Cold War propaganda contributed to their being largely overlooked from the Anglo-American perspective. We always have focused on the atomic attacks, which for us represented the definitive blow. |
It was a massive campaign and a crushing blow for Japan which was already in a bad way after fighting for almost four years in the Pacific War. |
The impact of the blow in Manchuria persuaded Japan's civilian and political leadership more than the atomic strikes to recognize they stood no chance at all of holding out even in the home islands. |