Wartime Prime Minister Gen. Hideki Tojo didn't want Japan to accept the Potsdam Declaration demanding unconditional surrender to the Allies, according to his private notes written immediately after the atomic bombings and found recently at the National Archives of Japan.

Hideki Tojo AP PHOTO

In the two weeks' worth of memos starting Aug. 10, 1945, Tojo accused the government of being "frightened by new types of bombs and scared of the Soviet Union's entry into the war" in the Pacific theater.

"The Japanese government has accepted the notion that Japan is the loser and it appears to be going to accept unconditional surrender," Tojo wrote.

"Such a position frustrates officers and soldiers of the Imperial armed forces."

On the domestic situation, Tojo wrote Japan "is on a course for making a humiliating peace or humiliating surrender."

Tojo lamented what he considered a lack of nerve by government leaders and the public in the face of enemy threats.

The notes also describe his feelings when he finally approved the decision to accept the Potsdam Declaration, made Aug. 10, 1945, at a meeting of senior officials in the presence of Emperor Hirohito.

"Now that the government has decided to proceed to diplomatic processes (toward surrender) after gaining the Emperor's judgment, I have decided to refrain from making any comments about it, although I have maintained a separate view," he wrote.

Japan surrendered Aug. 15, 1945.