Minichan

Topic: Japan’s surrender though

Anonymous A started this discussion 6 months ago #127,442

This is a thing I was randomly thinking about. The story goes that the Japanese were willing to die rather than surrender so America nuked them so that they would surrender. But if you actually think about it, if the emperor told you to die for him instead of surrender, and then the emperor surrendered, wouldn’t you be kinda pissed off at the emperor? That is kind of a dick move if you think about it.

SakawaRiver joined in and replied with this 6 months ago, 2 hours later[^] [v] #1,376,707

Methinks Emperor HiroHito was a bit stressed out and was looking for a good anal widening

Kook !!rcSrAtaAC joined in and replied with this 6 months ago, 10 hours later, 12 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,788

Some Japanese people survived the Nuke and still wanted to continue the war. Fucking nuts

Anonymous D joined in and replied with this 6 months ago, 1 hour later, 13 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,802

@previous (Kook !!rcSrAtaAC)

> Some Japanese people survived the Nuke and still wanted to continue the war. Fucking nuts

Nor more nuts than being a Kamikaze.

Anonymous E joined in and replied with this 6 months ago, 6 minutes later, 13 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,804

unfortunately you've caught me in a bad mood so i'm gonna present truth before swine. this got really long so i broke it into two replies, maybe more if MC hates me and my verbose ass

this is an easy narrative to believe, especially if you're stupid. too bad it's wrong.

japan's reasons for remaining at war weren't as simple as "they'd rather die than surrender, and this forced the hand of american bomb makers", it honestly kind of valorizes the fascists in japan at the time and overstates the immediate power of the bomb. notably, the bomb wasn't immediate defeat to japan in the moment. morale bombing (targeted bombing of locations with intent to break morale, also known as terror bombing if you're not the GLORIOUS US) was a pretty common tactic on all sides. the blitz, kamikaze attacks, morale bombing - everyone was doing it. these attacks levelled cities as well, like. london is still picking undetonated blitz bombs out of their teeth to this day.

the US nuclear project began in reaction to the potentiality of a Nazi nuclear project (see also: operation paperclip/overcast, the project for taking in and rehabilitating nazi scientists. did you know that werner von braun appeared on the disneyland tv show? the more you know.) and this is history's first go at "mutually assured destruction".

this is an easy thing to believe, right? the US and the Nazis loved to cheat off each other's homework. the Nazis steal their eugenicist ideals from the US, the US washes their hands of it, the US steals the nuclear scientists from the Nazis, the Nazis wash their hands of nuclear bombing. just makes sense. so you may think "this bomb was meant to cancel out germany's bomb", right? unfortunately, around the time the bombs were reaching completion, some stupid fascist killed hitler and germany was no longer in the war. fascists are constitutionally incapable of winning wars - the cognitive dissonance of a fascist requires that their enemy be paradoxically weak enough that losing is humiliating, and so strong that any force mustered against them is justified by the strength needed to fight them. this does not work for very long when you are fighting real wars.

but if you look at documents from the era, even before hitler and company left the war, there are *no* historic records of roosevelt *or* truman wanting to use the bomb on anyone *but* japan. it's easy to write this one off as just straight up, 1940s-style racism. germans are white, the japanese are not. but even more notably, they say some really stupid shit when deciding exactly where they should deploy the bomb to. certain targets were written off because they were not adequately intelligent enough to appreciate the fact that they were getting blown up by a nuclear bomb. tokyo was considered as a target and written off because one of the generals had once vacationed there, and decided it was a city of art and society, and not the savagery of imperial japan. just some real classic US racism.

on the japanese end of things, yes, a lot of people did want to remain in the war, but notably, that group was very small. more relevantly, imperial japan was imperial japan. the emperor at the time - now posthumously named emperor showa, - and quite frankly, you just can't threaten an imperial power with killing their civilians - that's their bread and fucking butter. they love that shit. what imperial japan cared about was its emperor's right to remain emperor. the fear was that if japan surrendered, the US would install their own new guy and they would lose their beloved emperor. this is largely unrelated to the soldier's will to fight. see again: imperial japan, rights of the civilians to choose is not really on the table.

