When I visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in 2009
I was touched by the words and images with which it recalled the tragedy of the
atomic bombing. After all, who wouldn’t be?
Beyond this, I was impressed with its emphasis on
a hope for peace. Despite the Memorial's horrifying account of death and suffering, it offers no suggestion that one country (ours) was to blame
for the civilian deaths. Whether this reflects Japanese courtesy and
indirectness or an intentional decision to focus on universal principles, I
don’t know, but for me it added to the exhibit's emotional power.
There are other opinions. Susan Southard,
in a recent New York Times story on
“Nagasaki, the Forgotten City,” cites survivors of the Nagasaki bombing who
deeply resent the slaughter brought about by America’s second atomic bomb,
insisting that it did not help end the war. Both bombings are, to say the
least, controversial, but in the case of the Nagasaki bombing, there is good
evidence that it did not contribute to the Japanese decision to
surrender. Actually, a decision to surrender had been reached by the key
figures in the Japanese government before the Nagasaki bombing, but they were unable to go public with it at the time. Before they could formalize their acceptance of the Allies' demands, they had to neutralize certain recalcitrant elements in the
military who were determined to fight on, unconcerned that one Japanese city after
another might be pulverized into atom ash.
The struggle between the no-surrender fanatics and the civilian government pushed Japan perilously close to suicidal
chaos as a 1965 study revealed.
This study by a group of Japanese scholars, published under the title Japan’s
Longest Day, describes the virtual kidnapping of Emperor Hirohito by
militant die-hards and their attempts to block the civilian government’s plan to
ensure their nation’s survival by seeking peace. According to this account,
“Japan’s final struggle was not against the enemy but against herself…” Because,
in August of 1945, “The still vigorous Imperial Army would admit neither defeat
nor surrender—and it continued to insist that it, and it alone, knew what was
best for the country.”
It might be said that the hero of the day was
General Korechika Anami, the War Minister. Anami personally believed that Japan should fight
fanatically on, even in the face of disaster, but, once Emperor Hirohito had
decided on surrender, Anami demurred out of devotion to him.
The Emperor made a recording of his surrender announcement on August 14 that was to
be broadcast to the entire Japanese population at noon on the following day. All Japanese were instructed to listen to the
Emperor’s speech, though they were not told what he would say.
Once the Emperor’s speech was on vinyl, members
of the imperial staff carefully hid the recording in the palace, knowing that
fanatic die-hards from the military would want to seize it and keep it from the
airwaves.
The most relentlessly aggressive of these die-hards was Major Kenji Hatanaka. Knowing that the Emperor had made a prerecorded speech, he plotted to seize control of both the Emperor and the recording. He believed that Emperor Hirohito could be convinced to reverse his decision and support the no-surrender faction, at which point the army would commit itself to the final struggle.
The most relentlessly aggressive of these die-hards was Major Kenji Hatanaka. Knowing that the Emperor had made a prerecorded speech, he plotted to seize control of both the Emperor and the recording. He believed that Emperor Hirohito could be convinced to reverse his decision and support the no-surrender faction, at which point the army would commit itself to the final struggle.
Major Hatanaka believed that the Emperor had
agreed to peace only because he had been surrounded by cowardly civilian
leaders who had talked him into it. If Hirohito were to reverse himself, he thought,
everything would be different. Japan would fight on. The destruction of the
cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were of little concern to Major Hatanaka,
except as evidence of the evil of Japan’s enemies. As Hatanaka’s accomplice, Lieutenant
Colonel Jiro Shiizaki declared, “Heaven will reward our loyalty to our Emperor
and our country. We are convinced of that.”
In 1967 Japan’s
Longest Day was made into a film, a remarkable piece of work that
portrays the August 14-15 struggle in vivid and historically accurate detail. As
it makes clear, there were some leaders in Tokyo to whom the atomic bombings
were irrelevant. They believed not only that the Japanese military should fight
on, but that Japanese civilians should pitch in as well, using whatever tools or
weapons they could lay their hands on to resist the inevitable American invasion.
At first the conspirators’ plot unfolded as planned. Shortly after midnight on August 14, Hatanaka and Shiizaki gained control of the Imperial Guard,
whose duty was to protect the Emperor. Since the Commander of the Guards
refused to cooperate, they shot him, and, when an aide rushed to the Commander’s
defense, Shiizaki decapitated him with his officer’s sword.
