Umm...well, no chance of that, Bert. The Japanese hadn't even begun investigations in the direction of an atomic project by 1945, and they lacked the necessary strategic resources to accomplish it anyway.

The general rule in a war is...a country will fight against foreign invasion and occupation as long as it is still able to...specially if it's being bombed. People get mad when they're being bombed. So if you want such a country to give up sooner, you talk to them about negotiating conditions, you don't demand "unconditional surrender". If their position is very bad, they may well negotiate. If not, you were no worse off for trying.

The Union and Confederacy tried to negotiate an end in 1864, with Lee hunkered down in trenches in front of Petersbury, Virginia. They talked for 2 or 3 days about it, while a ceasefire was held. The negotiations failed, because the South was still thinking of itself as an independent country and the North was thinking of them as rebels who must return to the Union...and it was absolutely unreconcilable. Too bad. A lot of lives could have been saved, and a lot of bitterness avoided. Atlanta and Richmond would not have burned. Too bad.

I have always thought that unconditional surrender was a bloody stupid idea, and I continue to think so. Without that lunatic Hitler leading Germany, the Germans could have negotiated an end to the war soon after Normandy...had the Allies been willing to negotiate in that case...but Stalin would never have agreed to it.

Again, too bad. These were missed opportunities, in every case.