JAPAN REFUSES TO SURRENDER

What was the background to the US dropping two atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945?

We defeated Germany in the spring of 1945 and then started to really focus on Japan. That became the main theatre of war. And as the summer continued, it became clear that the city bombings of Japan and the military pressures that we were putting Japan under were not going to be enough. It wasn’t clear exactly what the future was going to be. And we had meetings with the Soviets at Potsdam in July, and it became very clear that the Soviets were going to launch a ground defence within Manchuria against the Japanese army. And that set of meetings then essentially made it clear that if the United States was going to play a role, that it was the atomic bomb that was really going to be