SCIENCE said:

btm said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Why-couldnt-we-attack-the-Soviet-Union-in-1945-just-as-Patton-wanted

Because it was a monumentally stupid idea.

They did investigate, because the military makes plans for everything.

It’s just that they came to the conclusion that 1) the Western allies would lose, and 2) any Western Government that even suggested such a thing would be strung up by the neck from the nearest lamp post, because every single voter on the planet was fantastically sick of war.

You can look up “Operation Unthinkable”. Basically, the Soviets 1) were battle hardened and had done something like 80% of the fighting in Europe, 2) would have massively better logistics, 3) would have been betrayed again and would have a totally devastating motivation advantage. At the same time, the Western Allies 1) would have very complex logistics, having to bring most stuff from overseas, and 2) would have their own populations side with the Soviets to the extent that there would be Communist revolutions breaking out all over Europe – the Americans had had a hard time already in France, since the Communist Resistance was very well-organised and would rather have been liberated by the Soviets. (The rivalry between various Resistance groups in ’Allo ‘Allo! was played for laughs, but it was 100% based on fact.)

Patton was good on the battle field, but you would not let him make that sort of over-arching strategic decisions. He was crap at them.

The Japanese were ready to surrender after Hiroshima was bombed; the Americans bombed Nagasaki to show Stalin they had more nuclear weapons and weren’t afraid to use them.

so why not just use them and sort out the prospective war before it gets nasty

The Japanese were not ready to surrender after Hiroshima. Not by any means.

After Hiroshima, the Supreme Council for the Direction of the War (comprising the PM, Foreign Minister, Army/Navy Ministers, and Chiefs of Staff), initially tried to keep news of the bombing from the Emperor.

The Council argued vociferously among themselves, even after Nagasaki, with some members utterly refusing to even contemplate accepting the terms that the Allies set out after the Potsdam conference.

One even declared that Japan must fight on, and that if the deaths of twenty million Japanese was the price of honour, then so be it.

Hopelessly deadlocked, they had to take the unprecedented step of asking the Emperor to make a decision, which they found rather shameful as it meant involving a living god in such mundane matters.

Even after Hirohito had decided that the war must end, various elements of the Japanese military resisted, claiming that the emperor must have been coerced. They planned and initiated an attempt to take custody of the emperor, ‘for his protection’, and there was scenes of murder and suicide all over Tokyo as they sought to enlist the assistance of various generals, admirals, ministers and garrisons.

Some of the conspirators tried to locate the two copies of the recording of Hirohito’s ‘surrender’ speech, and to destroy them before the speech could be broadcast.

Hiroshima was bombed on 06 Aug, Nagasaki on 09 Aug. Hirohito recorded his speech on the evening of 14 Aug, and it was broadcast on 15 Aug.

What were the Japanese leaders doing on 10, 11, 12, and 13 Aug? They were debating on whether or not to surrender. It was no ‘done deal’ just because of the A-bombs.

What the Japanese were really afraid of was an invasion of Japan by the Russians. That prospect scared them shitless.

The fact is that any Russian attempt to invade Japan would have been farcical, at best. They did invade some of the Kurile Islands, but it was a total shitshow. But, the Japanese were totally scared of the Russians.