2.2 Why Did Japan Surrender?
The story of Japan's surrender is often attributed to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This simple tale has Japan ready to fight to the last citizen until America comes in with the biggest bomb the world has ever seen. Hiroshima evaporates, then Nagasaki. Japan surrenders unconditionally.
This is one side of the story. It might not be the way that the Japanese would tell it, nor the Russians.
Read the excerpt below from foreignpolicy.com in which Ward Wilson argues that it was Stalin breaking the Soviet peace treaty with Japan that was the last straw, not the atomic bomb.
Review the course readings on Japan's situation in 1945.
Open the document below titled Significance of Events. There are four reasons stated for Japan's surrender.
You will need to fill this out in the following manner:
- establish evidence for or against each reason
- assign each reason a rank from 1-4 with one being the most significant
- assign each reason a percentage for how much it contributed to the decision to surrender
- you can assign any percentage from 1-100 as long as the total is 100%
Lastly, you will write a paragraph in which you answer this question:
For what reasons did Japan surrender to the Allies in August of 1945?
In answering this, you must make reference to the four reasons stated on the worksheet. Your topic sentence will sound something like "Japan surrendered in August 1945 because...."
This will be marked according to the rubric below. You must hand in the worksheet as well as the paragraph.