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PolybiusChampion t1_j0m1r4s wrote

Reply to comment by Kitahara_Kazusa1 in Simple/Short/Silly History Questions Saturday! by AutoModerator

The best single volume (short) on this is Ronald Henkoff’s Inferno. In short, nothing short of unconditional surrender was acceptable to the US, and every offer from the Japanese prior to accepting the US’s position that the emperor renounce his divinity was off the table. There were even a couple of coup attempts after the 2nd bomb was dropped. Ultimately the emperor himself recorded his acceptance of the terms of surrender and that was broadcast to the country. Henkoff’s book is easily read in an afternoon and then if you want to dig further you’ll have a pretty solid base of knowledge.

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Kitahara_Kazusa1 t1_j0m3yxn wrote

Yeah, that's about what I thought, which is why I thought it was so strange that a published author was saying that Truman did accept a conditional surrender. But I guess he is just wrong on this point

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PolybiusChampion t1_j0m7kk4 wrote

People tend to conflate some of the issues around the surrender for various reasons. The quick and dirty facts are that the surrender was unconditional and nothing short of complete acceptance of the allied occupation and creation of a post war constitution was going to fly. Now, the issue of the emperor was a little opaque. McArthur could have removed him day one, and that’s what Hirohito expected to happen, but McArthur decided he’d be better off with him at the head of a constitutional monarchy but he did require him to formally renounce his divinity in Jan. of 1946.

Prior to the formal surrender acceptance the Japanese had been steadfast that the emperor would remain, and remain divine.

The safe, swift and mostly violence free immediate landing of troops on Japan was an amazing result after such a brutal war.

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