to this day I still don't understand the point. the understanding goes something like this:
1. later in the war, japan was willing to admit defeat and accept conditional surrender where they keep the emperor
2. US repeatedly stresses that they want complete, unconditional surrender from Japan, with no guarantees of keeping the emperor
3. negotiations keep failing because of this
4. US proceeds with blockade + strategic bombing campaign + 2 nukes
5. US offers conditional surrender where Japan keep the emperor
6. japan accepts, ww2 in the pacific officially ends

Why didn't the US just offer conditional surrender and skip steps 2 through 4 entirely?