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

Not enough is said about the supplies we went to the Russians. I had a friend that worked on the "pipeline" thru Iran? I think. Said it was a continuous column of supplies for months, 24/7. An unbelievable amount of essentially everything they needed.

:redrifle:

We agreed to a lot of concussions for the Russians help including the damn Eastern Europe buffer zone. Then they jumped in with 5 seconds left.

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They launched their offensive the same day as Fat Man (as you indicated).

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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All true. That said, the Japanese also had to consider two factors:

1) Often forgotten today, Marshal Zhukov handed the Japanese Kwantung Army their collective arse in Manchuria in 1939 before he was recalled to fight the Germans.
2) The Japanese knew there was no way they'd stand a chance the second time around, with no ability to maintain a standing army in Manchuria.

So it was basically a cherry on top of everything else.

Easy one
Yes
Yes
Yes

from what i remember, the Japanese had some diplomatic discussions with the Russians all the way up to the Russians attacking manchuria. The Japanese did not epect the Russians to attack.

The japanese homeland was not threatened by a russian invasion, but an American invasion. the bombs ended an Japanese hopes of a bloody war on their beaches and the US agreeing to end the war short of unconditional surrender

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Harry and FDR loved Uncle Joe.

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Harry absolutely didn't. Things were getting chippy even before the German surrender. They had gone south over the summer, for sure. The Russians were not living up to their (explicit or implied) obligations to restore Poland, they were acting up in their areas of occupied Germany and just generally pissing Harry S and other western leaders off. To cap it off, all the super secret fight over the German scientists (in particular the rocket scientists, but also the experts from their nuclear program, as well ), the Russians spying on the Manhattan Project and all of that made a big demonstration of the bomb's power more likely in August 1945.

Not the only factor. I think that Truman sincerely believed that dropping the bombs would shorten the war and save American and Japanese lives. I also agree with that analysis, particularly knowing what Truman knew at the time, but even with the benefit of over 70 years of hindsight. The use of the bomb to end that war, despite other factors/intentions that may have been in play, was one of the most righteous acts of mass destruction in the entire history of war - terrible, tragic and yet necessary to avoid even more suffering.

History takes the wrong example and wrong lessons from the end of that war. Restraint is not the order of the day in a general shooting war. End it - end it quickly and decisively. The more you frick around and try to save folks or avoid collateral damage, at the expense of victory and ending the conflict, the more it costs you in the long run. Not to say that you damage in a gratuitous way, but dropping those bombs and killing that roughly 1/4 million people (many women and children, by the way), saved millions of lives, period.

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We agreed to a lot of concussions for the Russians help including the damn Eastern Europe buffer zone. Then they jumped in with 5 seconds left.

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True but we did ask for their assistance in defeating Japan. IMO they were probably just smart to realize that time was running out to grab more 'sphere of influence' after the bomb was dropped.

"At Yalta, Roosevelt and Churchill discussed with Stalin the conditions under which the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan and all three agreed that, in exchange for potentially crucial Soviet participation in the Pacific theater, the Soviets would be granted a sphere of influence in Manchuria following Japan’s surrender. This included the southern portion of Sakhalin, a lease at Port Arthur (now Lüshunkou), a share in the operation of the Manchurian railroads, and the Kurile Islands. This agreement was the major concrete accomplishment of the Yalta Conference"

LINK

There is some really interesting stuff on this page about the decisions to drop the bomb, diplomatic feelers that Japan made to the Uncle Joe to help end the war, etc.

LINK

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They didn't give two shits about manchuria, China nor Korea until we had Japan beat.

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Again, see my first post in this thread. The USSR was actively involved in Manchuria during the 1930's supporting the Chinese communists there.

In fact, Marshal Zhukov beat the Japanese Army in 1939 in Mongolia in a battle that had nearly 100,000 casualties.