In fact, Japan did not resolutely refuse to surrender, and the effect of the two atomic bombs of the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki only accelerated the process of Japan's surrender, or that the Japanese delayed surrendering or negotiating peace with the Americans, directly missing many opportunities and dragging the atomic bomb.
Regarding the process of Japan's surrender, in fact, this matter has to be traced back to a few years before the outbreak of World War II, or from the japanese manufacturing of the 918 Incident, the invasion of Tohoku and the establishment of Manchukuo. As a maritime island country, Japan is extremely poor in strategic resources such as oil, steel, and coal, and at that time, the 918 Incident (the 918 Incident was also launched by the Army) and even the final all-out attack on China, Southeast Asia, etc. were mainly to plunder these resources. After the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo, Japan once wanted the international community to recognize this puppet regime. Of course, our military and civilians were also trying to resist the aggression of the Japanese army, and Japan tried to block all of China's supply lines, while the Nationalist government at that time regarded Burma's freight supply lines (especially weapons and equipment and other war materials) as an important route to support the War of Resistance.
The Japanese offensive against China in 1937 was condemned by the United States and several members of the League of Nations, including Britain, France, Australia, and the Netherlands. Japanese atrocities during the conflict, such as the Nanjing Massacre, have further cooled Japan's relations with other world powers. At the same time, the United States, Britain, France, and the Netherlands, the major countries of the League of Nations, all had colonies in the Asia-Pacific region. It is clear that Japan's continued deployment of military forces in these regions and the aggression to which China has been subjected have made these countries feel threatened to their interests in the Asia-Pacific region.
Beginning in 1938, the United States imposed a series of increasingly stringent trade restrictions on Japan. These included the termination of the 1911 Trade Treaty with Japan in 1939 and further tightening under the Export Control Act of 1940. These efforts failed to prevent Japan from continuing its war in China, nor did it prevent the signing of the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in 1940 to formally form the Axis powers. In 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina in an attempt to block all imports into China, including war materiel purchased by the Nationalist government from the United States. This directly aroused the vigilance of americans, which directly led them to expand the list included in the embargo regulations, stop selling scrap metal to Japan, and shut down the freighters that strained Japan or transport Japanese supplies through the Panama Canal. This is particularly hard hit on the Japanese economy, as 74.1 percent of Japan's scrap iron in 1938 came from the United States. In addition, 93 percent of Japan's copper in 1939 came from the United States. Therefore, Japan and the United States began trade negotiations, but the results of the negotiations are very clear to us, which directly led to the Pearl Harbor incident and the Entry of the United States into the war.
The above text is intended to show that the main purpose of the Japanese war against the United States, or the surrender of World War II, is first of all to protect the mainland from occupation, and secondly, to protect the rights and interests seized before the outbreak of World War II from being lost, and when war was declared against the United States, there were many people in Japan who opposed it. So much so that after pearl harbor, there are still voices in Japan that are discussing peace with the United States. By 1942, the Japanese had dragged in the United Nations Declaration (it is necessary to note that the Soviet Union itself was concerned about interests and did not fully comply with the contents of the United Nations Declaration, except to continue to maintain a neutral attitude toward the Japanese army in the northeast in accordance with the agreements signed with Japan in the past, and at the same time did not express positive support for the principles of the declaration), and soon dragged it to Midway to sink its own 4 aircraft carriers.
In 1944, Japan was defeated, the Tojo cabinet fell, and the Koiso Kuniaki cabinet came to power. According to the data, Koiso Kuniaki actually negotiated peace with the Americans long before the Battle of Leyte Gulf, but Yamashita Fengwen was a tough main war faction (not only him, but the army was the majority), and still launched a decisive battle against the US army. This dragging led to the outbreak of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and at the same time completely depleted the main force of the Japanese Navy.
In 1945, the Japanese dragged on to the Yalta Conference, where the major allies delineated the post-war international situation, but the Japanese who were stuck in the war did not know that this meeting had reached an agreement on the post-war international situation, the Yalta Agreement, which divided the rights and interests of the four northern islands that the Soviet Union would gain if it sent troops, and the Japanese thought that the Soviets would abide by the "Soviet-Japanese Non-Aggression Pact". Thus, until the Imperial Council on June 22, when the cabinet of the then-lord and Suzuki Kantaro was still preparing to seek the mediation of the Soviet Union, and the shrewd Soviets certainly did not let the four northern islands go unpunished, the Soviet Union began to delay Japan's request for mediation for various reasons, the most notable example being that the Soviet Union did not sign the Potsdam Proclamation. The Potsdam Proclamation of July 22 reiterated the decision to continue the allied war, but it said that japan's territorial integrity would be preserved, which made the Japanese think that the territorial integrity in this regard referred to the pre-war territories (that is, including the colonies it invaded), so the Suzuki cabinet said on July 28 that it ignored the Yalta Agreement.
At the same time, the Allied command was not idle, in fact, they had long formulated how to conquer the Japanese mainland, that is, the famous "fall operation", but the casualties between the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Okinawa were too large, so that a single landing theater would cause hundreds of thousands or hundreds of thousands of casualties, so they finally chose to use atomic bombs to force Japan to surrender.
On August 6, Hiroshima was attacked by an atomic bomb. At the same time, the Soviet Union's small calculation was also very delicate, it reassured the Japanese, proposed that the non-aggression pact could be maintained until 1946 expired, and retained the territory of puppet Manchukuo and other territories, while secretly preparing for the "August Storm" operation.
Immediately after the atomic bombing, on August 8, the Soviets immediately began Operation August Storm, sending troops from the northeast to attack the Kwantung Army. And one day, on August 9, Nagasaki was also hit by an atomic bomb. This immediately frightened the Suzuki cabinet, and Suzuki Kantaro took the initiative to go to Hirohito and let him carry out the so-called "holy judgment", and in the days that followed, the Japanese cabinet met frequently to discuss surrender and retain the status of emperor. Finally, on August 15, after the purpose of surrender was achieved, the Cabinet of Kantaro Suzuki resigned, and Japan surrendered.
But there is a lot of differences in the character of the Japanese nation (only referring to world war II and before world war II, the modern Japanese national character has been greatly different from that time after the democratization of GHQ), and why there are huge differences before and after the surrender, the Japanese nation regards the emperor as a spiritual symbol and resolutely adheres to class consciousness.
Therefore, until now there are unrepentant right-wingers who believe that the invasion at that time was to save the East Asian countries from the hands of westerners, and the Japanese militarist ideas during World War II were deeply rooted in the hearts of most Japanese people, as long as the emperor let them resist, they would resist until death, and they would die as a gratitude and reward for the emperor, and after surrender, because the emperor made them surrender, they resolutely obeyed and treated the occupying forces with respect.