ADMIRAL BARON KANTARO SUZUKI, the prime minister who assumed power in April 1945, was a decrepit old man of seventy-seven years, hard of hearing and prone to nod off in meetings. Long retired from the navy, he had served for nearly a decade as a grand chamberlain of the imperial court, and was personally close to Hirohito. During the aborted army coup d’état of February 1936, he had been shot and nearly killed. Privately, there seems to have been an understanding between Suzuki and the emperor that the new government must find a way to end the war, even if it meant acquiescing to harsh Allied
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