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The first atomic bomb used as a weapon is dropped on Hiroshima, killing 80,000 people instantly.
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The news travels to America and is put in newspapers. This is the first time American citizens knew about the bomb being dropped.
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Since Japan didn't surrender, the Soviet Union entered Manchuria and defeated Japanese forces.
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A second atomic bomb is dropped in Nagasaki from a B-29, causing more chaos.
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Emperor Hirohito and Japanese Prime Minister Suzuki decide to seek an immediate peace with the Allies.
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Tokyo petitions for peace as long as Emperor Hirohito can retain his throne.
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Harry Truman put in a diary entry, “Ate lunch at my desk and discussed the Jap offer to surrender which came in a couple of hours earlier. They wanted to make a condition precedent to the surrender. Our terms are ‘unconditional’. They wanted to keep the Emperor. We told ’em we’d tell ’em how to keep him, but we’d make the terms.”
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Japan sank an American destroyer and an American landing ship, breaking the peace treaty promise.
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Emperor Hirohito declared that peace was preferable to destruction. He ordered the Japanese government to prepare a surrender.
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Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed on behalf of the Japanese government. General Yoshijiro Umezu then signed for the Japanese armed forces and the war was over.
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