60 Years Ago This Week

[djacq75]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Yes, but he didn't, did he? It took two bombs to convince him.....or convince the people that advised him.

I was answering a particular argument, by you, which implied that the Japanese would've gone on fighting despite the Emperor. The Emperor, as I stated, offered peace terms in July. Why they weren't accepted in preference to capping off the orgy of destruction with even more destruction, is the question.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by djacq75

I was answering a particular argument, by you, which implied that the Japanese would've gone on fighting despite the Emperor. The Emperor, as I stated, offered peace terms in July. Why they weren't accepted in preference to capping off the orgy of destruction with even more destruction, is the question.

Because they proved they were not to be trusted when they offered peace a few hours before Pearl Harbor. Previous to that they had done the same thing to the Russians, talk peace and sneak attack. No, unconditional surrender was the only acceptable conclusion.
btw, it didn't matter what the emperor was offering through diplomatic channels in July because the military was still running the show. Some of them even had the Emporer in "protective custody", for a while, so he couldn't speak to the Japanese people.

[djacq75]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

btw, it didn't matter what the emperor was offering through diplomatic channels in July because the military was still running the show. Some of them even had the Emporer in "protective custody", for a while, so he couldn't speak to the Japanese people.

For awhile? He was seized for a few hours on August 14. Didn't take him long to get back in the saddle, so to speak. He was detained for less time than Gorbachev in 1991.

The peace terms offered in June and July 1945, at any rate, were proffered by Foreign Minister Togo by way of Japanese Ambassador to the U.S.S.R. Sato. Even if you buy the idea of an impotent Emperor, Togo, presumably, had full credentials to speak for his government.

[xoxoxoBruce]

It's not a matter of credentials. Your problem is you're looking from 2006 with hindsight. In 1945, they were justifiably not trusted.