Eighty years ago today, representatives of the Japanese empire boarded the USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay to sign surrender documents, thus ending the Second World War.
Like Nazi Germany, the Japanese continued fighting long
after it was clear that they could not possibly win the war; they went on
knowing that doing so meant the death and devastation would continue for no
military purpose. It took the US using two atomic bombs, on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, for the Japanese to finally give up hope (for what, I’m not exactly
certain).
Here's the thing: having learnt the bitter lesson from WWI—when
German militarists could make the false claim that they hadn’t actually lost
the war, but had been “stabbed in the back” by leftist politicians back in
Berlin, and that therefore the nation was entitled to a do-over amped up with
totalitarianism and Panzer divisions—the Allies demanded nothing less than
unconditional surrender from the Axis powers.
Both Japan and Germany tried to wiggle out of that, but the
Allies held firm. No conditions, just full and complete surrender. End of.
Someone ought to explain that to JD Vance when he wants to
wave his willie around Ukraine, blustering that “if you go back to every major
conflict in human history, they all end with some kind of negotiation.”
Show him the negotiation in this photo:
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©2025 Bas Bleu
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