@KuteboiCoder @djsumdog i've read some on to it and the emperor was basically talking toward surrender but the japanese wanted an assurance they weren't going to go genocide the imperial family (though they weren't happy he was trying to surrender in the first place) and truman was like no it has to be unconditional because my epeen needs it to be

apparently they had to do a lot of bypassing of officers and chicanery because nobody was actually willing to do it (especially twice.)