In 1945 Japan was already defeated and it was desperation and honour that stood between Japan and unconditional surrender. Japan was an opportunity to show the U.S.S.R that the U.S had something they did not, it was a show of might dissuading any soviet ideas of war, however this only delayed the soviets because they were only a couple of years being in the research for an atom bomb. Thus the cold war was started. The bombing only solved a current problem at far too steep a cost. 200,000 of innocent Japanese lives were lost to show the soviets what the U.S could do, which instead of completely convincing the soviets just sowed a seed of doubt, 200,000 …show more content…
This further proves that nuking the Japanese was more of a show of power rather than a means to stopping the war. The Japanese were already defeated militarily by June 1945, the once mighty imperial royal navy was nearly all destroyed and Japans air force was decimated. The allied forces ranged across Japan with only token resistance while the forces rained bombs down on her cities steadily reducing them to ash and rubble. Japan was out an army and resources and needed to surrender or else the legacy of Japan would be wiped