reserved” (Alperovitz 31). It turns out that the unconditional surrender clause of the peace agreement was the major factor that hindered Japanese surrender at this point in the war. According to the surrender agreement, “the authority that deceived the people into embarking on world conquest must be eliminated from Japan” (Long). To the Japanese this sounded like a threat being made to their Emperor. This to the Japanese would almost be like the crucifixion of Jesus in the Christian faith. The Japanese feared that if they surrendered based on these terms, first of all, they would loose their Emperor, and second, it sounds as if the Emperor would be treated as a war criminal. The Japanese officials and people were not willing to take such a risk. According to British Major General Sir Hastings Ismay in his memoirs, “…[I]f they [Japanese] were given to think that a rigid interpretation would be placed on the term ‘unconditional surrender,’ and that their Emperor would be treated as a war criminal, every man, woman, and child would fight until doomsday. If on the other hand, the terms of surrender were phrased in such a way as to appear to preserve the right of their Emperor to order them to lay down their arms, they would have done so without a moment’s hesitation” (Alperovitz 370). The Japanese people had such a passion for their Emperor that if there was the slightest hint that he was going to be treated like a common war criminal, the Japanese people, man, woman, and children would rather fight to the death before they allow such a thing to take place. Even after the Atomic Bomb had been dropped on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a vote in the Japanese government still came up deadlocked between the hawks and the doves. The doves wanted to surrender as they realized that Japan only faced more destruction if they continued the fighting. The hawks were in favor of continuing the war to ...
