In sum, oil prices were steadily declining throughout 1990 up to about a month before the invasion of Kuwait (Figure 5). This was a period of excess stocks, rather slack demand, and over-capacity among the major producers. There was little upward pressure on prices until signs of Iraq's belligerence became more and more apparent in July. As noted above, this was also a period of upward sloping futures curves, indicating no risk premium was associated with concerns over future availabilities of oil. In other words, we can safely attribute most of the price increases from mid-July 1990 up to January 17 of 1991 as strictly associated with military-related events in Kuwait. In retrospect, it is also safe to say that the oil markets were good interpreters of military events as they pertained to future availabilities of oil.

Japan's decision to surrender was made before the scale of the Soviet attack on Manchuria, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands was known (See Downfall, pg 289),

Operation August Storm, along with the two atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, combined to break the Japanese political deadlock and force Japan's surrender; they made it clear that Japan had no hope of holding out, even in the Home Islands.

Tsuyoshi Hasegawa's research has led him to conclude that the atomic bombings themselves were not the principal reason for capitulation. Instead, he contends, it was the swift and devastating Soviet victories on the mainland in the week following Stalin's August 8 declaration of war that forced the Japanese message of surrender on August 15, 1945.