(August 8, 2015 at 8:55 pm)Pyrrho Wrote:(August 8, 2015 at 6:18 pm)Gawdzilla Wrote: That certainly seems to be the preferred option for the "anything but the bomb" folks. I keep asking them for a plan that caused fewer casualties, and never get one that actually does so.
The Japanese were wanting to surrender earlier, but the U.S. was demanding "unconditional surrender," which the Japanese would not accept. We could have ended the war earlier by giving a conditional surrender, which is what we got anyway with what we dishonestly called an "unconditional" surrender. So it would have been easy to avoid the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan, as we could have had an end to the war earlier than we got.
Which Japanese? The War Minister, Gen. Anami certainly wasn't interested in surrender, and he commanded the men with the guns. He was promoting the slogan "100,000,000 dead for the Emperor!" He only changed his position after the second bomb was dropped.
However, over and above that, if an opportunity to end the war had been available it would have been taken. But it took repeated hammer blows to make the most important Japanese see the light.
