However, it does not rule out their possible efficacy nor does it mean that the atomic bomb was the only way to produce surrender by the Japanese. There were two alternatives to dropping the bomb, first, the idea was suggested that a demonstration on the outskirts, in an unpopulated area, be made to the Japanese so that they could witness the power of the weapon before suffering its treatment. A fireball of 15-meters radius formed in 0.1 millisecond, with a temperature of 300,000 degrees centigrade certainly would catch the Emperors attention. Or if not in an unpopulated area at least it could be spent explicitly for military targeting such as a collection of factories and that the civilians around the target area should be warned before its employment. However, “neither Oppenheimer nor the military planners believed that a demonstration of the weapon would be sufficient to create a Japanese surrender” (Donohue 2012).
Second, many believed that Japan was on the brink of surrendering, they were completely paralyzed and could not import or export from their country. The Japanese “entire domestic infrastructure” was already in ruins from the war (Donohue 2012). The air raids caused the Japanese food supply to evaporate and the public morale was suffering
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Between when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and before the Japanese had unequivocally capitulated, the Soviet Union entered the war by attacking Japanese-held Manchuria. This action may have had a significant effect on the decision to surrender or they may have already been defeated and the invasion by Russia totally unnecessary. However, the U.S. could have held out and waited to see what transpired before releasing a bomb over civilians that equaled war crimes in and of