By the end of 1944, the Pacific War had been lost and by early 1945 Japan was already planning on a last ditch effort to try and repeal an invasion of the Home Islands. The Imperial Japanese HQ has already given up any hopes of success. In Europe, Germany was on an obvious path to defeat (and only really holding out with the hopes of a miracle and/or the USSR and Allies to turn on each other). With Germany defeated, the full brunt of the Allies would turn on Japan (albeit the Soviet side was unknown) making the situation even more dire.
Why didn't Japan try to start pursing peace in late 1944 hoping that they could signing a peace treaty instead of it continuing and being forced to surrender (unconditionally at that)?
The Allies had since the Casablanca conference in January 1943 publically announced that they would not negotiate with the axis powers - unconditional surrender was the only way to end the war.
The Japanese sent out peace feelers during 1944, stating that they were willing to negotiate about everything but the Emperor's position, but were rebuffed - the Allies stuck to the Casablanca conference terms - unconditional surrender was the only way to end the war.
The Japanese tried to negotiate since they thought they could retain some of their Empire by giving back other parts they still held. Early 1944 they still held Korea, Manchuria, Formosa (Taiwan), vast parts of coastal and northeastern China, Dutch East Indees, the Phillipines, Malaya and Singapore, Indochina and Burma - and while they lost the Phillipines and Burma towards the later part of 1944, they still held vast amounts of land and hoped to trade some of it to retain other parts of it.
When the Allies rebuffed the Japanese attempts at negotiations, the Japanese leadership decided that they needed to show the Allies their willingness to fight to the death and cause the Allies casualties they would be unable to sustain due to their home opinions not standing for it in order to force the Allies to the negotiation table. Thus the Japanese started husbanding their resources and stockpiling arms, explosives, what little fuel and planes they had left to throw at the Allied landings in mass suicidal charges.
The Japenese also hoped that the Soviets would facilitate negotiations, hoping that them letting American ships sail to Vladivostok under Soviet flag with lend-lease for the Soviets during the Great Patriotic War against the Germans and their allies would mean that the Soviets were grateful enough to pressure the Allies to agree to negotiations. The Japanese also hoped that the Soviets would not want to see an Allied-dominated Pacific and that Soviet-Allied jockeying for influence in the region would mean that the Soviets would rather keep Japan and parts of its Empire as a rival to the US than let it fall under US influence, and that the Allies would rather negotiate than let Japan become dependent on Soviet goodwill, allowing the Soviets to expand their influence.
This illusion was shattered as the Soviets invaded Manchuria and utterly crushed the Japanese Kwantung Army stationed there and then proceeded down the Korean peninsula. Combined witht the atom bombs against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even the most hardline Japanese leadership realised that the war was lost, and all hopes for a negotiated peace was gone.
Even then, as the surrender was being prepared, parts of the army attempted a coup to "safeguard the Emperor" before he could make his radio speech.
The bottom line as that the Japanese tried, clinged on to desperate hopes of trading some of their conquests for keeping the rest, just as the Germans clinged to the hope that they could make peace with the Allies and have them join the Germans against the Soviets during the late part of the war. The Allies were having none of it and demanded unconditional surrender. The Japanese lcinged to the hope that Soviet influence and showing the Allies what an invasion of Japan would cost them would force the Allies to the negotiation table. The combination of the atomic bombings and the Soviet attack shattered that delusion.
Hey there,
Just to let you know, your question is fine, and we're letting it stand. However, you should be aware that questions framed as 'Why didn't X do Y' relatively often don't get an answer that meets our standards (in our experience as moderators). There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, it often can be difficult to prove the counterfactual: historians know much more about what happened than what might have happened. Secondly, 'why didn't X do Y' questions are sometimes phrased in an ahistorical way. It's worth remembering that people in the past couldn't see into the future, and they generally didn't have all the information we now have about their situations; things that look obvious now didn't necessarily look that way at the time.
If you end up not getting a response after a day or two, consider asking a new question focusing instead on why what happened did happen (rather than why what didn't happen didn't happen) - this kind of question is more likely to get a response in our experience. Hope this helps!