Moleskin wrote:Instead [of allowing other options to end the war, such as letting the Soviets attack Japan with ground forces], the United States rushed to use two atomic bombs at almost exactly the time that an August 8 Soviet attack had originally been scheduled.
The grasp of history in this seems very shaky.
The USSR
did attack Japan's forces, though it was on the 9th. The USSR declared war on Japan just before midnight on 8th August 1945, and the following day the Red Army commenced offensive action against the Japanese army in Manchuria.
The Americans had a plan to invade Japan itself, Operation Olympic, which was presented to President Truman as scheduled to go ahead in November 1945. However the Joint Chiefs of Staff were deeply divided on its merits and the risks involved. The appalling casualties suffered by the US armed forces during the very recent Battle of Okinawa were fresh in the minds of naval and army commanders. A majority of Ultra decrypts strongly indicated that the Japanese high command and government were not yet ready to surrender. From April 1945 onwards there was a massive build up of Japanese military strength in the Kyushu region, which the Japanese strongly suspected was where the Americans were planning to invade.
Richard B. Frank, author of
Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire wrote in 2005:
"The Japanese did not see their situation as catastrophically hopeless. They were not seeking to surrender, but pursuing a negotiated end to the war that preserved the old order in Japan, not just a figurehead emperor. Finally, thanks to radio intelligence, American leaders, far from knowing that peace was at hand, understood - as one analytical piece in the "Magic" Far East Summary stated in July 1945, after a review of both the military and diplomatic intercepts - that "until the Japanese leaders realize that an invasion can not be repelled, there is little likelihood that they will accept any peace terms satisfactory to the Allies." This cannot be improved upon as a succinct and accurate summary of the military and diplomatic realities of the summer of 1945."