They had, at the same time, become prisoners of their own war rhetoric—of holy war, death before dishonor, blood debts to their war dead, the inviolability of the emperor-centered “national polity,” the imminence of a decisive battle that would turn the tide against the “Chinese bandits” and stay the “demonic Anglo-Americans.” Long after it had become obvious that Japan was doomed, its leaders all the way up to the emperor remained unable to contemplate surrender. They were psychologically blocked, capable only of stumbling forward.