you also have to consider the situation between japan and the USSR at the time. japan and the soviets had a standing non-aggression pact. japan and the russian empire had fought a war earlier in the century over land rights to parts of manchuria, a place people had already been living, and japan, against the odds, managed to win. this is not a thing any russian state has ever liked, see also: last 150 years of human history. so with japan obviously at a brutal and obvious military loss even before the bombs are dropped, the soviets are planning to violate that non-aggression pact, more or less killsteal their way into a seat at the negotiations table, and claim manchuria as their own again. the US has a vested interest in that not happening, since stalin is le scary communist and imperialism is bad except when the US does it.

Anonymous E double-posted this 6 months ago, 22 seconds later, 13 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,806

so:
- the nazis are no longer in the war
- the yankees wants to end the war quickly, before the soviets stake their claim
- the japanese want to end the war on their terms, something which the US is amenable to
- the soviets want to enter the war on japan for just long enough that they get manchuria back

so then the bombs are dropped.

hiroshima on august 6th, then nagasaki on the 9th. neither of these places were military targets and were chosen specifically because they would hit a lot of people. these are ultimately tragedies that could have been prevented in any number of ways, but for any number of reasons, those ways didn't shake out. and now the US is hallucinating nuclear armaments where they don't exist. op will finally deliver before iran has nukes. sorry.

it takes a full day for the japanese politicians involved to regroup - one can only assume that they were at japanese mar-a-lago, hence the wait - and they immediately deadlock. obviously, the nuclear bombs were more destructive than the previous standard for morale bombing, but again: for the japanese people, the bombing of hiroshima was the worst day of their life. for the heads of state who had never experienced war outside of theory, it was tuesday.

they deadlocked on the issue of wanting to surrender while wanting to retain the rights of the emperor to rule. this is something that truman had kind of wink-wink nudge-nudge implied would be the case - documents will read something like "install a government that is suitable and characteristic of the japanese people", but you can't just say "we're letting this guy remain in power" to the american people who are still seething from pearl harbor, right? but that kind of wink-wink nudge-nudge behavior doesn't fly.

again: japan has already lost on all military fronts. communications from the time showed that they were more or less begging the soviets to help them out a little bit here. this is a bit of dramatic irony because you, the reader, who has a more complete picture from this post, know that the soviets want to fuck up japan really badly and get manchuria back. eventually, soviets declare war on japan and launch their invasion of manchuria. and then emperor hirohito steps in. this is at a point before the humanity declaration, so this dude is like. literally believed by those present to be a living god. he forces the hand of his gaggle of military boys, saying it's time to surrender. everyone listens to the emperor. because he's the fucking emperor and it's imperial japan. you listen to the emperor. many of them go home and kill themselves.

with this entire context in mind, you'll note:
- japan did not react to the intense violence of the nuclear bombs
- the bombs were as much a show of force to the looming threat of the soviets
- they did not keep fighting

Kook !!rcSrAtaAC replied with this 6 months ago, 9 minutes later, 13 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,808

@1,376,802 (D)
At least kamikaze expected to die relatively quickly

Anonymous F joined in and replied with this 6 months ago, 1 hour later, 14 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,810

@1,376,804 (E)
Tbh I don’t see what the point of letting the emperor remain emperor was. In most monarchies, if you kill the royal family you can declare yourself as the legitimate monarch. Take the war of the roses in England for example.

Anonymous F double-posted this 6 months ago, 2 minutes later, 14 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,811

It’s also a bit odd since American style republican democracy and Soviet style Marxist Leninism are both political ideologies born out of revolution against tyrannical monarchs. From an ideological perspective, it would make more sense to execute the royal family and create a republic. If there are no royals, you can’t fight for people who don’t exist.

Anonymous F triple-posted this 6 months ago, 1 minute later, 14 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,812

At least if I were in charge of it, I don’t think I would have firebombed Tokyo or nuked Hiroshima or Nagasaki, but I don’t think the royal family would still exist.

