In the summer of 1943, one of them, Admiral Sokichi Takagi, was summoned to Tokyo by the Naval Ministry to conduct a survey of the war. He pored over available information and concluded that if the Americans succeeded in winning the Solomons, Japan must sue for peace. By the end of 1943 the Solomons fell, but Takagi still dared not circulate his conclusions in writing lest he be accused of defeatism—or worse, treason. Instead, he chose to approach top officials one by one, hoping to impress them individually with his country’s desperate situation. When he did, each man in turn was afraid to
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