Notes from: Debate over the Japanese Surrender | Atomic Heritage Foundation
The debate over what precipitated the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II is a source of contention among historians. This debate has also figured prominently in the discussion of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (for more on that discussion, see Debate over the Bomb). The “traditional narrative” put forward in the war’s immediate aftermath was that using the atomic bombs caused the surrender, but this narrative has come under fire in subsequent years.
As with other debates around the Manhattan Project, ambiguities arise due to the fact that many of the available primary sources are considered unreliable. The historians who have tackled this issue have generally used the same pool of primary source information, but they have come to divergent conclusions because they differed in which sources they considered trustworthy or significant.
Debate over the Japanese Surrender | Atomic Heritage Foundation
Explores:
- Traditionalist School
- Revisionist School
- The Soviet Invasion
- Internal Politics
- The Nagasaki Question
- A “Knockout Punch”?
- The “consensus school”
History Page Type: Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Profiles: Harry TrumanEmperor HirohitoHenry StimsonAlex WellersteinJ. Samuel Walker
Date: Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Resources: The Jewel Voice Broadcast
More Historical Resources:
- Herbert P. Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 2000.
- “Emperor Hirohito,” Atomic Heritage Foundation, 2016.
- Max Fisher, “The Emperor’s Speech: 67 Years Ago, Hirohito Transformed Japan Forever,” The Atlantic, 2012.
- Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, “The Atomic Bombs and the Soviet Invasion: What Drove Japan’s Decision to Surrender?” The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 2007.
- Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan, 2005.
- Alex Wellerstein, Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog, 2012-2016.