Obama, Medvedev sign treaty

[Member2019]

Japan was as good as defeated and on the back foot

Dude, you really need to read our history. Before the bomb, Japan was going to be broken in one way -- absolute attrition -- down to the women and children. It would have served no one.

In fact, it would have likely come down to Stalin waiting until the US lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers (to "partially make up" for the eastern front) and then accepting a conditional Japanese surrender, crossing the US, and hard. The Russians had already shelled and otherwise destroyed everything they could in the US-British-French zones in Germany, and were clearly not our allies. This was beyond political.

As horrendous as it was, the bomb was the way out. Many Japanese historians have written on this fact. They knew themselves.

 

[Trident1]

You know that the atomic bombings weren't the only thing that made Japan surrender, right? The Soviets declaring war and attacking Manchukio had a lot to do with it.

Not quite. It played little in the Japanese decision. What played big was the knowledge that the Emperor would not be removed (although reduced in power to a figurehead).
Japan's population was starving and the threat of continued atom bombing made the Hirohito call it quits despite the rantings from the fanatics to die to the last man, woman and child.