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> There was plenty of fight left in Japan.

After the first dropping, the War Cabinet met on August 9th and concluded in the morning that the US probably did not have the resources to build more than one bomb, and it was decided to keep fighting.

Then in the early afternoon they learned of the second dropping. After further debate the War Cabinet voted 3-3 on whether to continue fighting.

It took two bombing to get to a tied vote (both of the War Cabinet, and the full cabinet): the Emperor had to be called to break the stalemate. I do not understand how anyone could believe zero bombings would result in a cessation of hostilities.

And even after the decision was made, there were still attempts to prevent surrender:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyūjō_incident



The last coup was quite a stretch. They hoped to stop the surrender by stopping the Emperor's message from being broadcast. Crazy.

I suppose there were some coups that succeeded because the plotters controlled the news media.


> The last coup was quite a stretch.

Yes, but it still shows the mindset (of some) in the military.

And military action against government wasn't a new thing in Japan either:

> Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was assassinated by 11 young naval officers. The following trial and popular support of the Japanese population led to extremely light sentences for the assassins, strengthening the rising power of Japanese militarism and weakening democracy and the rule of law in the Empire of Japan.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_15_incident

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidents_in_interwar_Japan


I think it's hard for people to fathom how hellbent the Japanese were at the time.




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