This call to arms was unsuccessful as it failed to inspire a general uprising. On August 22, Air Corps units based on the Kamikaze home base at Atsugi airfield near Tokyo dropped leaflets over the capital encouraging the population to “rise up against their leaders and repel the invasion”. However, not all heeded the Emperor’s message. Despite this, many understood his meaning when he informed the stunned and bewildered nation that, “to continue the war would ultimately mean the extinction of our people and the utter destruction of human civilisation”.
His address was couched in courtly language peppered with classical phrases rather than colloquial Japanese. On August 15, Emperor Hirohito broke with tradition by broadcasting to the nation. Never in modern times had a country been so devastated by war.
Two million people had perished, a third of them civilians. Industry had been shattered, the merchant fleet all but destroyed. By the summer of 1945, much of Japan lay in ruins, its cities having been incinerated by the American bomber fleets.
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