Anonymous F quadruple-posted this 6 months ago, 43 seconds later, 14 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,813

…probably would do the same to the British if they weren’t our ally actually.

Anonymous F quintuple-posted this 6 months ago, 2 minutes later, 14 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,814

I’m not opposed to elected monarchy though. But I don’t see how hereditary monarchy can be justified. In a democratic state, it’s not real, it’s just a bunch of rich people who get to be rich for no reason but have no power. It only really makes sense in a real monarchy like Saudi Arabia where the king actually has absolute power and he wants to keep his family in power forever.

Anonymous G joined in and replied with this 6 months ago, 4 minutes later, 14 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,816

@1,376,788 (Kook !!rcSrAtaAC)

> Some Japanese people survived the Nuke and still wanted to continue the war. Fucking nuts

That's back when men were men, before feminism pussified them.

Anonymous F replied with this 6 months ago, 2 minutes later, 14 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,818

@previous (G)
Tbh I don’t think it has anything to do with masculinity. If you don’t know what’s going to happen to you after you surrender, it might be completely rational. Dying might be better than being tortured for a lot of people. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re brave.

Anonymous F double-posted this 6 months ago, 1 minute later, 14 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,819

Maybe in propaganda they’ll make it into something about it masculinity, but I think when it comes down to it and you have to make the decision to die or surrender and you know the enemy has burned cities full of people, masculinity might not be the first thing on your mind.

Anonymous F triple-posted this 6 months ago, 1 minute later, 14 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,820

And I mean, people kill themselves when because people bully them or because work is too stressful or because they’re depressed when there is no war. It’s not that crazy during a war, more people would be open to the idea of suicide.

Anonymous D replied with this 6 months ago, 2 minutes later, 14 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,822

Anonymous F replied with this 6 months ago, 16 seconds later, 14 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,823

I think in the US military it’s actually illegal to surrender under threat of death. They don’t tell soldiers to kill themselves, but they’re still technically breaking the law if they surrender, so idk.

Anonymous E replied with this 6 months ago, 2 minutes later, 15 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,824

@1,376,810 (F)
i mean, before the humanity declaration, a pretty important angle to approach imperial japan from is that the emperor's role was being god. it's kind of a good idea to keep your god around.

(Edited 55 seconds later.)

Anonymous F replied with this 6 months ago, 2 minutes later, 15 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,826

@previous (E)
Although, if you kill a god, that sort of disproves that they’re actually god because god is immortal. I could be wrong, but I thought the divinity of the emperor was something that was made up during the Meiji restoration.

Anonymous F double-posted this 6 months ago, 1 minute later, 15 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,827

The ancient Romans in their state religion also believed that the emperor of Rome was a god. But Roman Emperors were killed by other emperors pretty often, especially during the third century crisis.

Anonymous F triple-posted this 6 months ago, 2 minutes later, 15 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,828

Idk how accurate this is but this is what I found on google:

The Japanese concept of the divinity of the Emperor is often misunderstood by Westerners. Neither the Emperor nor most of his people ever thought that the Emperor was a God in the sense of being a supernatural supreme being.


Until the Meiji restoration the Emperor had little power, and was a largely unknown and ceremonial figure. Japan was actually run by feudal noblemen, and the Emperor lived in seclusion, and sometimes in actual imprisonment.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/shinto/history/emperor_1.shtml

Fake anon !ZkUt8arUCU joined in and replied with this 6 months ago, 4 seconds later, 15 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,829

@1,376,826 (F)
Not really. I, along with every other Jew, killed Jesus, but that just made people worship him harder.

Anonymous F replied with this 6 months ago, 1 minute later, 15 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,830

Then I guess there’s also Christianity which is, "We killed God and it’s a good thing!"

