Nuklear bomb

[Splitter]

Originally Posted by SYN_Bliss

Hmm, I may have to do some more reading to refresh my memory.

But:

I thought the US basically gave an ultimatum that entailed: "surrender or you will be viciously attacked on your homeland." In other wards, the actions, or in this case, lack of actions of the emperor led to the 1st and 2nd bomb drop. I also thought any sort of negotiations to the terms of the conditional/unconditional surrender didn't even take place until Japan finally responded back well after the 2nd bomb had been dropped. Of course, I may be wrong, but I thought that's how I studied it.

In any case, Japan's emperor had the power to stop the attack at any time and knew full well of the consequences of not responding or not surrendering.

Such a tragic loss of life in any case.

Cheers!

To the best of my knowledge, the terms for surrender were negotiated amongst the Allies days before the bomb was dropped at the Potsdam conference. The bomb was tested early on during the conference and Truman was informed of the success. He told Churchill and hinted about it to Stalin, but Stalin didn't think the Manhattan project would come to fruition that quickly.

At the end of the conference, they put out a joint declaration (it took some convincing for Stalin to sign off on it). The declaration contained the terms for surrender with the last sentence speaking of "unconditional" and total destruction. It was also decided that none of the Allies would make a separate peace.

Good info here from what I remember: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_of_Japan

Japan ignored the declaration but kept up diplomatic efforts to get the Soviets to intervene and get them better terms. Then time ran out.

To the best of my recollection.

Splitter

EDIT: I just repeated myself, sorry.