The emperor was willing to throw in the towel after Hiroshima. Of course, he was a figurehead and the decision among the military dictatorship was split. Remember, the sharper cookies in the military, especially Admiral Yamamoto, were gone by this time.
The compromise decision after Hiroshima was to send a cable to the USSR (the designated neutral intermediary) for delivery to America accepting unconditional surrender terms but proposing a meeting at America's earliest convenience to work out the details. For those familiar with Japanese culture, this was pretty much the best outcome we could expect under the circumstances.
The USSR, of course, did not deliver the cable immediately. In fact, they used it as an opportunity to invade Japanese territory in the Kuriles, Sakhalin, Manchuria and Korea. Other than the hot battle of Shumshu in the Kuriles, the Japanese offered only token resistance.
The key long-term results were Russian occupation of Japanese territory which continues to this day and capture of weaponry which was turned over to Mao's army for use in the Chinese civil war which broke out some three years later and brought the communist regime to power.
By the time the Japanese military realized they had been had, of course, the bomb in Nagasaki dropped. The emperor himself intervened and insisted acceptance of the unconditional surrender be communicated to the Americans directly and without further delay. Other than a few diehards (which produce the most action in the film), the military agrees.
The idea that the emperor was stubborn to the point of national suicide or that most of the military was even close to intransigent after Hiroshima is a total baseless fallacy.
Thanks for the thoughtful, informative reply.
Before my father died, I had talked to him about the war. As the reports of Japanese atrocities poured in, people learned of more deaths of our soldiers. Every neighborhood was affected, nearly every family. Many friends had died. Our nation was tired of the killing.
The bombs ended it. We need no further justification.
Thank you for the posts, excellent information and insight. Too bad we can not have quality people with quality writing skills simply tell the truth with all the facts without trying to rewrite history.