On the night of August 14 to 15, 1945, Major Kenji Hatanaka searched the blacked-out Imperial Palace in Tokyo with a flashlight and a drawn sword, hunting for the recording of Emperor Hirohito's surrender speech. This episode reconstructs the final 24 hours of the Kyujo incident, from the intercepted San Francisco broadcast that convinced Hatanaka the Allies would enslave Japan to his failed plea for support from War Minister Korechika Anami. We explore the concept of kokutai and why a mid-level officer believed disobeying the emperor was the only way to save him.

Hatanaka lied to Colonel Haga about high-level backing, murdered Lieutenant General Takeshi Mori when he refused to join, and used the general's stolen seal to forge Strategic Order 584 and commandeer the Imperial Guards. The rebels cut phone lines and detained NHK staff, but got  ...