r destruction' meant. And we have tied their hands in the matter of unconditional surrender. There is no way they can or will surrender without guarantee that the Emperor will not be executed. Such betrayal of the Emperor would be against a thousand years of Japanese tradition." (Presidential Advisers-Document Packet)Political reasons and consequences:Japanese intentions remained unclear towards the near end of the war. Some of Truman's advisors believed that Japan was ready to surrender and was looking for a diplomatic way to end the war while other believed that Japanese leaders supported the war and wanted to fight to the end. Japan also believed that the Soviet Union might even enter the war in the Pacific on Japans side. With the growing tensions between the Soviet Union and the US, Truman couldn't afford the Soviets to aid Japan in any way. It would prolong the war and dramatically increase the already high death toll from the war. While this was true at the end of the war a retired Admiral Kantaro was brought back into office as head of the new government. He wanted to end the war and appointed like-minded officials into key government positions. In fact the only reason that they might not have surrendered was because the United States constantly insisted on an unconditional surrender. This idea of surrender was humiliating to some Japanese while some merely wanted to know what would become of their Emperor Hirohito. He was believed to be a direct descendant of the sun god and the people feared that "unconditional surrender" meant that their emperor would be tried as a war criminal and possibly executed. If the US just insured the emperor that he would keep his position there might have been no need to use the atomic bomb.There was also many political reasons back home that Truman faced every day. When President Truman took over the office, he didn't know that the United States was creating an atomic bomb. Truman just foun...
