Road to Surrender by Evan Thomas;

Author:Evan Thomas; [Thomas, Evan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House LLC
Published: 2023-05-16T00:00:00+00:00

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Through the morning, Foreign Minister Togo has been heartened by reports from the palace that the emperor is willing to accept the American terms and to surrender. Earlier that morning Togo was led to believe that Prime Minister Suzuki was also on board to accept the Allies’ terms. But he is disappointed when the full cabinet meets at three p.m.

The prime minister has just conferred with General Anami and Baron Hiranuma, and now the prime minister is waffling—once again. Anami reminded Suzuki that right after the emperor declared his sacred decision in the early hours of August 9, the prime minister promised the war minister that he would agree to fight on if the Allies did not accept the emperor’s sovereign rule. Clearly, the Allies did not. The emperor would be “enslaved,” argued Hiranuma.

Hiding behind clouds of cigar smoke, endlessly sipping green tea, Admiral Baron Suzuki, the great war hero of long ago, has become a weak reed in his decrepitude, thanks perhaps to the would-be assassin’s bullet from the February 26, 1936, Incident that he still carries in his body. Now Suzuki tells the cabinet, “If disarmament is forced upon us, we have no alternative but to continue the war.”

This is too much for Togo. Barely stifling his anger, he calls for an adjournment. Then he follows the prime minister into his private office and explodes. “What are you thinking of?” he demands. If Japan rejects the Allied terms, he warns, the Allies will harden their stance, not soften it.

Togo retreats to his own office. Anger gives way to depression. He is thinking of resigning. But working with his loyal and clever deputy, Shunichi Matsumoto, he comes up with one more ploy to try to buy time. Although Japan has learned of Washington’s response by monitoring shortwave radio out of San Francisco, the actual formal papers have not arrived yet. When they do finally arrive, says Togo, we will simply pretend that they have not. At about six-thirty that night, the official Washington response, sluggishly winding through diplomatic channels, finally lands at the Foreign Ministry. The Japanese deliberately stamp the documents with the wrong time—twelve hours later, 7:40 a.m. on August 13. The fiction is a feeble one. The Foreign Ministry is running out of tricks.

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