Second World War Day: 77 years ago Japan, having survived two atomic bombardment, signed an act of surrender

Video of the day on July 26, 1945, three states - the United Kingdom, the United States and the Republic of China - Japan has made a demand for unconditional surrender, otherwise promising the empire "quick and complete destruction" (Prompt and UTTER DESTRUCTION). This ultimatum was published in the form of a joint declaration of three countries at the Potsdam Conference.

It was the third (and the last) official meeting of the leaders of the largest countries of the anti -Hitler coalition in the Second World War - Joseph Stalin, Harry Truman and Winston Churchill (who was then replaced by his successor at Ettley at the conference). At that time, the Japanese fleet lost its lion's share of its power, and bombing of Japanese industry and destruction of trade ships led to the destruction of the country's military economy.

The use of surviving Japanese warships was seriously restricted due to fuel deficiency. However, the Japanese Empire rejected the ultimatum, declaring the intention to continue the fighting, although the Japanese leaders, meanwhile, secretly asked the USSR - as a formally neutral side - to act as a mediator for peaceful in Japan. The Soviet Union, in turn, secretly prepared for the official war with Japan - a step that the Allies agreed earlier at the Tehran and Yalta conferences.

On August 6, 1945, the United States, responding to Japan's refusal of ultimatum about surrender, dropped the atomic bomb into the city of Hiroshima, and on August 9, another such bomb was blown over Nagasaki. The only combat use of nuclear weapons has taken away, according to various estimates, from 129 thousand to 226 thousand lives. In addition, on August 8, 1945, the USSR declared the war of Japan and on August 9 began the so -called.

The Manchurian operation is an invasion of the mainland parts of the empire under the Japanese side, including the Marionette "State" by Manchzhou and North Korea. Against this background, taking into account the consequences of atomic bombing, Japanese power (including Japan Prime Minister Kantaro Sudzuki and the Foreign Minister Sigenori) led to the decision that the Japanese government should still end the war.

The Japanese Empire announced its surrender on August 15, 1945, and the day before, such a step was supported by Japanese Emperor Hirohito. In his address to the military, two days later, he stated: "It is pointless to increase the devastating consequences of war to such a degree that the basics of existence of the empire would ultimately be threatened.

" However, some of the Japanese warlords refused to capitulate: Japan has not lost such large -scale wars before, its territory has never been occupied. Therefore, some of the Japanese units did not make up weapons until the late fall of 1945. The formal act on Japan's surrender was signed on September 2, 1945 on board the American Lincor Missouri in the Tokyo Gulf.

Since then, this date is considered the end of World War II - the most deadly conflict in human history, whose victims were from 70 million to 85 million. Shortly after the surrender of the Japanese Empire, an investigation into its military crimes began. The Tokyo Process (the International Military Court for the Far East) - the court of Japanese war criminals - was held from May 3, 1946 to November 12, 1948.

The accused were 29 people, mostly among the highest military and civil leadership of the Japanese Empire, but none of them was a member of the imperial family. The seven accused, including two former Prime Ministers, Koki Hirota and Hideki Todzio, were sentenced to death because of hanging and executed on December 23, 1948 in the court of prison Sugamo in Tokyo. 15 of the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment, three more to different terms.