The Surrender

On the day of the Nagasaki raid, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. Almost immediately, about 1.6 million Soviet troops, many battle-hardened from the war in Eastern Europe, sliced deeply into Manchuria. Now the scales were overwhelmingly tipped against the Japanese empire. 

Even following both of the atomic attacks and the Soviet declaration or war, the Imperial cabinet remained deadlocked over accepting Pots-dam’s call for unconditional surrender. On August 14, eight days after the Hiroshima raid and only five days after the Nagasaki attack, Japan’s Emperor Hirohito himself broke the cabinet’s deadlock and accepted the Allied terms. The next day, Hirohito addressed the Japanese people directly for the first time to announce his decision. 

Although many factors contributed to the ultimate victory, there can be little doubt that the prospect of further nuclear bombardment swayed Hirohito. When the emperor announced the surrender, he referred to a “new and most cruel bomb.” But, according to Prince Fumimaro Konoye, “the thing that brought about the determination to make peace was the prolonged bombing by the B–29s.” Premier Suzuki said it this way: 

"It seemed to me unavoidable that in the long run Japan would be almost destroyed by air attack so that merely on the basis of the B–29s alone I was convinced that Japan should sue for peace. On top of the B–29 raids came the atomic bomb...which was just one additional reason for giving in....I myself, on the basis of the B–29 raids, felt that the cause was hopeless."

Forty-five American C–47 transports landed at Atsugi Air Base in Tokyo on August 28, 1945, to begin the American occupation of Japan. An atomic bomb cloud forms over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. That airplanes rather than amphibious landing craft should be the first Allied vehicles to touch Honshu symbolized the relative importance of air power in avoiding the scheduled invasion and securing the ultimate victory.