> the Japanese were already literally begging to surrender, and they only asked for a few trivial conditions in exchange Who specifically was begging to surren

> the Japanese were already literally begging to surrender, and they only asked for a few trivial conditions in exchange Who specifically was begging to surrender? There were elements within the government willing to surrender, and the "few trivial conditions" they wanted were more or less the terms eventually agreed by the Allies. But they weren't in power. The elements within the government who were in power had far more than a "few trivial conditions" as their requirements for surrender. E.g.: "Kido [a confidant of the Emperor] proposed [in June 1945] that Japan withdraw from the formerly European colonies it had occupied provided they were granted independence, that Japan disarm provided this not occur under Allied supervision, and that Japan for a time be "content with minimum defense." Kido's proposal did not contemplate Allied occupation of Japan, prosecution of war criminals or substantial change in Japan's system of government." This was decided before the Potsdam Declaration and before serious overtures to the Soviet Union, and those conditions would have been completely unacceptable to the Allies and to the populations of those Allies (especially given Japanese treatment of Allied POWs). Even in May 1945 as meetings were taking place among the actual Japanese leadership to discuss the possibility of surrender, the leaders of Japan had to be very careful: "Because anyone openly supporting Japanese surrender risked assassination by zealous army officers, the meetings were closed to anyone except the Big Six, the Emperor, and the Privy Seal." The Wikipedia article on the surrender of Japan is very enlightening, if you can't be bothered to consult primary sources yourself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_of_Japan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_of_Japan