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Originally Posted by rkzenrage
What history books have you been reading?
Were they written in crayon?
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While earning my degree in history...I took a few classes in Modern Japanese History. I didn't actually read this in a book, I examined a few primary source documents (translated as I don't speak Japanese) and a few secondary source arguments on the topic of conditional vs unconditional surrender.
The Japanese did seem willing to propose such a thing, and may have if there were any indication the US would have accepted, or even considered it. McCarther sure put that idea down. The conditions would have included the life of the emperor, which the US spared anyway because they needed him to organize a government with any legitimacy in the minds of Japanese society.
The books that are written in crayon are in the High Schools of the US, talking about the decision of President Truman, painfully weighing the lives of millions of soldiers or destroying a city (eventually two). Things not written in crayon include this topic, and the implications of the bomb in US-Soviet relations.