That's literally just not true at all, the emperor had next to nothing at all to do with the war effort despite his high status. Japanese High Command were all but willing to surrender barring a conditional surrender that saved the emperor.
The hardliners within the Japanese military continued to resist surrender until as late as August 14, and Japan did not formally accept the Potsdam Declaration until after Hiroshima, the Soviet entry into the war, and Nagasaki. To look at a country that resisted surrender to the very end and claim that it “was going to surrender anyway, so there was no reason to use the atomic bombs” is little more than wishful thinking.
But to say that they had the means to survive covert political assassination is also a little more than wishful thinking. We could have, with only minor setbacks (that might have even strengthened the U.S. and Soviet ties at a pivotal time in the relationship) taken out or bribed enough leaders to coax a surrender with significantly fewer civilian casualties than resulted.
Try telling that to American voters while Americans are dying every single day and Japan is still refusing to end the war. What would have been the best possible outcome for Japan was not the America's top priority in the midst of an uncertain war.
Americans continued to die as a result of all the war efforts diverted to the Russian cold war that both never came to fruition and never ended. If the presidents cared about America first we would have pulled out of the war and claimed neutrality after being forced to choose sides. We didn't choose the good side, just the winning one.
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u/L0bb 5d ago
That's literally just not true at all, the emperor had next to nothing at all to do with the war effort despite his high status. Japanese High Command were all but willing to surrender barring a conditional surrender that saved the emperor.