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The western Allies and Soviets both actively took Germany, coming in from either side and meeting in the middle. They split the country because they were already there. The Soviet Union never really made it to Japan proper. They took over Manchuria and Japan surrendered ASAP to the US alone once it became obvious that the only alternative was to surrender to both powers later and likely be split like Germany.
It’s worth highlighting that this was the immediate impetus for surrender. The atomic bombs were basically non-factors.
Pretty much this. When the news of the first atomic bomb reached high command, they treated it like any other bombing run. When news of the soviets formally declaring war on Japan reached them, there was an urgent meeting of the high council.
The USA did maintain a contingent of troops in Japan for some time, as did the UK, both to ensure Japan obeyed them and to make the soviets think twice before deciding to invade, as that would lead to a direct confrontation of USA x USSR. Japan was also used a staging point for USA troops some years later, when the Korean War began
I would like other opinions on this, maybe it should be its own post somewhere, and please do not think that I am in any way excusing the horror of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but what do people think of the idea that if the U.S. had not dropped those bombs, a larger-scale nuclear exchange, possibly between the Soviets and the U.S., would have happened because no one would have seen the consequences in 1945.
Again, not an excuse for what happened. I just wonder if that was what stopped a future nuclear exchange.