As someone of Chinese ancestry who lost relatives in the war and as someone who coauthored THE “revisionist bible” arguing the atomic bombs weren’t militarily necessary to end the war, welcome to my eternal family feud.😖
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Do you believe if the bomb hadn't been dropped and an end date to the war was pushed out to some later date that Russia would've taken Hokkaido like Stalin wanted and possibly left us with a split Japan?
Unlikely. Soviet entry into the war was what the hardliners feared the most — especially given what Bolsheviks liked to do to royalty. It would have put much more pressure on the Army faction to sue for peace to preserve the emperor.
I suppose it could've also pressured them into unconditional surrender to the US as well if their only option was US + Soviet invasion (not knowing the bomb existed(?)) or surrender to the Americans. Either way you lose the emperor but the Soviet way is because they'd kill him.
Hell hath no contradiction like parents who are proud of their son getting a positive Michael Beschloss write up on the cover of the NYT Book Review while secretly hoping the outraged Chinese relatives won’t see it.😂
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I'd imagine there is a lot of catharsis about the bomb for some populations, even if it was both militarily and morally unnecessary.