Kasz216 said:
In your haste I think you missed something in that paragraph. I bolded it for you. Those three Japanese were only willing to accept the Potsdam Declaration if the emperor's position was guranteed. They actually refused to surrender due to the Emperor's position not being secured as this was unacceptable to many of the allies... including China and Russia. Russia most of all who insisted on an unconditional surrender because he suspected the Japanese wouldn't surrender, even with atom bombs, if it meant the end of the emperor.
Amani had the power to take over the country if he wished... and without Nagasaki he very well might of, assuming the US only had one bomb. Heck, even after Nagasaki they refused to surrender, until they thought the US had "100 nuclear bombs" and were going to target bigger cities. |
The Emperor was still the most powerful man and he also leaned towards surrender prior to Nagasaki. While it's impossible to be clear on how things would have turned out had Nagasaki not occured I strongly believe that Japan could have been convinced to surrender on terms very much alike to what they ended up surrendering on. The USA didn't even really try.