Anonymous F double-posted this 6 months ago, 1 minute later, 15 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,831

@1,376,829 (Fake anon !ZkUt8arUCU)
Jesus was killed by the Romans, Jesus himself was a Jew. The Jewish people wanted a savior because they were occupied by the Romans and Roman state religion was incompatible with Judaism since the Jews only believed in one God, but the Romans had a system of incorporating the gods of the people they conquered into their polytheistic religion.

Anonymous F triple-posted this 6 months ago, 46 seconds later, 15 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,832

Early Christians were executed in Ancient Rome before Constantine enacted the Edict of Milan since early Christians were usually pacifists who refused to serve in the Roman army.

Anonymous F quadruple-posted this 6 months ago, 1 minute later, 15 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,833

Incidentally, that’s also why the Catholic Church is based in Rome.

Anonymous F quintuple-posted this 6 months ago, 1 minute later, 15 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,834

@1,376,823 (F)

> I think in the US military it’s actually illegal to surrender under threat of death. They don’t tell soldiers to kill themselves, but they’re still technically breaking the law if they surrender, so idk.

I looked into it, I was slightly wrong: you can surrender but only if there’s clearly no other option.

Kook !!rcSrAtaAC replied with this 6 months ago, 3 minutes later, 15 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,836

@1,376,816 (G)
More proof that men hate other men

Anonymous E replied with this 6 months ago, 1 minute later, 15 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,837

@1,376,828 (F)
> until the Meiji restoration
is the thing to note here.

the meiji restoration happened before emperor showa's reign. and i know it is not literal, even if i said literal. because i'm a filthy zillennial who uses the word literally emphasis rather than its literal meaning. it's a desireable analogy.

Anonymous F replied with this 6 months ago, 4 minutes later, 15 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,838

@previous (E)
The Meiji restoration lasted from the 1860s to the 1880s though, so I feel like if the belief in the divinity of the emperor was only 70 or 80 years old during World War Two, comparing it to 2,000 years of Christians believing Christ is God doesn’t seem right. 70 or 80 years is a long time, but it’s not like some ancient deep part of their culture that it’s in the DNA of all Japanese people to believe that the emperor is the creator of the universe.

Anonymous F double-posted this 6 months ago, 18 minutes later, 15 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,843

The USSR lasted 69 years, and the USSR had a state atheist ideology, but the stereotype associated with Russia today is a far right Christian Orthodox society. So I feel like 70 years isn’t really enough the change a cultural identity.

Anonymous E replied with this 6 months ago, 11 minutes later, 15 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,844

@1,376,838 (F)
yeah, that's fair.

Anonymous E double-posted this 6 months ago, 47 minutes later, 16 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,845

something i neglected to mention in the recounting of the events up there (i had just had blood drawn and unrelatedly, accidentally covered my fingers in superglue. they weren't stuck together but they had that kind of nasty coating, yknow) is that stalin was in discussions for the writing of the potsdam declaration (the document calling for unconditional japanese surrender, or else the US would nuke them) (stalin was very much aware of the nukes before truman had shared the info with them because of the soviet infiltration of the manhattan project, but truman did still share the info and stalin was excited to see them go off on the japanese) but his name was not put on the potsdam declaration.

the potsdam declaration happened in the last weeks of july, and two weeks later the bombs dropped.

again, with hindsight, this makes sense, he was planning to take back manchuria, and the USSR was not actively at war with japan yet, but a lot of the reason that japan held out was with hopes that the USSR would back them up. this tension being unresolved is what draws out the war for long enough for the US to more or less get bored

since then,
- "If we lost the war, we'd have all been prosecuted as war criminals." - curtis lemay
- "We had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians" - fleet admiral william leahy
- "The Japanese were ready to surrender, and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing" - general, later president eisenhower
- "no military justification for the dropping of the bomb." - general and commander of the south pacific, douglas macarthur
- "of no material assistance in our war against Japan" - commander in chief of the us pacific fleet, chester nimitz

Anonymous G replied with this 6 months ago, 13 minutes later, 16 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,847

@1,376,836 (Kook !!rcSrAtaAC)
Women hate other women too.

