Did the atomic bomb really end WWII?

Question

I was raised with the idea that dropping the "bomb" was what caused Japan to surrender. I have recently heard that a greater motivator may have been Russia's declaration of war against Japan as that was feared more than future bombings. Does anyone have any facts concerning this? Not really interested in speculation or opinions.

Answer 1

Nah...Russia just declared war on Japan a day after Hiroshima so they could do a land grab and pick off a couple of Japanese islands.

The atomic bomb (and the threat to continue using it) is what convinced the Japanese to surrender.

Answer 2

Japan approached the Soviets and asked them to mediate an end of hostilities with the Western Allies, mainly the USA (the Soviets and the Japanese Imperial forces had some skirmishes but nothing really major up to that point.)

Stalin, being the treacherous b@stard that he was, saw an opportunity. He ordered an invasion of Japanese held Manchuria, and seized the Sakhalin islands, north of Japan.

The bomb was not only meant to end the war and prevent a conventional invasion, it also served in keeping the Soviets out of Japanese politics.

Could you imagine a North Japan and a South Japan, along the lines of the Koreas? It would have been a mess. There is no other way to cut it; the bomb was the only solution.

Answer 3

At that time, Japan would not surrender even though the Germans did, and there was an increased threat of a nuclear bomb being created. So after the bomb was dropped on 2 of Japan's cities, destroying them completely, Japan had no choice but to surrender.

Answer 4

Yes. Germany, Italy and Japan where the main belligerants in the second world war. Japan's surrender officially ended the war.

The Russian declaration of war could have been a factor except for the fact that the majority of the Russian Army was in Eastern Europe.

I would argue that China's continued resistance to the Japanese occupation probably had more to do with a Japanese surrender then did the Russian threat.

Thus I am confident in stating that the dropping of the atom bomb effectively ended World War Two.

Answer 5

The Soviets were little threat to mainland Japan ( although they did take out about a million Japanese in Manchuria ). They were mobilized for a land war, and lacked the naval transport capacity to launch an invasion by sea.

It would have taken them a year or two to construct the fleet needed to launch an invasion of Japan. While the US could pick off Japanese cities at will.

The A-bomb ended the war.

Answer 6

The US tried to get the Soviet Union to fight against Japan. Stalin did not agree. Their country and people were devastated by war.

Yes the Japanese surrendered because they were bombed twice with atomic bombs. The capital, Tokyo hand already been destroyed by fire storms, set off by bombs. The Japanese thought they had no choice. They did not know the US had used up almost all of their plutonium and probably could not have made another bomb for months or years.

Answer 7

What I've heard is that the second bomb on japan caused the surrender of Japan which led to VJ-Day. (victory in Japan day) It only ended the war with Japan not with the other Axis nations. But i don't if that is right its just what I have heard.

Answer 8

well Russia back out of the war and pay war debts so they didn't really cause much of a threat, but many countries including japan the USA and others threatened to use nuclear weapons witch brought in "minutes to midnight"

http://www.thebulletin.org/minutes-to-midnight/timeline.html

witch was technically the danger level of nuclear weapons until the "end of the world" then an agreement was signed that nuclear weapons we're off limit's after the USA bombed Japan .... that pretty much ended the war...the agreement

Answer 9

it gave a good reason for japan get out of the war but it wasnt the only thing that ended the war.

Answer 10

WWII didn't end until Poland got its sovereignty back after 50 years of occupation by the Russians.

So did the bomb end the war? No, it just perpetuated it. So we could call it the cold war. or the war on Communism, or terror or drugs. The war never really ended did it?