Yes he did. Japan tried to initiate peace talks, and the US refused.
Those who say the Japanese surrendered because of the nukes simply Know no better. Those who say the bombs saved lives are ignorant of the facts. Those who say the Japanese people were prepared to fight to the last man have been duped by the lies spoon fed to them since birth and those who say the Japanese remained in the war because the Emperor ordered it have no understand or knowledge of history.
Emperor Showa was a figurehead, with power somewhat akin to that of a British monarch. Since implementation of the Meiji Constitution in 1890, the power and political influence of the emperor steadily dwindled. In theory, power rested in the Diet and in the Cabinet. During the 1920s and 30s, the military gradually seized control of the Cabinet and usurped all power from the Diet. The Emperor did not make policy and he did not control either the government or the military. In fact, Emperor Showa did not condone the invasion of Manchuria, complained bitterly of the Imperial Army's failure in China and opposed expanding the war to include the Occidental powers. A few foiled assassination attempts helped force him to approve launching Kido Butai, but the plan was going to go forward with or without his tacit approval and he knew it.
By January 1945, Showa was sending messages to the Cabinet to end the war. In April 1945, he sent a message to the Cabinet to "end the war at any cost". He and the Japanese people wanted an end to the slaughter while there was still something left of Japan to salvage. When Saipan fell in July 1944, the Tojo Cabinet fell with it. The new Cabinet included members of the ever-growing peace coalition. From the formation of the new Cabinet to the end of the war, peace overtures went sent from Tokyo by channels through Moscow, Sweden, Switzerland and elsewhere. They were ignored in Washington and London.
By July 1945, Japan was defeated and on the verge of surrender and everyone knew it. However, the dynamics had changed. Churchill, just defeated in his bid for reelection, was no longer a factor. Harry Truman had replaced Roosevelt. Stalin's Red Army had defeated the Third Reich with virtually no meaningful assistance from the Western allies, and he had promised that within 90 days of the fall of Berlin, he would declare war on Japan. He intended to keep his promise and the deadline was approaching. HST knew FDR's policy of conciliation toward Stalin had been naive and foolish. FDR insisted he did not believe Stalin would make territorial demands after the war, but would work with the US to foster democracy across Europe HST viewed the USSR with the same jaundiced eye as he did the German National Socialists. Unlike FDR, he saw them as two sides of the same coin. He also believed that Mao Zedong would prevail over Chiang Kai Shek in China and he knew who would be the next enemies of the US. He had to make a statement. He chose Japan as the victim of that statement.
At Potsdam, Truman told Stalin that the US had developed a new weapon of incredible destructive power. Overtly, Stalin expressed disbelief. Stalin knew better because his spies had infiltrated the Manhattan Project and he knew the Trinity tests at White Sands had been successful. Truman had to show Stalin we had the bomb and weren't afraid to use it (on civilians, no less). It was decided to demand the unconditional surrender of Japan. Unconditional surrender is an inane, immoral, self-defeating concept. An enemy otherwise willing to surrender traditionally has refused to do so unconditionally and has historically found new resolve to fight. Negotiated peace brings some guarantee of the direction the peace will take. Unconditional surrender is another matter, and generally is tantamount to national suicide as the Treaty of Versailles so clearly proved in 1919.
Military leaders in positions to have the best information and intelligence all recommended not using the bombs and recommended negotiating a peace, preferably with a cease fire in place. There is no room to quote them here, but read the words of CinCPac Chester Nimitz, Gen Douglas MacArthur, Chief of Staff Wm Leahy, Gen Dwight Eisenhower and Gen Carl Spaatz (Commander of USAAF forces in the Pacific). To a man, they opposed use of the bombs, claiming Japan had already sought peace and that the bombs weren't necessary and wouldn't save lives. By August 1945, 67 Japanese cities had been destroyed by conventional TNT and incendiary bombs and some 2 million Japanese civilians had been killed. Curtis LeMay complained that he had no worthwhile targets left against which to task him bombers, which were flying virtually unmolested all across Japan. In fact, Enola Gay and Bock's Car had both been watched for hours as they were inbound, but the Japanese chose not to risk precious fighter planes or the few remaining skilled and experienced pilots they had left to try to intercept such small formations. The Japanese Navy had ceased to exist and the few remaining ships were decommissioned and rusting at anchor. Stalin had kept his promise and the Red Army was eating up the Kwantung Army with the same efficiency by which it had destroyed the Heer Army after Moscow and Stalingrad. In China, Mao and Chaing had turned the tide and were inexorably marching to victory. At home, the blockades were working better than even the most optimistic forecasts had projected. The people were starving to death and Japanese industry, denied essential raw materials never available on the home islands, was grinding to a halt. A number of attempted coups had been discovered and thwarted or had failed, including several plots to assassinate Showa himself. The country was under martial law for fear of a popular revolt against the war and US surveys after the war disclosed that 60% of the Japanese people, including some government and military offices, wanted peace at any price and would not resist and invasion. Truman and US intelligence kenw all this when the decision to incinerate Hiroshima was made.
The second bomb was scheduled for August 13. Fat Man and Little boy were different type weapons and Truman wanted a comparative damage assessment to be done. For that reason, Kokura (the intended target for Fat Man) and Hiroshima were off limits to LeMay's bombers. Truman wanted virgin targets. Bad weather was forecast over Kokura for the 13th. Fearing Japan might surrender before the second bomb could be used, the drop was moved up to the 9th. When Tibbets got to Kokura, it was overcast and he couldn't get the desired photographs, so he diverted to his secondary target, Nagasaki, and fried it instead. Neither weapon killed as many people or did as much damage as the conventional and incendiary bombs had done, but it took fewer planes to do the damage.
Operation Downfall plans had been drawn (for the invasion of the home islands). Casualty estimates ranging from the absurd to the asinine had been projected. No one in the government or in the military seriously believed the invasion would ever happen. It was not going to be necessary. Hitler had plans for Operation Sealion to invade the British Isles. That he never intended to do so is clear by the simple fact that he never ordered the building of landing craft. The US kept updating the Rainbow Five, but never really intended to invade Canada, India, the UK or Australia. One makes contingency plans in war, that is common sense. The vast majority of those plans are never put in motion. Gen Spaatz suggested that by announcing that the US was NOT going to invade Japan, the Japanese might be induced to surrender. His plan, if one reads the details and reasoning, was not without merit. The few high ranking officers and planners that agreed with the use of the bombs asked that they be saved and used sometime near the projected "X-Day" the kickoff of Operation Olympic, and be used someplace near the projected landing sites or that, in the very least, they be used on military targets or troop concentrations so as to be of some actual assistance to the invasion. Their pleas fell on deaf ears.
So why were the bombs dropped in lieu of accepting Japan's offers of peace? Harry Stimson told Truman that anything short of unconditional surrender would cost him votes and probably the White House. Stalin and Mao needed to be shown that the US would use nuclear weapons, on civilians, when there was no militarily justifiable reason for their use. The oceans of money spent on the Manhattan Project had to be justified. Using them on Japan and making the false claim that they ended the war was the justification invented to mollify the masses and the hoi poloi bought it (and, sadly, still buys it).
A commission was organized by Congress immediately after the war to study, among other things, the effect of the atomics on the war effort. It concluded: "Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated." The United States Strategic Bombing Survey, July 1, 1946.
Thus, an arm of Truman's own government confirmed what Nimitz, Spaatz, Leahy, Ike and MacArthur and so many others said before the bombs fell. Surprise. Your government and your teachers have been lying to you. The decision to use the bombs was purely political and had nothing t