this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2025
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Don't have a link for it, it was written in the atom bomb museum of Nagasaki I think, or Hiroshima, but I think it was Nagasaki
The Peace Museum is such a disingenuous monument.
It's all "boo hoo, they dropped the bomb on Japan", but the only context given, or reference to the absolute horrors Japan inflicted on SE Asia is like "somehow Japan found itself at war"
Japan sees itself as a victim of the war, not the bloodthirsty, psychopathic nation that murdered millions of innocent people out of imperial greed.
The museums are about the bombs, not the war. Other atrocities like the destruction of Tokyo also weren't mentioned, so if you call it disingenuous you might've missed the point to be honest. 300.000 lives were destroyed in an instant, with many of them suffering greatly over day, weeks, years and even decades. The museus show what happened on those 2 days and why nuclear bombs should never be used again
All 3 can be true; dropping the bombs were a warcrime, being an untargeted attacked against civilians of a country that already tried to surrender, Japan committed atrocities across EA, and has failed to come to terms with its past.
I don't think it was 'about to surrender' in the way your interpreting.
don't get me wrong, it was a war of annihilation - on the 6th the US drops the bomb on Hiroshima, on the 8th the soviets flood 1m+ soldiers into manchuria, the next day the US drops on Nagasaki, then on the 10th the emperor breaks the deadlock in the cabinet.
On the 15th the Emperor makes the radio address and it's pretty much over.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/japans-surrender-military-coup-1945
the problem is there's a LOT of moving parts on both sides trying to figure out if it's over or just the beginning of another series of conflicts that will split japan between the western allies and the soviets - something I think the Japanese feared more than actual destruction.
I'm definitely interpreting their words correctly, something along the lines of "investigations have shown that Japan would've surrendered even without dropping the bombs."
I didn't fact check this of course, but I assume the museum did. In the end it's difficult to say for sure, there were a lot of variables like you said, but that is the conclusion that the museum came up with