It is often cited as a reason to drop the atomic bombs to make japan surrender before the soviets invaded it. Was this a real cause for concern?

I am starting a project in which I wanna dig up the history of my family during the last 200 years, possibly up until the Napoleonic Annexation of Catalonia and the Peninsular War (I am from Catalonia, in Spain). I know it is a hard task, and most probably I will have to end it sooner, at the end of the 19th century (with my grandparents' grandparents). Still, I wanna learn of the History of my family and be able to place it in the historical context of the region: how the context affected them and how they reflected the context. In the end, my goal is to be able to write a book (or books) about it.

I am not here asking for sources, I already asked some local history professors about them. Of course, if you had any idea of good sources for the 1800-1970 period in Catalonia, they will be more than welcome, but that is not why I made this post.

I made this post to hear tips and recommendations on how to make a historical investigation. Let me start by presenting you my plan of action, so you can see where I am and give me some criticism.

• I am interviewing my grandparents, to know about all they can recall of their ancestors.
• This interviews I later transcribe for future reference and investigation. I tried some software but it didn't work very well so I started doing it by hand, which is a very lengthy process. For every hour recorded, I spend 3 to 4h in transcription. I wonder if you knew some alternative to work with personal interviews.
• I collect personal documents my family has in storage, like photos, birth certificates, ID cards, property bills and maps, business documents, letters, etc.
• I will go and check out the county and municipal archives, maybe the provincial archive too. In this step I literally have no idea on how to work in an archive, and if they let amateur historians in to investigate. What things may I find in these archives? How should I search for things? What should I be looking for?
• I will inform myself of the local historical context they lived through, as explained.
• At this point, with all recollected information, I should start writing about it. I still don’t know which format I should use. Chronological? By family member? By topic? How to separate the things that matter with the things that don’t? How to reference personal documents and interviews?

That is my plan. It is a very broad painting of it, but it serves the purpose.

Now, I’d love to hear some of the recommendations that you, other amateur or professional historians here, might have that could help me. Recommendations based on your experience or knowledge will be deeply appreciated.

I think it's uncontroversial to say that, in the modern era, Julius Caesar is the most well known figure in history of the Roman republic/empire(unless we include Jesus).

But was this true for the actual citizens of the Roman and Byzantine empire in the centuries after his death? If you spoke to an average Byzantine citizen in ~1000ad, or a relatively educated aristocrat, would they he have been a familiar historical figure to them?

I don't know if this type of questions is allowed or not here, but I'll ask anyway. My question is that how should we, common people who haven't studied History academically in college or university, research about a certain historical topic on the internet or offline? (internet is preferred) Whenever I want to know about something historical, I am always bombarded with comments about how the info I know is 'X propaganda'.

Say Soviet Union history. People who say that Lenin and Stalin were great rulers who made a strong economy are called 'Left wing propaganda'. People who say that Lenin and Stalin were dictators who had a really poor economy are called 'Right wing propaganda'.

When I want to search something about India, people say don't listen to that, don't read this, etc. Some people online accuse India to have altered the history to cater to Hindutva propaganda. Hindutva retaliates by saying that it is all just 'western' bs, that they always try to make ancient India look bad, that western people don't understand ancient Vedic scriptures, history, etc and that all their books are biased.

I feel really confused about how to read about History and where to read it from. Everything seems like someone's propaganda.

How did the process of military recruitment and enlistment go in Canada/common wealth during ww2? Would young men just show up to a recruitment centre, select they branch they wanted to enlist in? Or where there different recruiting centres for different branches? How where their trades selected? Did a recruit list what they wanted to do, test for it etc? How was it determined who became an officer and who an NCM? Just curious how the general process of recruitment and enlistment went? Thanks

To what extent was anarchist Catalonia stateless? Did people manage themselves without a common authority or social hierarchies? If so, how did it work? How was the economy, security or labor participation?

The acts committed against the Holocaust victims would fulfill the requirements of a law against murder, so why were the Nazis still allowed to harm and kill them? Did Germany at the time not have any such laws? Or did they not apply to Jews and other groups?

Would the captain speak to them? Were they likely to see him around the ship?

The existence of trench art is well documented; poetry, paintings, sketches, carvings and trench magazines are all well known artefacts of the First World War. Why are there no {that I can find} obscene examples? We have graffiti in ancient Rome, hillside chalk figures and raunchy "what the butler saw" photographs from across history, yet a million men in the war to end all wars didn’t draw a single dick? Not one lewd cartoon of the local brothel madam and a raunchy officer? Given the close proximity of all the countries of the empire, the "pals" battalions and the intermingling of social classes in the trenches, you would expect to see some references to national stereotypes.... But no, for a bunch of men crammed together waiting to die, all the art seems very civilised..

My great grandparents are from Manchuria and my great grandpa went to a Japanese railway school in Dalian大连 and graduate as best student without any knowledge of Japanese before joining the school, out-best all the Japanese student in his school. He later works in the Manchuria railway system.
In his year of service before he was sent to a irrelevant post in the new China in 1954, he was doing important works on Chinese railway systems , but I never know the details.
Only story I have heard is he beat up a Japanese military officer who force him to do stuff that violate the railway policy, after that my great grandma got real scare and want to runaway, but later turn out the higher command make that guy apologized to my great grandpa and gave his steel sword as a present. And they become friends. And my dad told me my great grandpa practice his Japanese as a hobby until his death. With this story, here is my question how is Manchuria history before WW2? how does the Manchukuo and the Chinese military government and Japanese military coexist? Are they treat like Taiwan who are basically second class citizen but given stability and better life or brutalized like Koreans?

The Black Prince's chevauchée earlier that year had incredibly damaged the south of France putting it, essentially, out of action. Now after Poitiers the English had the upper hand in the 100 Years War, a crushing victory which led to them capturing the French King and putting France into chaos.

It seems odd that with their enemy on their knees the English would not do their utmost to end the war there and then with a swift blow. Instead the Black Prince retreated to Bordeaux, and his father King Edward III didn't attempt to take Paris until 1359, which was unsuccessful.

But why? Did the English not have the will to do so, or did they still lack the strength of numbers?

Were they hoping that Japan would surrender, did they believe in the US ideology, did they hope Japan would fight on more than ever?

I had a theory, did some research that seemed to confirm my theory and then tested it and the test also seems to have confirmed my theory and so now I want to published my findings and theory. How and where do I do that?

No specific question today, just a request for some guided reading as I cannot for the life of me find any maps, books, or papers describing Mesoamerica at the end of the 14th century.

(Sorry for my bad english, I'm french) What became of the cotton fields after the thirteenth amendment?

It seems like Heinz was pretty vocal about his theories regarding tank warfare.

I’ve seen this claim made a few times and was wondering how valid it is. Basically, it’s arguing that the Japanese were going to surrender in 1945 but the US would only accept an unconditional one which the Japanese didn’t want to accept because they feared for the safety of the Emperor under it and wanted to keep the Emperor (who they thought may have been deposed or arrested if they unconditionally surrendered).

Since people back then didn't know about germs and immunity system, it seems like that the inevitable fate of Native Americans was mass extinction due to European diseases, whether they Europeans had come to them peacefully or not. But would the mortality rate (which I think was up to 90% for some areas) have been lower had they come peacefully? If so, significantly? Was there any way, other than not discovering America, which was extremely unlikely, that Europeans could avoid a mass extinction?