[fastpat]

Originally posted by 1967 R50/2
This is false. The offer was put forward after the dropping of the NAGASAKI bomb. August 10th. Not in the spring.

In fact, only two weeks before, Suzuki had called the Potsdam Declaration rubbish.

On August 14th, the Allies confirmed that Hirohito could keep his throne and Japan surrendered.

1. May 1945 - Truman receives reports that Japan is ready to surrender if "unconditional surrender" is dropped (re: the emperor) - "Why We Nuked Japan" by Gar Alperovitz, article in Technology Review, 1990.

2.

"my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking the world op0inion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. ...It wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing" General Dwight D. Eisenhour.

3.

"The use of this barbaric weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons. My own feeling was that, in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Age. I was not taught to make war in that fashio, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children." Fleet Admiral Daniel Leahy, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, US Navy.