A history lesson is required here, indeed!
After the surrender of Germany in May of 1945, Japan was still much able to wage on. However, seeing the upcoming split of Germany, since Russian forces entered Germany at almost the same time as the Americans (and other allies), the surrender of Japan was deemed by the president of the United States as being of the highest pririty.
So how did they do it?
They nuked Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
The Russians had landed inside the Japanese island just three days prior to Japan surrendering to the American forces. They (of course) protested the terms of the surrender (to the Americans) but the end result is that Japan surrendered to the terms of the American forces, not anyone else.
When Japan surrendered, they were found to abhore this kind of violence (as a result of the war?) and insisted that the treaty include a 50 year disarmament: Japan was to have no armed forces of any kind, for the next 50 years.
This stipulation of the treaty has since expired. As everyone can see, Japan did far FAR much better without any weapons than any other country, and it is now an economic force to be reckoned with.
So was the nuke a good thing? Was it worth the lives of more than 100'000 Japanese people?
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