The A-Bomb wasn't the reason why Japan surrendered. 60% of Japan's cities had already been destroyed by air bombing from the US. Japan surrendered after the Russians declared war on the country, hours before the second A-Bomb was dropped, and took over Manchuria by August 20th. US history says that we did it to end the war with Japan, but dropping the A-bomb on minor cities wasn't really a tactical decision. It was done to show US superiority to the Russians, and that we didn't have just one bomb. Seeing that we has US naval bases in the Pacific, including Japan, the dropping of the A-Bomb gave the US an advantage in negotiations for the surrender of Japan.
This interview exposes some of that, though I think that the woman doing the interview does a poor job.
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