Incidents of “mass suicide” represent the most tragic example of civilians succumbing to the horrific pressures brought to bear on them during the Battle of Okinawa. Apart from the many who took their own lives individually, there were approximately thirty cases of multiple suicides and family members killing loved ones, with the tragic escalation of panic and fear on Zamami-jima and Tokashiki-jima in late March claiming the lives of and people respectively. The majority of mass suicides occurred early in the battle and either involved direct coercion by the Imperial Japanese Army or their functionaries to prevent civilians being taken captive by the Americans, or indirectly by the fear of capture that had been instilled in civilians through contact with the Army. Many of the Japanese soldiers who had fought in China had told locals of the terrible excesses they had committed during the fighting there and…read more

  • MinekPo1 [She/Her]@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    Its not that the atomic bombs did not have an impact, but as many allied army official thought at the time, the Soviet invasion of Manchuria was more impactful. Some quotes for you:

    the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing.

    - Eisenhower

    The vast destruction wreaked by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the loss of 135,000 people made little impact on the Japanese military. However, the Soviet invasion of Manchuria … changed their minds.

    - the National Museum of the U.S. Navy in Washington, D.C.

    If at any time the USSR should enter the war, all Japanese will realize that absolute defeat is inevitable.

    - the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Joint Intelligence Staff

    • nuxetcrux@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The one thing about Reddit I miss is they had quality control on some subreddits like askscience or askhistory, and insulting drivel like this was filtered out.

      Chief of Staff Marshall was pushing a 3 bombs per months regimen Japanese intelligence was aware of. There were debates about whether to drop them weekly or all at once. Thankfully that didn’t have to happen.

      Historical record endeavors to be factual; it is not your emotional toy-sword.