>There is one small, yet extremely sig-
>nificant detail you've ommitted: the
>REASON for Japan's refusal to surrender.
>The Japanese believed their emporer to
>be a god -- LITERALLY. As a result of
>this belief, they were unwilling to
>accept a U.S. imposed "unconditional"
>surrender.

WHO CARES? That doesn't make any difference. They want to keep killing people simply because a fake god wants to save face?

>Those who claim that Japan did not want
>to seek an end to the war are liars and
>deceivers of the worst kind. The Japanese
>government had been pursuing Soviet media-
>tion to end the war in response to the Em-
>peror's request of June 22, 1945, a fact
>often overlooked today. (Butow, pg. 118-120,
>130). The terms proposed by Japan were the
>retention of the emperor to his thrown.

Is that why the Soviets invaded Manchuria the day before Nagasaki..because they thought the Japanese were trying to surrender?

>On July 2, 1945, Sec. of War Henry Stimson
>and Truman discussed a proposal by Stimson
>to call for Japan to surrender. Stimson's
>memo to the President advised, "I personally
>think that if in saying this we should add
>that we do not exclude aconstitutional mon-
>archy under her present dynasty, it would
>substantially add to the chances of accept-
>ance". Stimson's proposed surrender demand
>stated that the reformed Japanese government
>"may include a constitutional monarchy under
>the present dynasty" (U.S. Dept. of State,
>Potsdam 1, pg. 889-894).

This isn't a free agent negotiation in the NFL. You don't get to negotiate your own terms of surrender and how you're going to lose. The option they were given was real simple: surrender or be obliterated. And they chose obliteration. Period.
__________________________
"Most offensive quote from an anti-war activist - From Medea Benjamin, a "peace campaigner" from San Francisco, objecting to the gated demonstration area outside of Fleet Center: "We don't deserve to be put in a detention centre, a concentration camp." is a concentration camp, ninny. Now, go stand in a corner and grow some shame." -

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