I think the officers that refused to join the coup probably did so out of a sense of unwavering loyalty to the Emperor. Despite their personal beliefs  may have aligned with the coup. They would NEVER betray their Emperor.

So many unremembered heroes of history, like Gen. Mori.  How many Japanese civilians and Allied servicemen lived because of his principled stand against an insane, suicidal plan, at the cost of his own life?

Never knew about this but mot really surprised. Always thought Hirohito was clever and smart in announcing the surrender via nationwide radio broadcast. By doing so, he ensured that the subordinates of any soldier attemptibg to continue the fighting would know he was doing so in direct opposition to the express wishes of Japan's god-Emperor.

That record was the most important, real life Macguffin in History.

This is why when people say it was 100% the Soviet attack that made Japan surrender and the A-bomb was unnecessary I go, they almost didn't surrender with both.

"I have nothing to regret now that the dark clouds have disappeared from the reign of the Emperor." -- Kenji Hatanaka death poem

"The (Potsdam) conference's warning of prompt and utter destruction, as far as the Japanese knew, was a reference to the invasion of the home islands. When Japan ignored that ultimatum, the allies issued a clarification and made it exceptionally clear they would not be invading the home islands directly, but ... well, that clarification didn't come via written correspondence. It came from the Enola Gay."

This is golden writing and delivery. Very well done episode.

Out of the 4 main conspirators, only Masataka Ida survived. After the war, he was court-martialed, but convinced the court that he genuinely tried to stop Major Hanataka at the end, thus acquitting him. He then changed his surname to Iwada and  went on to become an advertising executive. He died on February 6, 2004.

I want more people to know about this whenever the story around Japanese unconditional surrender in 1945 is on the internet: the militarists in Japan believed that all hundred million loyal subjects of the emperor must "shatter like jade", or fight to the bitter end. The number hundred million includes not only "Japanese" Japanese but also their colonial subjects in Taiwan and Korean Peninsula. Japan wanted to make two landmasses with dozens of millions of people into country-sized Okinawa, where ethnically different people were squeezed between Allied forces and Japanese defenders. Their fanaticism was squarely within the realm of insanity.

Some people just don't know when to quit.

One of those American soldiers invading the Japanese mainland would probably have been my late father. Dad served in the Army Air Force in the New Guinea and the Phillipines.

In the alternate history novel 1945 by the late Robert Conroy, Conroy envisioned a scenario in which War Minister Korechika Anami decided to support the coup and placed Emperor Hirohito under "protective custody". This forced the United States to resort to invading Japan under Operation Downfall which predictably led to heavy losses for both sides. It isn't until Anami himself was assassinated by a group of pro-peace military officers that Japan surrendered to the United States in January 1946.

I've studied history and live in Japan, Nagasaki no less. I never knew about this. Kudos to you and your writing team.

Ok I swear my phone can read what I am because I’m literally reading about emperor Hirohito and this drops

I think if the emperor himself had not explicitly agreed to surrender, more officers would've backed the coup. But since Hirohito had agreed to it, by the warrior code after the Meiji Restoration, any officers who disobeyed him would be performing a terrible dishonor.

Side note, of questionable relevance: "kyujo" is the term used in Japanese sumo when a wrestler withdraws from a tournament due to illness or injury.

Nobody called this the Kyujo Coup? No-one? Fucking criminal that

I think that a lot of Japanese citizens, even back then, were well aware, especially after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that continuing to resist the United States and Russia would result only in the death of their land. I think that's why so many officers turned down the requests of the conspirators. As zealous as they were for Japanese glory, they also were REALISTS. And realists know when to stop kicking and screaming, especially against all odds.

The fact that the United States is still awarding purple hearts that were made in anticipation of the invasion of the Japanese home islands should tell anybody how many lives were saved by Japan surrender.

There is a movie called The Emperor in August (Japanese: 日本のいちばん長い日, literally "Japan's Longest Day") is a Japanese historical drama film directed by Masato Harada. It was released on August 8, 2015. It's a remake of Japan's Longest Day (1967)

really a great movie how the coup was happened until Emperor Hirohito radio broadcast the surrender of Japan.