Kook !!rcSrAtaAC replied with this 6 months ago, 1 hour later, 18 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,861

@previous (G)
Not the way that men hate men

That men hate everyone, actually

Anonymous G replied with this 6 months ago, 12 minutes later, 18 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,862

@previous (Kook !!rcSrAtaAC)

> Not the way that men hate men

Correct. Women's hatred of each other is deeper, because they are in the same business and see each other as rivals.

(Edited 56 seconds later.)

Anonymous I joined in and replied with this 6 months ago, 1 hour later, 20 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,868

@previous (G)
As a black man, the people I hate most in the universe are people who put the toilet paper on the roll so the end comes out from underneath instead of over the top so you have to put your hand on the nasty ass wall.

Anonymous I double-posted this 6 months ago, 6 minutes later, 20 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,869

If I ever get power, that’s what I’m gonna do. I’m going to take over the world, and when I conquer a country, I’m sending my troops house to house to behead anyone who puts the toilet paper on the toilet paper holder the wrong way.

Kook !!rcSrAtaAC replied with this 6 months ago, 9 minutes later, 20 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,871

@1,376,862 (G)
How do those murder rates look, bro?

Anonymous I replied with this 6 months ago, 1 minute later, 20 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,873

@previous (Kook !!rcSrAtaAC)
I feel very afraid. There is a large Asian female standing about two blocks away from me. She’s not doing anything. She’s just standing there.

MENACINGLY!!!



I am currently fearing for my life. HOLY SHIT SHES WALKING ALWAY FROM ME! I NEED TO FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE!

*pulls out the 9*

Anonymous I double-posted this 6 months ago, 16 seconds later, 20 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,874

(White police officers are actually like this.)

Anonymous I triple-posted this 6 months ago, 1 minute later, 20 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,875

"It was 2:30PM, how was I supposed to know she didn’t have a weapon?"

Anonymous G replied with this 6 months ago, 1 minute later, 20 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,876

@1,376,871 (Kook !!rcSrAtaAC)

> How do those murder rates look, bro?

Murder and hatred are neither equivalent nor necessarily linked, sis.

Anonymous I replied with this 6 months ago, 2 minutes later, 20 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,878

@previous (G)
Where have all the real men gone?

https://www.rte.ie/images/0014a195-1600.jpg

Kook !!rcSrAtaAC replied with this 6 months ago, 5 minutes later, 20 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,879

@1,376,876 (G)
Yes they are you fucking idiot

Anonymous J joined in and replied with this 6 months ago, 2 hours later, 22 hours after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,900

@1,376,878 (I)
That picture goes hard tho

Anonymous G replied with this 6 months ago, 5 hours later, 1 day after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,957

@1,376,879 (Kook !!rcSrAtaAC)

> Yes they are you fucking idiot

Stop being so emotional you stupid cow.

Kook !!rcSrAtaAC replied with this 6 months ago, 7 hours later, 1 day after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,981

@previous (G)
I knew it was you

How many times have I called you a retard?

Anonymous G replied with this 6 months ago, 1 hour later, 1 day after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,991

@previous (Kook !!rcSrAtaAC)
Stop being so emotional you stupid cow.

Kook !!rcSrAtaAC replied with this 6 months ago, 2 minutes later, 1 day after the original post[^] [v] #1,376,993

@previous (G)
Quit being so gay for me

Anonymous G replied with this 6 months ago, 2 hours later, 1 day after the original post[^] [v] #1,377,020

@previous (Kook !!rcSrAtaAC)
Stop being so emotional you stupid cow.

Kook !!rcSrAtaAC replied with this 6 months ago, 11 minutes later, 1 day after the original post[^] [v] #1,377,022

@previous (G)
You want to penetrate a cow

Anonymous G replied with this 6 months ago, 1 minute later, 1 day after the original post[^] [v] #1,377,023

@previous (Kook !!rcSrAtaAC)
Stop being so emotional you stupid cow.
:

Please familiarise yourself with the rules and markup syntax before posting.