What would have happened if Japan didn't surrender in WWII?

It would have raged on, but the yanks knew how to build an Abomb by then and would have no doubt started building another to get their point across.

@SQUEEKY2 Scary. To get their point across. Very scary.

@talljasperman WAR usually is.

The Allies (United States) was readying up for a land invasion. Meantime, the pace of massive B 29 fire bombings of Japanese cities was still ruthlessly accelerating under LeMay. The Russians were seizing Japanese territories chock-a-block. And even had the Japanese been somehow aware of the existence of only 2 bombs, they knew with certainty that more and larger weapons were guaranteed in their near term future. The Japanese were confronted with the virtual liquidation of their civilization by the time the warlords were compelled to bow to the “shame” of surrender. They were handed a sop with the promise that their “divine emperor would be neither imprisoned nor humiliated

The United States only used two bombs, but had more in the pipeline. And we were prepared to keep dropping them until Japan bent to our will. The myth is that the atomic bombings ended the war. In truth Japan was already militarily defeated and had already opened up a line to begin peace talks. The US wanted an unconditional surrender. Japan wanted to surrender with a few conditions, such as the monarchy remaining intact. Well the US were having none of that, dropped “Fat Man” and “Little Boy” and…...ended up working out an agreement with Japan that kept the monarchy in tact. So pretty much the bombs were dropped for no reason except maybe to flex our muscle to the world (especially the Soviets).

The bitch is, Japan was prepared to surrender before they dropped the bomb and they knew it.

If they hadn’t surrendered, we would have dropped the bomb on them like we did, and that, pretty much, was the final statement.

Interesting. That’s not the way they taught it when I was in school. Propaganda?

No, they didn’t teach us that in school, either. Would have made us look bad.

Have you ever seen the movie Fat Man and Little Boy? Assuming that it is historically correct, it’s a real shocker.

From Wiki “By 1945, Japan’s leaders were in agreement that the war was going badly, but they disagreed over the best means to negotiate its end.” This was before we dropped the bomb.

Crap.
I was all ready to give @stanleybmanly‘s answer, but after (what would have been exhaustive hours of research) I read his, Iandgave up on mine.

Yep, from what I have read, it was the declaration of war by the Russians against Japan that had a greater impact on their surrender that Hiroshima and Nagasaki but we don’t hear of this in US history.

This:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZn4T5YZKwQ

There is one hell of a lot about the war with Japan about which the vast majority of us haven’t a clue, beginning with Japan’s motives in bombing Pearl Harbor.

Yeah..why did they even do that @stanleybmanly? For a little ol’ island they sure are fierce.

@Dutchess_III

The US had placed an oil embargo against Japan over Japan’s actions in French Indochina.

I never answered Dutchess which is strange the way I love to rattle on. But the war has been my one big hobby since I was 5. The 2 big questions everyone puzzles over regarding WWII are Why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor and why did Hitler invade Russia?

I am not a historian. I am a human. I think they saw our reluctance to enter into WWII as being either afraid, or outgunned. They thought we were so distracted by what was happening in Europe, we’d be totally unprepared for a surprise attack and they could quickly and easily build on that.
They were right. We weren’t. They were wrong in the 2nd half. Could any other country have come together as quickly as the US did then?

Hitler invaded Russia because he was power hungry, invincible and insane…like Trump. Trump, on the other hand, thinks if he hands this country over to Putin he’ll get to be a co-leader of the WORLD!

Tha’s my take.

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and Hitler attacked Russia for the same reason. They were both forced. @Darth Algar was on the right track. The Japanese Pacific rampage was driven by the simple fact that the island nation was destitute of the natural resources necessary to sustain a modern industrial power. So they looked around and decided on the same solution which had served the other island great power in similar circumstances. They (like the Israelis) simply arrived at the solution too late in the game to be tolerated. The “Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere” (you gotta love that one) was their clever euphemism for the rape of Asia and the Pacific. And it solved the crucial petroleum issue (the most immediate choke hold on modern living) through seizure of the Dutch oil fields through the conquest of Indonesia, yielding huge additional bonuses such as rubber and tin. But it was when we slammed the door on access to our iron, steel, scrap etc. that they saw the writing on the wall. The other trait Japan shared with Great Britain (and for the same reason) was a formidable shit kicking navy second to none, along with a merchant fleet one would expect for world domination. It is interesting that in the run up to Pearl Harbor, the warlords were stridently advised by those flag officers, ambassadors, etc. who had actually spent time in the United States that messing with the place was suicide. Yamamoto suggested that before hazarding such an adventure proponents take the tour (as he had) of Ford’s River Rouge complex then on the outskirts of Detroit.

On to Germany. Superficially, it might appear that Hitler was crazy to invade Russia. But he was confronted by the same problem as Japan, only he had ample reserves of the crucial components for modern civilization such as coal and steel, plus the most sophisticated chemical industry in the history of the world, capable of synthesizing much of everything else. The one big missing chink was again oil, the lack of which meant looming near term catastrophe. In many respects Hitler was a genius. He understood better than most of his generals that there would be no more oil from Venezuela or North Africa with the Royal Navy between him and those oil fields, and he was now stuck owning a Europe running on oil & gasoline, with no way in hell to synthesize enough of the stuff from coal. He was also confronted with the prospect of feeding all those people minus imports from abroad. Thus—the soviet oil fields in the Caucuses & the breadbasket of the Ukraine were not only vital, but had to be overrun quickly and soon. North Africa was the other possible source along with some dribbles from Romania, but the problem with Africa was once again the British navy and while Ploesti could not supply the load. Most people don’t realize just how close to the wire Germany operated with what was unquestionably the preeminent military machine of the modern world perpetually running out of gas. Clues to the actuality of this can be realized from photographs of elite mechanized units and their horse drawn supply trains (and sometimes artillery). German production of tanks & weaponry rose steadily despite Allied saturation bombing. What did not rise was the sufficiency to fuel them. The world’s military museums can thank this fact for the quantity of Wehrmacht tanks on display simply because they were abandoned when they ran out of gas.

Great lesson @stanleybmanly. Wish I was in a classroom so I could raise my hand.

In the end, though, neither Germany nor Japan got what they wanted. So how are they still surviving?

Who would have foreseen that they would go on to be so embarrassingly better off than their conquerers. Makes you scratch your head.

I often think about the scenario Germany confronting England with the Japanese navy steaming the same hemisphere as the u boats instead of Pearl Harbor. Would Roosevelt have the political muscle to go to war were the Japanese to destroy the British navy as it more or less did in the Pacific?

Japan is better off, but Germany isn’t. I think.

I don’t know about Germany, but after WWII Japan was faced with the same situation as before – a lack of natural resources. So having no ability to produce things other people needed they wised up and built their economy around something even better – producing things other people wanted.

And both pulled it off with very socialist models because it was the most efficient escape from the ashes, pulling EVERYBODY out.

@Dutchess III Google up some comparative statistics on any topic you care to choose, longevity, quality of life, infant mortality, you name it. You’ll be flabbergasted.

The stats on which country @stanleybmanly? I’m all for democratic socialism BTW.

Germany. I knew you were another one of those Commie sympathizers. Damned lefties get all the pretty girls.

I AM the pretty girl, @stanleybmanly! But not all of them get me. I’m not socialist in my head! I’m a dictatorship in my head. I call the shots. :D