The Japanese were looking to surrender for months. All that they wanted was to be able to keep their emperor as figurehead. Something that they ended up getting any way.
“The Japanese were looking to surrender for months.”
I’ve never heard that before.
They had their chances. After Potsdam they could have given a reasonable reply that they were willing to quit on those terms. They didn’t reply, so they got hit.
Some isolated factions were exploring what terms they might negotiate in a surrender. But the country's leadership -- both government and military -- remained committed to fight to the last man.
Whether the "peace movement" would've grown over time is unknown.
Japan war crimes included eating American prisoners “For example, an Indian POW, Havildar Changdi Ram, testified that: “[on November 12, 1944] the Kempeitai beheaded [an Allied] pilot. I saw this from behind a tree and watched some of the Japanese cut flesh from his arms, legs, hips, buttocks and carry it off to their quarters ... They cut it [into] small pieces and fried it.”[106]
In some cases, flesh was cut from living people: another Indian POW, stated.
And a excuse to surrender without losing face. Which they got.