Do you think Japan would have surrendered in WW2 if they knew that we were out of atomic bombs?

Question

We only had enough weapons grade Uranium to make two bombs and we used them both.

Would they have surrendered?

Mr. President, we are out of ammo.

Very good answers people keep it up.

Answer 1

I think history that Ameicans prefer to ignore shows that the Japanese were in the process of negotiating for peace (through the Vatican, to be accurate) WHEN we dropped the bombs.

We knew we'd already beaten them.

You couldn't buy a pair of shoes in Tokyo at that point... they were economically wrecked at that point, the war already lost.

We may have saved some lives with the bombs; but the truth is, we didn't really drop them for the Japanese... we wanted to scare the Russians and the Chinese, because we knew after the war we have them as rivals.

truman says this in his own memoirs.

Answer 2

There are two reasons why Japan would have surrended regardless.

1) Japan surrendered not after the atomic bomb, but when the USSR declared war on Japan. Japan would have had no ability to stand up against a Soviet assualt.

2) The U.S. had killed more people in bombing raids in the week previous to the dropping of the first atomic bomb than that actually dropping of the atomic bomb. You have to understand that the atomic bomb was more expensive and less affective than a conventional air raid.

Japan NEVER had the chance to "win' the war and always would have surrended in what ever scenario you would like to concot.

Answer 3

Perhaps not. A great deal hinged on the Japanese believing that "All was lost". Their Navy was decimated at that point and their reason for entering the war was land and resources which they no longer had any way of acquiring or protecting.

However, they may have surrendered more quickly if they knew how quickly the Russians were preparing to invade. The Russians and Japan fought a nasty war in the early 20th century and Japan wiped the floor with the Russian Navy. As a result, the Russians at the end of WWII were looking to salvage some pride against the Japanese, who were in fit no state to stop them.

Answer 4

Yes. It was only a matter of time before the Japanese surrendered because of the heavy tolls sustained by the Japanese up to that point.

In a historical timeline we can see that Japan had already suffered major losses on its own homefront:
-March 9, 1945- In an effort to weaken Japanese morale, 334 B-29 Superfortress bombers raided Tokyo. An estimated 100,000 died overnight.
-May 23, 1945-About 21% of Tokyo is burnt out from USAAF air raids.
-May 31, 1945-Osaka is completely burnt out from USAAF air raids.
-June 21, 1945-Organized resistance on Okinawa ends after 82 days of the bloodiest fighting in the Pacific, during which 98,654 Japanese have been killed.

And yet...
-On July 30, Japan rejected the Potsdam ultimatum calling for its unconditional surrender.
-One week later, August 6 and 8, 1945, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, killing an estimated 250,000 people in the two cities combined.

Just 5 days later, on August 13, 1945, Japan sent formal surrender documents to McArthur in the Philippines.

I don't think Japan cared if there was a third atomic at that point. The Allied forces gave new meaning to the term "resistance is futile".

Answer 5

No,

Even when they did not know, a group of military officers launched a coup and took the Emperor prisoner to prevent him from ordering the surrender. It only failed because one of the Emperor's attendant sneaked the recording he made ordering the country to surrender out past the Army.

People on answers above forget their Military always choice death before surrender. On most battles their Army had no chance of winning, yet they choice to fight to the last or kill themselves before capture. One Japaneses soldier fought on until the mid 1970's in the Philippians because he could not believe that Japan would ever surrender.

Answer 6

We only had enough for two at the time, but within a few months we would have had more so... yes I believe that they would have surrendered. You have to realize that by the time we dropped the bombs the Japanese Navy was pretty much entirely destroyed. No navy= no way to win. Without the Navy the Japanese had no way to stop us from invading so the war was over in one way or another.

Answer 7

Because the Military did not want to, plus they really did not know what had happened. Even after the 2nd atomic bomb and the Emperor decided to surrender The elements in the military tried to stage a coup to prevent the surrender.

Answer 8

Well, let's see, put yourself in their place. You just had two major ports nuked, the opposing force's planes are flying unhindered wherever they want over your country, your capital has been burned to the ground by incendiary bombs, the opponent now has control of airbases within easy striking distance of anywhere in the country, and your intelligence indicates that they are amassing their forces for a massive ground invasion.

What would you do? Surrendering seems like the way to go to me.

Answer 9

Yes. Japan could not have kept the war going much longer. Fuel was in very short supply and most supplies from the mainland had been cut off. The economy was a mess and the production of vital supplies was only a fraction of their pre-war levels.

Answer 10

I think they would have pulled back and built up their defenses for a invasion. We would have kept bombing and best of all fire bombing. When we had enough uranium we would have dropped more atomic bombs and that would have ended the war.

Answer 11

logically they would still have surrendered. They were in a hopless position. Realistically, my feeling is probably not, they would have fought a protracted bloody defense for months, or perhaps they might have simply negotiated for a while and gotten a few minor conditions. Good question