Ending The Nightmare
Ending The Nightmare
VJ Day is next Monday...so go kiss somebody...
Much of the world remembered the 15 August 1945—the 77th anniversary is next Monday—radio broadcast recorded the day before: the Jewel Voice Broadcast of the Showa Emperor Hirohito’s Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War. The Rescript ended not just World War Two in the Pacific and East Asia, but it also ended the power of the latter-day bakufu—military government—that had dominated Japan since 1941.
The actual date of the recording is in some dispute, but they dated the seal imprint of the Emperor of Japan on 14 August. The quotes in the rest of this missive are from the Rescript as it appears on Wikipedia in the entry for the Jewel Voice Broadcast. All the blather in between is from the research that Lee Rochwerger and I did for Why the Samurai Lost Japan: A Study in Miscalculation and Folly.
TO OUR GOOD AND LOYAL SUBJECTS:
After pondering deeply the general trends of the world and the actual conditions obtaining in our empire today, We have decided to effect a settlement of the present situation by resorting to an extraordinary measure.
This was the first time that 99.9 percent of Japan, and 99.999% of the entire world would hear the voice of Hirohito, the Showa Emperor of Japan. The reasons for creating a recording and not doing it live were several, but the most important was that the powers behind the throne—collectively, the jushin—felt it important that he make a recording of his actual intent available just in case the Emperor was killed.
We have ordered our government to communicate to the governments of the United States, Great Britain, China and the Soviet Union that our empire accepts the provisions of their joint declaration.
He refers here to the Potsdam Declaration of 26 July 1945 that, only at the end of the Declaration, is the phrase "unconditional surrender" used. The Potsdam Declaration was an official rejection of the unofficial "peace" feelers—actually offering nothing more than an armistice in place with no authority from Tokyo—that had been floating around Europe since the summer of 1944. The Potsdam Declaration did not assure the imperial polity, but the Allies agreed to it during negotiations that started 10 August, when the Japanese embassy in Switzerland informed the Americans and British that Japan wound accept Potsdam if the Imperial polity was preserved. The Rescript, therefore, isn't a formal surrender, but the announcement to the world that Japan would stop fighting.
To strive for the common prosperity and happiness of all nations as well as the security and well-being of our subjects is the solemn obligation which has been handed down by our imperial ancestors and which lies close to our heart.
In this passage, the Showa is calling upon his duty—as he saw it—to keep Japan from becoming extinct, which he finally realized was a possibility after the Soviets declared war on 9 August. In the all-out fight in the Home Islands that the Japanese Army and Navy were planning against the Soviet and American invasions that would come that fall, they planned it to turn every square inch of Japan and the surrounding waters into an abattoir.
Indeed, we declared war on America and Britain out of our sincere desire to ensure Japan's self-preservation and the stabilization of East Asia, it being far from our thought either to infringe upon the sovereignty of other nations or to embark upon territorial aggrandizement.
He's speaking from a victim's standpoint, but Japan had been in serious economic trouble since 1920. Not to excuse the war and Japan's aggression, but Japan went to war in 1931, 1937 and 1941 because they desperately needed raw materials and fuel just to keep the entire economy, not just the military, going. Japan had been a feudal, agrarian country that had an industrial economy with a parliamentary democracy thrust on it less than a century before, and they could barely afford to feed their burgeoning population, let alone continue to build a modern industrial state.
But now the war has lasted for nearly four years. Despite the best that has been done by everyone – the gallant fighting of the military and naval forces, the diligence and assiduity of our servants of the state, and the devoted service of our one hundred million people – the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage, while the general trends of the world have all turned against her interest.
Japan had lost something like 2.7 million people in the wars between 1931 and 1945. Over forty countries eventually declared war on Japan: the last, Mongolia, on 9 August.
The phrase "... not necessarily to Japan's advantage," was as close as he could come to "you have beaten us like a red-headed step-child and will not rise again."
"Our hundred million" was a common theme in Japan starting in the 1930s, but by 1941 there were only about 72 million Japanese in the archipelago and its possessions from the Ryukyus and the Bonins to the Marianas and Manchuria.
Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should we continue to fight, not only would it result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization.
Yes, he is acknowledging that the A-bomb had an influence on his decision, but again, he had decided that the war had to end as early as March 1945, but for reasons outlined below, he couldn't have done this that early.
What he wanted to do was save his country from annihilation from all causes—bloody great bombs, starvation, useless sacrifice and direct combat. The Japanese Army believed that wearing light-colored clothing would save many from the effects of the flash and heat of nuclear weapons. But, it may have been this very idea, announced in the last Imperial Conference on 9 August, that pushed the Showa over the edge, that made him instruct the government to accept the Potsdam terms, and to endorse the Marquis Kido's idea of a Rescript and make this recording. Japan's military leadership did not want to end the war, so he knew he had to.
