Why do you think Japan refused to surrender even after the Allies issued the Potsdam Declaration ultimatum?

Answer 1

The Allied demand of both these states to surrender unconditionally made surrender less palatable than might have otherwise been the case. There is no room whatever for negiotiation. Hindsight is a wonderful thing to behold......

Germany and Japan fought on for many reasons, many fought for duty, many fought to hide their crimes, many fought fanatically out of loyalty to the respective leaders of those countries.

Germany especially fought fanatically because of Goebbels Propaganda of what would happen to Germany if they surrendered, the conduct of the Red Army when it reached German soil somewhat vindicated this propaganda, Also,Nazi Germany was absolutist, anybody even suspected of cowardice or desertion, or speaking out against the regime or even anybody who muttered the word surrender, were brutally put down.

Answer 2

Germany was defeated at Stalingrad by the Russians. - Largest battle in human history. Germany lost most of its ability to fight after this ridiculous huge battle.

The Japanese were technology out matched by the Americans new invention - The nuclear bomb.

Answer 3

In Japan's Samurai philosophy if you surrendered to an opponent you were effectively considered "dead". Therefor to the Japanese soldiers fighting until your opponent actually killed you was preferable to surrendering and becoming a disgraced living "deadman". The US has a hard time understanding such beliefs, that is why we were so upset by things like:

• The Batan Death March - these enemy soldiers had surrendered to the Japanese and were therefor already "dead", so what if they dropped dead while being marched to a distant prison camp. Medical treatment, food, and water are for the living not the "dead".
• The Kamikaze - these fliers considered it better to die killing enemy than simply to die in battle. Most people in the US still can't understand this one in any of its variant manifestations.
• Refusal to surrender until defeated extended all the way to the government, so of course they would ignore the ultimatum. Until 2 atomic bombs 3 days apart convinced the emperor that the US had the power to erase his entire country in 2 to 3 months or less and there was nothing they could do to fight against the new weapon. Therefor the emperor broke protocol in a meeting with his advisors, opened his mouth and said something like "it is better to accept the disgrace of surrender ("death") than to watch all my subjects killed when there is nothing to do to fight against this weapon".

Answer 4

Japan did not give up because they did not know about such thing as atomic bomb , so after that they gave up immidiately .