MacArthur had no intention of executing the Emperor, he knew full well that the Japanese people would never assimilate with the westerners and chaos would result, one must understand the "Mandarin" mentality of the populace. He was well ahead of the curve and had already made plans with Truman's knowledge. MacArthur had spent his adult life in the pacific rim and knew their cultures. In the last hours of the war, a desparate effort was made by some Japanese officers to obtain the recording of the Emperors surrender that was to by played on the radio, men were killed, some commited seppuku, and disaster was barely averted, all within the Emperors grounds-that's how close it was. I think it is true that Truman would have dropped the second bomb unless surrender was immediate, his only concern was American lives, hard to understand now, but one must look at it in the reference of the times. If he wanted to show Russia the might of the bomb, there were many other ways to do it, Nagasaki wasn't one of them. If it worked out that way, oh, well. My high school science teacher was the photographer on the B-29 that dropped on Nagasaki (Mr Neitzert), to my knowledge he never talked about it, but he had some photos posted in his class-not many-I understand there were tech problems and he had to shoot freehand out a side port. Harry Truman was not a devious person, deception plays no part in his decisions. He was also fully aware that Stalin was a sociopath and dealt with him accordingly. If you look at Truman in this manner, his decisions throughout his presidency take on newfounded respect. If you get a chance, watch Gary Sinise (sp?) portrayal of him in the TV miniseries, it followed the book and was as real as possible (not often do I use a movie as a referance, but this one was good)