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Nukes: everyone wanted to keep the emperor

swing_voter

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To a lot of Japanese in 1945, their emperor was like Jesus is to us.

So the American military wanted to keep the emperor. You were never going to get the Japanese military to comply to surrender terms without the emperor.

Roosevelt and Truman agreed too. The emperor was to keep his job.

The first drafts of the Potsdam Declaration said the emperor could keep his job.

This was later removed.

Why was the part of the Potsdam Declaration where the emperor could keep his job removed?
 
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Probably an insurance policy or a Soviet Request, you never know.

Remember the United States absolutely did not want the Soviets to be involved in invading Japan even if it would have helped, could you imagine like, Hokkaido having become "North Japan" or some shit.

Ultimately though, the United States believed for national unity and reconstruction, keeping the emperor but in a largely ceremonial role was in the best interests of Post War Japan and that turned out to be correct.
 
Anyway, a poll taken by Gallup in 1945 revealed that over 80% of Americans wanted to see the emperor of Japan executed.

There's no way politicians like Truman and Roosevelt could've embraced the emperor publicly, not without suffering in the polls.

So they sort of snuck "the emperor can stay" part in.

And they made sure the Japanese knew it was our decision to let the emperor remain. That the surrender didn't have any conditions.
 
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