Originally Posted by
tartare
The very interesting thing I read somewhere recently (I will try to find the reference) was that the Japanese were secretly attempting to open back channel war ending negotiations with the US immediately prior to the bombs being dropped. And the US knew that - having decrypted cypher messages. There was an implication (I think it might have been in the Oppenheimer biography) that atom bombing Japan would be proof of the technology working.
I don’t buy that. The technology worked as demonstrated by Trinity. The USS Indianapolis sat in port with the nuclear components onboard until dispatched only because Trinity was successful. The Japanese didn’t surrender even after two nukes, three days apart devastated their cities. They waited an additional six days after Nagasaki to surrender, the Russian declaration of war may have made the end even more obvious. I’ve seen the same reports pushed by those who believed the nukes weren’t needed as they play the role of revisionary historians.