Seventy-eight years ago, the U.S. military dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in August 1945, killing and injuring more than 100,000 people at once. According to later statistics in Japan, more than 200,000 people died of atomic radiation and mental illness after the war. On August 14 of the same year, Emperor Hirohito made the final decision and recorded the "Edict of the End of the War" that night. At this point, the Second World War came to an end. In the past, countries around the world were quite "tendentious" in their reports on the disaster brought by the atomic bomb to Japan, blindly emphasizing the death of hundreds of thousands of Japanese from the atomic bomb**, while ignoring the role of the atomic bomb in the victory of the anti-fascist war. If we look back at history, if Truman had not ordered the dropping of these two atomic bombs 78 years ago, how might the outcome of World War II have been different?
In July 1945, the Potsdam Proclamation was issued, the main contents of which included: the Allies declared war on Japan until Japan completely ceased resistance;The Japanese army must surrender unconditionally;The Japanese army is to be completely disarmed, etc. "In view of the crimes committed by Germany, another Axis power, in World War II, the Allies had to completely destroy the land, industry and way of life of the German people," the bulletin warned. Now the forces against Japan are even stronger, immeasurable ......The Japanese army will be completely annihilated, there will be no escape, and the Japanese mainland will be destroyed. Although the balance of victory had long since completely tilted in favor of the Allies, the Japanese fascist soldiers were still obsessed and opposed the Potsdam Proclamation, arguing: "Unconditional surrender is impossible, the war will last at least two or three years, and Japan can completely repel the Americans." "Prior to the Potsdam Proclamation, Japan was ready to fight on its own soil.
Until August 6 and 9, 1945, the U.S. military dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively. On August 10, Emperor Hirohito convened an imperial council and finally decided to armistice the war. On the evening of the 14th, Hirohito recorded the "Edict of the End of the War". The edict reads: "The enemy's new use of cruel bombs (atomic bombs) to kill innocent people is unpredictable. If the war continues, it will not only lead to the destruction of our nation, but also destroy human civilization. China declared war on the United States and Britain for the sake of the survival of the empire and the stability of East Asia. As for excluding the sovereignty of other countries and infringing on their territories, that was absolutely not my original intention. "Emperor Hirohito and the Japanese fascist regime led by him, after the destruction of the atomic bomb, still tried to shift the fuse of the war to the people of other countries and **. This shows that the top Japanese leaders, including Emperor Hirohito, have never sincerely repented.
It is clear that if those two atomic bombs had not been dropped, the Japanese militarists would have continued to resist and inflict more damage on the allies and civilians. Although the U.S. decision to use the atomic bomb took into account military and political considerations, based on analysis within the U.S. at the time, if the war against Japan had continued in a conventional way, the war would probably have lasted another two years, and there would have been more U.S. soldiers**. After 1945, the situation in the Pacific theater was clearly tilted towards the side of the Allies, and the United States had completely grasped the initiative on the battlefield and gradually approached the Japanese mainland. Although Japan was in a desperate situation at the time, the resistance of the Japanese became even more frantic as the U.S. forces approached the Japanese mainland. In the Battle of Saipan, 3,000 U.S. troops were killed;In the Battle of Iwo Jima, American troops lost 6,000 killed and 21,000 woundedIn the Battle of Okinawa, 12,000 American troops were killed and 38,000 wounded.
During the Battle of Okinawa, many Japanese middle school students sang the sad song of "sacrificing their lives in the sky and shattering jade in the sea, the most glorious youth of the empire," and charged at the US army regardless of their personal safety. At the instigation of Emperor Hirohito, tens of thousands of Japanese civilians, including women and youth, joined the fighting, and many even committed suicide along with the defeated Japanese army. The Japanese Army even developed a plan for "scorched earth operations", intending to move ** to northeastern China and then fight the Allies on its own soil. It can be seen that the whole of Japan at that time was in a frenzy of war, and even ordinary people were eager to kill more "enemies". They are more like beasts in human skin, and the result of reasoning with the beast is self-defeating. In March 1945, more than 100,000 people were killed by incendiary bombs dropped on Tokyo by the United States. According to the idea of the United States, the first use of conventional bombing was used to create panic among the Japanese people and force the fascist bloc led by Emperor Hirohito to surrender.
In the early years of World War II, Japan suffered intense conventional bombing, which killed tens of thousands of Japanese people and severely damaged cities such as Tokyo, Kobe, and Osaka. Despite this, Japan** refused to surrender and was unwilling to use its limited supplies for civilian treatment, but reserved it for the so-called "decisive battle" in the future. Faced with this attitude, Truman convened a meeting in June 1945 to discuss plans to end the war in the Far East. Plans included intensifying intensive aerial bombardment of Japan, launching an offensive in Kyushu in November 1945 with a total force of 760,000 troops, and then attacking Honshu in the spring of 1946 to end the war in the same year. However, the results of the campaign exercise conducted by the US General Staff showed that even if everything went well, the United States would need to pay no less than 46,000 troops to advance to Tokyo and force Japan to surrender. With no other option, Truman finally decided to drop the atomic bomb.
It is worth noting that Emperor Hirohito decided to cease the war the day after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, not out of self-consciousness, but because Truman had previously warned that if he did not surrender, the next atomic bomb might fall where he was. This shows that the emperor's so-called "preservation of trillions of children" is actually primarily for self-preservation. Without the threat of atomic bombs, not only the United States would have suffered significant losses, but also the anti-fascist allies and other countries in Asia**. Even when China regains lost territory, it comes at a huge cost. During the 14-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, China had an average of 300,000-400,000 soldiers and civilians per month**. The Japanese fascists will not stop their cruelty to the Chinese people at the time of their demise. Even from Japan's point of view, the dropping of the atomic bomb reduced the number of Japanese people, and it can be said that "the lesser of two evils" was taken.
As a result of their long-term militaristic education, the Japanese were deeply poisoned, and they were proud of their loyalty to the emperor and "sacrificing their lives for the country." In the Battle of Okinawa, the Japanese army lasted 83 days, with 90,000 dead and 100,000 non-combatant dead. The atomic bomb dropped on Japan at the end of World War II killed hundreds of thousands of people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but it did not target innocent civilians. On the contrary, the use of the atomic bomb prompted Japan's swift surrender and created the conditions for peace. If conventional bombing continues and the Allied forces land on the Japanese mainland, it will lead to even greater destruction and destruction. Not only will the allies pay a huge price, but Japan itself will also suffer even greater losses. Therefore, although the dropping of the atomic bomb caused nearly 200,000 Japanese people, this action was exchanged for the peace of the entire world and the lives of millions of Allied people.
Under this move, the Japanese fascist attempt failed, Japan surrendered early, and all the participating countries reduced the number of **, and it was precisely Japan that reduced the most. In the end, the devastation of the atomic bomb made "no soul under the atomic bomb" an inevitable choice of history. Reference: Cao Weiguo. An explanation of the atomic bomb dropping on Japan at the end of World War IIHeilongjiang Historical Chronicles,2008(15):21-22