Technotranscendence <neptune@mars.superlink.net> Wrote:
>In fact, the Japanese were already making peace feelers to the Soviets in
>1945 before atomic weapons were used.
Suppose we had agreed, one of the many conditions the Japanese insisted on was
no occupation of the mainland so the military would still run things. A perfect set up for
another US Japanese war about 1950. Suppose we hadn't agreed but didn't use the bomb.
The Soviets declared war of Japan soon after these feelers so if the war didn't end
mighty damn quick you'd now have a poor communist totalitarian North Japan and
a rich capitalistic South Japan just as you have in Korea. Neither is a happy prospect.
As I said before however I do with they'd waited a few days before they bombed Nagasaki
>You are narrowing the options down to bomb or invade.
> If the US had sought _conditional surrender_, an invasion and subsequent
> might not have been necessary.
The US got a conditional surrender, not in name but in deed, it allowed Japan to
keep the Emperor. The US had peace feelers of its own, they responded with
a word in Japanese that can be interpreted as "decline to answer at this time"
or as "too contemptible to answer" or as simply "silence". To this day even the
Japanese argue about what they meant. It seems to me that with thousands
dying every day it was their responsibility to eliminate baffle gab.
John K Clark jonkc@att.net
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