Custom Search
"The Winning Weapon? Rethinking Nuclear Weapons in Light of Hiroshima"
Ward Wilson
In the spring of 1945, Japan was already largely defeated and Japan's leaders knew it. ... [It was] the Soviet declaration of war on August 9, 1945, the same day as Nagasaki, that forced the Japanese to surrender. Many of the Japanese cities bombed that summer (there were 66 others) suffered similar damage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. ... Historians often point to Japanese statements made after the war as proof that the U.S. nuclear attack on Hiroshima was decisive. ... However, Japanese leaders had motives for concealing the truth. ... The bomb offered a convenient explanation to soothe wounded Japanese pride: the defeat of Japan was not the result of leadership mistakes or lack of valor; it was the result of an unexpected advance in science by Japan's enemy."
More Information in pdf file is at: http://bcsia.ksg.harvard.edu/BCSIA_content/documents/IS3104_pp162-179_Wilson.pdf