Such being the case, how are we to save the millions of our subjects, or to atone ourselves before the hallowed spirits of our imperial ancestors? This is the reason why we have ordered the acceptance of the provisions of the joint declaration of the powers.
What's important here is that the Showa Emperor, like his grandfather the Meiji Emperor had in 1867, had taken direct charge of the country. That it was necessary for him to do this is a real long story... just buy our book.
We cannot but express the deepest sense of regret to our allied nations of East Asia, who have consistently cooperated with the Empire towards the emancipation of East Asia.
The thought of those officers and men as well as others who have fallen in the fields of battle, those who died at their posts of duty, or those who met with untimely death and all their bereaved families, pains our heart night and day.
The welfare of the wounded and the war-sufferers, and of those who have lost their homes and livelihood, are the objects of our profound solicitude.
The hardships and sufferings to which our nation is to be subjected hereafter will be certainly great. We are keenly aware of the inmost feelings of all of you, our subjects. However, it is according to the dictates of time and fate that We have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is unsufferable.
The Showa is being absolutely sincere. After viewing the damage caused by the B-29 fire raids in Tokyo in March and April 1945, he had become convinced that the war had to end or his people would suffer even more. But there were young men who stalked the halls of government and the barracks who would kill anyone who would wish to use some common sense and stop the fighting. These officers believed in the tradition of Gekokujo, roughly meaning "the lower shall rule the higher," among other translations. This was a centuries-old tradition in Japan that refused to die, that inspired the assassinations that exhausted and frightened the civil government in the 1930s, and that triggered the incidents that led up to the China War. The "unendurable" and the "unsufferable" here are to stop these Shishi—young men of purpose—from fighting and agree to whatever comes next.
Having been able to safeguard and maintain the Kokutai, We are always with you, our good and loyal subjects, relying upon your sincerity and integrity.
Kokutai can mean a lot of different things (click the link), but for his purposes, it means "national polity." It was an 18th century term/concept that caused a great deal of trouble in prewar Japan because of its different interpretations.
Beware most strictly of any outbursts of emotion which may engender needless complications, or any fraternal contention and strife which may create confusion, lead you astray and cause you to lose the confidence of the world.
Let the entire nation continue as one family from generation to generation, ever firm in its faith in the imperishability of its sacred land, and mindful of its heavy burden of responsibility, and of the long road before it.
Unite your total strength, to be devoted to construction for the future. Cultivate the ways of rectitude, foster nobility of spirit, and work with resolution – so that you may enhance the innate glory of the imperial state and keep pace with the progress of the world.
Here the Showa is sincerely begging his people—Shishi included—to have courage in the days and years to come: occupation was certain, as humiliating as that would be. The record is clear that by the time he made this recording, the Showa no longer cared what happened to him personally, but he cared deeply about what happened to everyone else. There were at least four attempts on his life by Japanese officers after 10 August, when he decided to make the recording, and the wee hours of 14 August when it was made, and one attempt to destroy the recordings afterwards. Somewhere between 30 and 300 Japanese died trying to stop—or ensure—the Jewel Broadcast.
In all the above, I urge the reader to find the word "surrender" in any of the quotations. This is the complete text: look it up for yourself.
The next day, when the cease-fire actually started, would be VJ Day in most of the world. But on Monday, we need to celebrate the fact that this frail, timid man realized that the only way to save his people was to take charge, to tell his subordinates that they were subordinates, and tell the entire world that, like Chief Joseph, Japan would fight no more, forever.
So, to honor that auspicious day, do like Edith Shaine and Glenn McDuffie when they heard the news, and kiss someone with genuine relief or joy. Just make that sure that, whoever your participant is, unlike Glenn before he grabbed Edith, you know who they are before you do the smooching so that you don't get bit, slapped or accused of sexual assault decades later.
Why The Samurai Lost Japan: A Study in Miscalculation and Folly
Yes, after all that, I want to sell books. Why The Samurai Lost isn’t a rehash of the 1941-45 war with Japan; there are too many books like that. This is more like a failure analysis, where Lee and I saw the conflict from the Japanese side and tried to describe where it all went wrong; why the Emperor had to do what he did, that goes beyond the “they bit off more than they could chew” explanations that everyone else has. What we concluded may surprise you; it has surprised many.
Coming Up…
My Brown-Eyed Girl Clare
Science History: Telling Or Quaint?
Who Put The Bomp In The Bomp Bah Bomp Bah Bomp?
And Finally…
On 13 August in:
1888: John Logie Baird was born in Helensburgh, Scotland. Baird showed the first live television in 1920, the first publicly demonstrated color television system in 1928, and the first viable purely electronic colour television picture tube in 1939. Blame him for the 6 January hearings…
1937: The long suffering of Shanghai began when the Japanese attacked the Chinese forces there. Three months and over a quarter million casualties later, the Chinese pulled out. It was just a foretaste of Nanking.
And today is NATIONAL FILET MIGNON DAY. Go have a nice juicy one.