>...we know hiroshima and nagasaki had no bearing on the japanese decision to surrender.

I think this is an interesting idea but I would love to see a source on this.

When I took a Japan at War class in college our professor seemed to be of the opinion that using the atom bomb was what finally convinced the Japanese to surrender unconditionally but that they would have agreed to a conditional surrender as long as their emperor was guaranteed some form of independence. What are your thoughts on this?