[ QUOTE ]
Just watched American Experience's "Victory In The Pacific", which goes into pretty good detail about those "peace negotiations". (
Link here.)
The idea that the Japanese wanted peace is correct, but has been spun by leftists historians in such a way as to obscure the fact that it was peace on Japan's terms, not the Allies terms. The Japanese were trying to use the Russians to broker a peace, but one that would involve no occupation, no war crimes trials by anyone other than the Japanese themselves, and maintaining the power of the emperor and the military, in short, maintaining the status quo in Japan. And even these terms were never relayed to the Allies. Even if they had been, they were totally unacceptable and would not have formed the basis for further negotiations.
Considering that the Japanese only surrendered when the emperor decided that they should, that certain factions tried to overthrow him when he made the decision, and that the military was continuing to build up defenses for a climactic battle on Kyushu, the idea that Japan wanted peace is rather far-fetched.
[/ QUOTE ]
Oh c'mon. Let him spew his Anti-American leftist bull$hit rhetoric.