America dropping nukes on Japan did not end WWII, at least not for the Japanese.

The Japanese high war council did not even bother to meet for 3 days after the bombs were dropped. They were still issuing broadcasts that encouraged the Japanese people to "line the beaches with pitch forks." or similar stuff. They were not deeply threatened by any non-invasion assault, no matter how bad the damage was.

The Japanese high war council did meet after 3 days, not because of the bombs, but because of the land invasion of their acquired lands in Manchuria.


The sad truth is that Truman ordered the nuclear attack to no direct effect. The long-term affect of the cold war was the real result of dropping those bombs. We showed our allies (we were allied with Russia, remember?) that we were capable of inhumane slaughter of civilians from a comfortable distance, with no military benefit.