How would you describe the attitudes of the Japanese government and of Hitler toward surrendering to the Allies?
1 Answer
In both cases there was considerable if not total opposition.
Explanation:
The militaristic Japanese government which ruled Japan in the 30's and during World War 2 based their culture on the Bushido code of the Samurai. Japan had never been successfully invaded so any thought of surrender to the West was seen as totally unacceptable.
This explains the fanaticism with which the Japanese army defended island after island as the Americans advanced; and indeed their brutal treatment of those peoples they conquered and prisoners they captured.
The Americans rightly or wrongly concluded that an assault on the Japanese mainland would result in an unacceptable level of fatalities possibly as much as 1 million. They therefore decided to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It was not until a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki that Japan finally surrendered.
After his initial successes Hitler's delusions of being the greatest general ever reached paranoiac heights. He consistently refused to listen to his generals and his interventions and counter orders led to catastrophes such as Stalingrad and Kursk.
Even in the face of certain defeat with the Soviets only a couple of hundred metres from his bunker, Hitler was still talking about victory and moving what were by now imaginary armies. Finally he blamed the German people themselves for the catastrophe which he had brought on them and committed suicide with his new wife Eva Braun.
