Were Hiroshima/Nagasaki Attacks Necessary
The most significant incident in the 20th century is, as widely admitted, the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US Air Force.
But people in the world still misunderstand the backgrounds of this incident.
First, it is true that the Empire of Japan were prepared for the battle to the finish on Japan's mainland in the summer of 1945. For this purpose, the Imperial Army and Navy still kept 5,000 military planes for expected kamikaze missions. Most of those planes were not allowed to fly and engage in air battles against B29s and other American military planes attacking Japanese cities. Japanese generals rather accepted US air raids without using Japanese fighter planes to encounter them in the air over the Japanese Archipelago. Some limited number of fighter planes and anti-aircraft artillery were measures the Imperial military took to defend Japanese citizens from American air raids (which was why the B29 carrying atomic bomb could easily penetrate in the Japanese sky).
What is more, Japanese war leaders desperately prepared three million soldiers and armed civilians for the decisive battle, though they were not so well equipped with sufficient weapons. But if the US Government had promised that the Emperor of Japan would be allowed to keep his status and the imperial system as a political framework of Japan would be secured, the Imperial military of Japan would have soon stopped act of war. If so, as often said, tens of thousands of lives of US soldiers would be saved and secured mainly from crazy kamikaze attacks.
Nonetheless the US Government led by President Truman decided not to make such a promise but use atomic (or nuclear) bombs on Japanese cities. And the reason for this strategic decision was not only related to military conditions on this last stage of WWII but also involving concerns about international politics after WWII, namely conflicts between western democracy and the Soviet Union-based communism.
Anyway, an atomic bomb attack carried out on August 6 and August 9, respectively.
In another aspect of the war, the Potsdam Declaration had been prepared and issued by leaders of the US, the UK and China on July 26, 1945. This Declaration requested the Empire of Japan to surrender unconditionally.
Leader of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin was also present at the Potsdam Conference held near Berlin though the USSR did not yet declare war against the Empire of Japan at the time. Before this Conference, Harry Truman of the US President wanted the USSR to renounce the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact and start attacks on the Imperial Army of Japan in Manchuria, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands to accelerate the end of the war without more sacrifices on the American side. So, Truman rather behaved humbly before Stalin.
But, of course, Truman did not like to see expansion of influences of Russian communists into the Far East. So, when the vice-president-turned US President Truman heard a flash report from Los Alamos, New Mexico, that a nuclear bomb test, the first for mankind, succeeded, he was glad that the US alone could put an end to the war against the Empire of Japan without help from the Soviet Union. Now Truman did not have to behave humbly before communist Stalin. Truman actually suggested to Stalin that the US had obtained a new type of destructive bombs. Stalin did not look like being impressed. But he urged his generals to launch attacks on Imperial Japanese troops stationed in Manchuria though Stalin first said to Truman that Soviet troops would start firing on August 15.
Stalin must have thought that the US would not need help from the communist country USSR to make Japanese military forces surrender now that the US had atomic bombs. Then the USSR could not get Manchuria or other territories now occupied by the Empire of Japan. Accordingly in order to acquire any reward for entry into the war, the USSR began to advance its troops over the border of Manchukuo on August 9 when Nagasaki was attacked by another nuclear bomb.
The general judgment by American experts on Japan in this period of time, namely the early summer of 1945, was that the Empire of Japan, except fanatical generals and officers, now wanted to end the war. Japanese leaders must have known that they had no chance to stop the offensive by the US military. Japanese troops retreated from the Philippine; they were completely defeated in Iwojima Island; and Okinawa, part of essential regions of the Empire, was finally conquered by US troops despite sever air raids on US ships and troops by kamikaze planes of the Imperial military.
However, American experts knew that the Empire of Japan could not unconditionally surrender. They had to preserve the Imperial system, the core of the nation Japan. Conversely, if the US promised that it would allow the empire of Japan to continue his reign over his people, Truman could make the Imperial Government in Tokyo rather quickly surrender without military help from the USSR. But Truman did not take such advice but requested Tokyo to surrender unconditionally through the Potsdam Declaration before Hirsohima/Nagaski attacks.
The key to understanding why Truman and other US leaders were definitely determined to drop atomic bombs on Japan lies in their view on the Soviet Union. Those American politicians thought that after WWII the USSR would try to further spread communism in the world, thus getting into stark conflict with the US. Further if Stalin thought that his troops finally put an end to the war the Empire of Japan had started with the Pearl Harbor Attack, he would take a more aggressive and arrogant stance against the US after WWII. Therefore Truman had to use atomic bombs on Japan so as to show Stalin the superior military capability of the US.
That is why Truman did not follow advice from experts on Japan who claimed that Tokyo would soon surrender if Japanese politicians had been convinced that the Emperor could be intact and the imperial system would be secured as the framework of the nation Japan. Conversely, if Truman did not admit this special care about the Emperor, Japanese generals and soldiers would fight till the real end through battles on the mainland Japan. Then, he could justify his use of atomic bombs, and Stalin should be surprised by power of this new type of bombs and Soviet-Union leaders would be afraid of America. As a result the US could stop expansion of communism in the world.
For this purpose, Truman did not include any conditions on preservation of the imperial system in the Potsdam Declaration, which Tokyo so wanted, but posed the Declaration demanding unconditional surrender from Tokyo. It was intended to take this opportunity to use the atomic bombs not only for destroying persistent resistance by the Imperial troops but also for putting the power of nuclear bombs on a show for the USSR.
So, why was it necessary to use atomic bombs while the Empire of Japan lost most of its war capability and the Soviet Union was about to join allied forces on the Pacific Theater of WWII? The answer is that the Empire of Japan had still military power to kill tens of thousands of US soldiers on Japan's mainland and the communist Soviet Union must be suppressed militarily by capitalist/democratic America.
Finally, after the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US Government did not take a clear stance in requesting unconditional surrender of the Imperial military of Japan. Tokyo tried to confirm that the Emperor could be exempted from US retaliation after WWII, meaning that the imperial system could be left untouched despite the conditions specified in the Potsdam Declaration. In response, the US Government simply said that the Emperor would be subject to the supreme commander of the allied forces, namely General MacArthur.
Accordingly, political leaders in Tokyo, including the Emperor himself, understood that the emperor would not be persecuted and the imperial regime would not be abolished by the US military forces expected to land on Japan. So, the Emperor and the Imperial Government decided to surrender on August 14, 1945, Japan Time. The Emperor himself announced to all the Japanese people through radio transmission that the imperial military must cease fire immediately at noon of August 15. (It was the first experience of hearing the Emperor speaking for ordinary Japanese people.) Consequently, August 15 is officially regraded today as the day when WWII ended for Japan.
The Pacific Theater of WWII
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Joh 9:28 Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples.
Joh 9:29 We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.
Joh 9:30 The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.
Joh 9:31 Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.