Quote:
Originally Posted by MMM
You have a lot of "what ifs" and I don't think the facts support there would have been a vote for surrender without the Emperor stepping down earlier. They were planning to go out in battle, and were planning a final battle that would not win the war (they knew that wasn't going to happen) but would, very literally, kill as many Americans as possible. Yes, some leaders wanted to surrender. Others wanted to fight to the death. Even after the first A-bomb the surrender votes couldn't come to a majority.
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Same after the second one. Japanese government first debated capitulation on 22 july so before the A-bombs. They agreed when Truman accepted their demands to leave Hirohito alone and let him keep his throne, and it was all thanks to the Swiss ambasador who negociated with japanese government and convinced Truman that's it's the only way. US politics just didn't care, they would just bomb Japan back to the stone age rather than negociate.