The Strange Historiography of August 1945

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Stalin Enters the War Against Japan

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When WWI fighting stopped with the armistice of Nov. 11, 1918, the front lines (dashed red) were still well out in Belgium and France. German troops marched home still armed, not clearly defeated, and there was no occupation except in three bridge-heads across the Rhine (blue tint). Battery D, 129th Field Artillery, Captain Harry Truman in command, was at the front where the solid red line breaks to the west at map center.

Lessons of History

Lessons of History

Foreign Minister Togo interviews

Suzuki Interrogation

Sakomizu Interrogation

Catroux-Menemencioglu on European Military Equilibrium (Pre-Hiroshima)

Menemencioglu on Post-Hiroshima European Military Equilibrium

Szilard-Byrnes Memo

Asahi Reporter Ryu in Berne Opines
U.S. Will Accept Negotiated Peace to Stymie Communism in Far East
(MAGIC DS 1207, 15 July, 1945)

Asahi Reporter Ryu in Berne Again Opines
U.S. Will Accept Negotiated Peace to Stymie Communism in Far East
(MAGIC DS 1222, 30 July, 1945)

Ōnishi on Strategy to Exploit Soviet Threat

Japan's Proposal for Alliance with Russia (MAGIC DS of June 3, 1945)

Sato-Togo "Peace Feelers Through the Soviet Union" Message Exchange

Japanese View of Soviet Strategy

Japanese Army Attache Lisbon Advises Russian Attack on Manchuria a Matter of Weeks

How Stalin kept Japan in the war: why Japan did not accept the Potsdam Declaration until after the atomic bombings
Foreign Minister Tōgō Describes Surrender Process

Soviet Role in Germany's Clandestine Rearmament

Pershing Objections to 1918 Armistice

War-Weariness and the End of WWI

Arai on Potsdam Declaration Terms

Navy Minister Yonai on the Atomic Bombs and Soviet Attack as 'Gifts from Heaven'

Marquis Kido Kōichi on Possibility of Earlier Peace

Japanese Reports to Tokyo on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombing Damage & Countermeasures

Potsdam Proclamation Documents

Constitutions of Japan

References

Review of Alperovitz's The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb