The Japanese had no intention of surrendering. It would have meant a massive loss of face. They were offering conditional withdrawal, but Manchuria was not included. The Asian countries which had suffered the brunt of Japanese occupation and exploitation would not accept anything other than unconditional surrender accompanied by complete withdrawal from the occupied areas. Allied POWs were used as slave labour and most died or suffered long lasting injury from the beatings and malnutrition the Japanese inflicted. The Japanese plan was to execute all of the allied POWs in the event of an invasion or surrender and they came very close to doing so had the allies not added the condition that all POWs were to be accounted for. There was a near successful military coup once Hirohito eventually agreed to surrender. Had it not been for the atomic blasts, there would have been insufficient support for the surrender and a coup would have occurred had he tried. The Japanese were ruthless during their occupation. I have heard the stories first hand from family members who lived under occupation. The live dissections and human experiments, the use of children as sex slaves, the slave labour, the constant brutality that included bayonetting babies to terrorize the population, or the shooting of Chinese civilians for target practice etc. The Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, Vietnamese, Malays, and Indonesians quite rightly demanded unconditional surrender. Australia and New Zealand who had carried the burden of holding off the Japanese for years were not in the mood to allow the Japanese to walk away with no consequences. The Commonwealth soldiers who were captured in were violently mistreated, as were the US personnel who had endured the death marches of Bataan and elsewhere. Japan could have surrendered once the outer islands were lost, but it chose to fight on. Japan got what its leaders ordained.
Create an account or sign in to comment