🔺A defeat was not enough; how Japan ultimately surrendered?

▪August 15 marks the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in 1945; the day Emperor Hirohito announced the end of the war. Japan had been militarily defeated long before that. What delayed the surrender was the structure of power, the resistance of the army, concern about the fate of the imperial military system, and the hope of finding a way to end the war without fully accepting defeat.