re: Why don't we hear more about the Russians helping to end WWII in the Pacific?

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But, one of the factors we considered in ending the war with the bombs (rather than firebombing until September/October) was to cut off Soviet justification for incursions into the China and Japanese spheres of influence

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This is the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room that people don't talk about. Probably influenced Truman's decision greatly.

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They did nothing to end the Pacific War except exist. They launched their offensive the same day as Fat Man (as you indicated).

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I agree with this, but their existence in the war against Japan could be seen as equally as important as the atomic bombs. One way of looking at it is that Russian declaring war and then nearly immediately(61 minutes later) invading china was equivalent to a 3rd atomic bomb, a knockout blow to Japan. Surely if Russia never came along, we would have eventually finished off Japan, either by atomic bombing off the face of the earth or by invasion. Also, I don't believe this is taking anything away from what the US did in the pacific up to that point because we never would have gotten to this moment where the war would end, but we did request Russia's presence in the war with Japan.

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It's a weird geopolitical question

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It is surely a weird geopolitical question, if we do not ask for Russian to join in, does China become Communist? Does the Korean War still happen? Does Vietnam still happen?