ABSTRACT
On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was detonated above the Japanese city of Hiroshima. On the morning of August 9, the Nagasaki authorities themselves had had the first direct contacts with Hiroshima after the atomic bombing. But they were more concerned with another catastrophe, which seemed to be of much greater consequence. The telegraphic communications from the Japanese puppet state Manchukuo reached Nagasaki before they were forwarded to Tokyo. Thus it was the Nagasaki authorities who were the first to learn the feared news that the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan and that Soviet troops had already crossed the border into Manchuria. In the confusion, the Japanese press experienced what would be its most extensive freedom until the end of 1949. The Japanese were unsure of their limits, but it seemed clear that the old rulers were out and that the new ones, the Americans, advocated democracy and liberalization.
