Spare ribbing
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I think the real checkmate move at the end of WWII with Japan, wasn't so much dropping the two bombs. I think it had more to do with the U.S. telling them we wouldn't accept anything but unconditional surrender. They basically had a choice: surrender to the U.S. or we're going to support a Russian invasion, and then you can surrender to them. Pick your posion, but we're going to win. Period.
[/ QUOTE ]The Japanese, in World War II, were NOT more afraid of the Soviets than they were of the Americans. The Japanese had little to contest with against the Soviets, while they were engaged in an imperial fight with the United States to the death (death for one imperium out of the two) for the Pacific and East Asia. And FWIW the Japanese had already, and soundly, defeated the Russians, in a relatively recent war.
What convinced the Japanese to surrender was the atomic bomb; it was NOT the Allied demand for unconditional surrender. This demand, almost always, strengthens the resolve of the enemy. The side that receives such "terms" will fight harder because its alternative is to "depend on the kindness of strangers".
Mickey Brausch
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