Did the Japanese think that Truman was bluffing about the atom bomb?

Question

A lot of political leaders (recently Sadaam and that jerk in Iran) talk a lot of S**t about blood running in streets and the destruction of countries. Did Japanese military brass, and regular citizens, think Truman was full of it when he basically told them that if they didn't surrender he would nuke their asses?

Answer 1

You're thinking of the "Potsdam Declaration", which did not mention nuclear bombs.  Very few people would have even understood what nuclear bombs might mean, or their destructive effect.

The Potsdam Declaration was a statement issued on July 26, 1945 by Harry S. Truman, Winston Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek which outlined the terms of surrender for Japan as agreed upon at the Potsdam Conference. The agreement stated that if Japan did not surrender, it would face "prompt and utter destruction".

Even after the bombs, according to pages from Tojo's diary released a few weeks ago, many Japanese including Tojo wanted to fight on.  They had not surrendered anything in the entire war, fighting to the last man everywhere.  The Emperor gave the leadership to understand that he wished to bring it to an end, and one faction attempted a coup to prevent the humiliation of a surrender.  Its a good thing the Emperor weighed in because if memory serves we might have had one more bomb ready to go, but after that it would have been quite some time before we could get more uranium refined and more bombs ready.

Answer 2

Now I was alive at that time, but I really do not recall him (Truman) saying anything like that.  Got a reference?

Answer 3

The speech you posted was made 6/71945 39 days before the Trinity test. The bomb was still a theory at the time that speech was made. What he was talking about was moving the combat divisions from Europe to Japan for a landing that would make Normandy look like a boy scout excursion. He CLEARLY stated the use of saturation bombing with incendiary bombs, they had destroyed a lot of Japan even then.

I would not likely be typing this had that happened. My Dad had already been pulled from The Aleutians in 44 and sent to Germany to finish his time in the 80th ID. They were keeping those guys in Europe in part to be closer to Japan.  

Answer 4

yes. they took one look at his picture and said ' hes  a nerd '.

Answer 5

After the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima the US did call on Japan to surrender or "face a terrible wrath".

However, no one outside a few high ranking military officers knew how many more bombs the USA had, if any.

It was only after the 2nd bomb was dropped on Nagasaki did the Japanese realize that they couldn't win such a war.

Truman hinted, although he did not specifically say, that Tokyo would be "high on the list of any future targets".

Answer 6

The Japanese were extremely arrogant, and I think part of it was they had not been as successful with their own atomic program. So they figured the US could not have done better. So after the first bomb, there was a notion that there was only one bomb, after all, the necessary uranium was very hard to come by, at least for Japan. After the second bomb the Japanese leaders were faced with the real possibility that their country would simply be destroyed from the air instead of invaded. This would not allow for a glorious fight to the last, and would result in the likely extinction of the Japanese culture.

The other side of it is that secrecy involved in the Manhattan project meant that nobody knew that the US actually had the bomb already, not even most of the Americans.

Answer 7

Yea I guess they thought America was all talk. Ahmadinejad better watch it we are 2 for 2 now with Japan and Saddam. No Games Here.

Answer 8

After the first bomb they refused to surrender, there was no threat made by Truman.

The Japanese thought that the U.S. would invade and after the entire country fought in the streets the U.S. would then offer favorable terms.

Many in the Japanese government and military wanted to fight to the death rather than surrender.  

Answer 9

Truman never DID mention the nukes.

The B-29s are doing fine without the nukes, bombing Japan from Tinian and other bases. Japan's industries are mostly gone by end of WW2. Truman *could* have accomplished what he said without the nukes.

Thus, your question seems to lack a bit of... perspective.