Why Japan could not force a negotiated Pacific settlement

What devastation would Japan have needed to inflict to make the United States negotiate an end to the Pacific War?

Only an almost unimaginable catastrophe might have worked, because American political and industrial culture favored continuing until Japan could no longer fight.

A battle-then-negotiation model fits poorly against societies that repeatedly raise new forces after defeat. The Russo-Japanese War reinforced Japanese expectations that battlefield success should be converted into a settlement. The First World War also appeared more negotiated from afar than it had been for Germany's collapsing military and economy. Against the United States, anything short of catastrophic destruction would therefore provoke more mobilization rather than the limited compromise Japanese strategy expected.