The conspirators put the Emperor under what
amounted to house arrest and then dispatched the Imperial Guards to ransack
the innermost chambers of the palace in search of the surrender recording.
In the meantime, the Yokohama Guards joined the
uprising and marched into Tokyo in search of the Prime Minister with the aim of
killing him. When they arrived at his official residence, they set up machine guns and began
blasting away at the building. Finally, realizing he had gone to his private residence, they headed off to track him down. Not finding him there, they burned his private residence to the ground. The Prime Minister had managed to escape before they arrived, but only by the skin of his teeth.
Then, in an airfield just outside Tokyo, a Navy
Captain launched a flight of kamikazes against American forces, vowing that the
Navy would fight on even if the Army surrendered. He wrote a cable that included
the words, “Japan is sacred and indestructible. If we unite for action, we will
destroy the enemy. Of that there can be no doubt whatsoever.”
With the Emperor in the conspirators’ hands and
his recorded speech somewhere under their noses (though they were having trouble
finding it), it seemed that the no-surrender faction would have its way. But
there was a hitch. War Minister Korechika Anami, having told the
Emperor he would support the peace resolution, refused to join the conspiracy.
This was a crushing blow, since his prestige was crucial to the entire scheme. Without his support, the army would not rise up.
Major Hatanaka had dispatched
Anami’s brother-in-law to
plead with the War Minister to get on board with the plot, but Anami adamantly refused.
Instead, he downed cup after cup of sake throughout the night, until, in the early morning hours of
August 15, still sober despite the sake, and with an air of solemn dignity he
committed seppuku with a dagger to
his gut. He left behind two sheets of heavy Japanese paper, on one of which was
a short poem honoring the Emperor, and on the other this: “For my supreme
crime, I beg forgiveness through the act of death.”
War Minister Korechika Anami
Anami is played in the film
by the great Toshiro Mifune, who brings dramatic intensity to this scene.
Though Major Hatanaka’s men had searched all night
for the Emperor’s prerecorded surrender announcement, they had failed to find
it. When it became clear that the Army was not going to rise up despite
the conspirators’ control of the Imperial Palace and the Emperor, Hatanaka
proceeded to the Japan Broadcasting Corporation’s main station with the aim of
sending out a message to the people of Japan, telling them to “refuse to accept
the surrender that had been forced on them by the traitors around the Emperor…”
At the station, announcer Morio Tateno refused to
allow Hatanaka to make his broadcast, even after the latter drew his pistol and
pointed it menacingly at Tateno’s forehead.
From The Longest Day - Hatanaka at the Studio
Ultimately, as the studio was taken over by troops loyal to the Emperor, Hatanaka gave up trying to broadcast his message. He and Shiizaki then went outside, mounted a motorcycle and a horse, respectively, and began riding through Tokyo tossing out leaflets encouraging citizens to refuse to surrender and to rise up against the traitors. They then returned to the gate of the Imperial Palace and, on the grounds outside, each committed suicide with a gunshot to the head. Shortly thereafter, at noon on August 15, the Emperor’s prerecorded message was broadcast to the public. This was the first time ordinary Japanese citizens had heard their Emperor’s voice, and virtually all of them did hear it, given that they had been instructed beforehand to pay careful attention. So ended Japan’s Longest Day.
Ultimately, as the studio was taken over by troops loyal to the Emperor, Hatanaka gave up trying to broadcast his message. He and Shiizaki then went outside, mounted a motorcycle and a horse, respectively, and began riding through Tokyo tossing out leaflets encouraging citizens to refuse to surrender and to rise up against the traitors. They then returned to the gate of the Imperial Palace and, on the grounds outside, each committed suicide with a gunshot to the head. Shortly thereafter, at noon on August 15, the Emperor’s prerecorded message was broadcast to the public. This was the first time ordinary Japanese citizens had heard their Emperor’s voice, and virtually all of them did hear it, given that they had been instructed beforehand to pay careful attention. So ended Japan’s Longest Day.
Clearly, the actions of Hatanaka and the other
conspirators were unaffected by the Nagasaki bombing, and in that regard it can
be said to have been entirely unnecessary. Of course, Americans could not have
been aware of the struggle that was going on between the militarists and the
civilians in the Japanese government. And from the American public’s point of
view, the Japanese started the war and they got everything they deserved - an
understandable sentiment given the hostile spirit of wartime, but one that does
not stand up well after a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
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