The triple punch. Hiroshima, the soviet invasion of manchuria and nagasaki. Within 3 1 2 days, japan has to absorb these major blows. Finally, there is enough of an impact on the japanese Senior Leadership to make a difference. Its not that there had been no one in japan who was contemplating getting out of the war by surrendering up until this point. Certainly nobody did it publicly. But within high government circles, there are peace advocates, folks saying the war is lost, we need out of this. But they were outnumbered and outvoiced, outshouted in some cases, by the militarists who wanted to hold on. Battle. One more battle. If we can just inflict american casualties in one more big battle, then we can negotiate and really get something out of this war. But after hiroshima, after the invasion of manchuria and afterc nagasaki, the japanese high command finally allows the emperor essentially to step in and override, make the final decision to surrender. Theres a little bit of lastminu
Next, in this encore booknotes for 2001 historian herbert bix discusses his biography hirohito and the making of modern japan. Professor bix portrays hirohito hirohito asher japan into the modern world. This is about an hour. Cspan herbert p. Bix, author of hirohito and the making of modern japan, could somebody who is japanese write this book and publish it through a japanese publisher in japan today . Guest i think so. I think today there has been a number of breakthroughs that have occurred over the past 20 years, and hirohito has died, died 10 years ago, so enough time has elapsed. Its possible a jaand i would expect and, in fact, i would hope that japanese historians will surpass this biography and uncover new material and that we will get critical accounts of the emperor and the role he played, both before, during and after the war. Because that man is absolutely crucial for understanding the dilemmas of 20th century japan. Cspan theres a picture in here, and you write about it i