The year is 1945 in the month of August in World War II Japan. The Japanese Imperial forces have suffered virtual defeat, Allied forces regularly patrol, strafe, and bomb mainland cities, and the situation grows more hopeless by the hour. Yet, there is a continuing debate between the military who want to fight to the end and Emperor Hirohito and his staff who believe the war should be ended and terms of surrender must be accepted from the western Allies.

A coup in the making

As diplomatic negotiation goes on through foreign governments a plot by a few Japanese officers to interrupt the Emperor’s proposed speech to the Japanese public that Japan will accept terms of surrender is underway. If two of these renegade officers have their way, they will persuade the Japanese Army to believe that a consensus by the generals has led to the continuation of the war effort despite the Emperor’s known decision to speak directly to the Japanese people in order to finally stop the war.

General Mori shot to death refusing to support the rebel coup.

Too late

Major Hatanaka and Jiro Shiizaki headed an attempted coup de tat to prevent the Emperor from officially ending the war. They began soliciting support from the higher ranking generals, but got little in the way of favorable replies except for one Admiral Onishi, who supported a fight to the end, but would later capitulate in light of the cold hard facts that continuing the war would have been suicide for the nation of Japan. Earlier that night not only had an official document signed by Hirohito been penned and sealed, but he had entered a sound proof room beneath the palace, and with recording technicians, gave his speech for the Japanese public. A 4 minute and 45 second address. Then and there two vinyl disks were pressed and then hidden in a safe until they would be sent to the national radio broadcast studios to be played to the public.

The charade continues

Meanwhile Hatanaka, Officer Shiizaki, and others organized a battalion of rebel soldiers to take control of the Emperor’s Palace cutting off traffic to and from the complex as they searched for the Emperor’s recording. Lieutenant General Takeshi Mori determined that the Eastern Japanese Army and Palace Guard had been lied to and refused to comply with the attempted coup. He was summarily shot down with a pistol and his command seal was counterfeited giving false orders to further legitimize Hatanaka’s desperate bid to prolong the war and prevent the Emperor from addressing the Japanese people.

The cavalry arrives

With a blackout in effect due to the possibility of US bombing raids, the palace was could only be searched by flashlight as the rebels attempted to find the Emperor’s recorded message, but a sweep of the underground catacombs proved useless as the night went on, and by morning they had not confiscated Hirohito’s recordings. With the arrival of the Japanese Eastern army to secure the Imperial Palace, the jig was up! Hatanaka and Shiizaki were not forcefully arrested as it was expected they would take their own lives.

Finally the end

Even so, Major Hatanaka pleaded with the superior army staff to have his reasons broadcast on the NHK radio system after the Emperor’s recorded message had been transmitted, but was refused. He even spent part of the day walking about along with Jiro Shiizaki distributing memos to anyone who would listen, but the writing was on the wall. A short time later he and his co-conspirator Jiro shot themselves and the attempted coup known as the Kyujo Incident had failed. The Japanese people were notified of an impending message by Emperor Hirohito, the equivalent in their culture of being spoken to by a sacred god, and with his best spin on the devastating news as being hope for the future of Japan, World War II surrender was officially announced.

Final word

Historians have attempted to judge harshly the order given By President Harry Truman to bomb two Japanese cities using the atomic bomb, but estimates of allied casualties were of at least a million dead or wounded over an indefinite amount of time. This did not even take into account the death toll of civilians and as General Curtis Le May had been conducting a incendiary bombing campaign on 60 Japanese cities already while the Japanese government continuing to refuse surrender, the American people, our men and women of the US armed forces, surviving prisoners of war, and the free people of the world wanted a swift end to the war in view of all the atrocities committed by the Japanese.