on Japan on the 8th.
The Soviets had no amphibious capability whatsoever, so they never posed a serious invasion threat. We even provided some training and equipment to try to remedy that shortcoming; it didn't help. The key point made by Giangreco concerns the ferocity of the planned Japanese defense.
They were in preparation for a hurriedly planned invasion that never materialized. It would not have been something like the US faced on Peleliu. Hokkaido lacked much of the defenses needed to repel an invasion, though the use of Kamikaze attacks would likely have postponed any actual invasion. Still, the lack of materials and resources in Japan meant that it would have a no-win situation. Russia had already been in talks regarding occupying Hokkaido. My thought is that the simple possibility of the Russians and the US coming in made Japan realize there was no way out of it. The overwhelming size of a combined US-Soviet attack on Japan removed any notion of the glory of dying for the Emperor.
Simply not true. A great insight in Hell to Pay is the depth of commitment on the part of the Japanese high command, and the surprising resources available to them. US planners feared casualties might be beyond their ability to sustain an invasion.
I trust our leadership and military intel that it was necessary. But I am sorrowful that it came to the bomb. That we helped them rebuild is testament to our better nature than to our baser one.
One very important reason was that the US military personnel engaged in this war wanted to return home and get on with their pre-war lives. Likewise for America. Not engage in a 20 year modern style war. And BTW, Japan was developing biological weapons, improved aircraft, and the like. That could not be allowed to continue. In boxing, fighters are taught not to throw a punch and then pause to "admire their work." This principle applies to wars as well as fist fights. Reading for bleeding heart types. https://www.amazon.com/Rape-Nanking...eywords=rape+of+nanking&qid=1637885429&sr=8-1
