At noon on August 15, 1945, the Emperor's radio broadcast announced Japan's defeat. However, even on the day of the end of the war, a battle was taking place. About eight hours before the broadcast, an Allied fleet was approaching the coast of the Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture. The US Navy's Third Fleet was a huge fleet with many aircraft carriers. The Japanese military immediately moved to intercept them. Abe Saburo, a Zero fighter pilot, wrote about the battle on August 15 in his notes. From Lieutenant Abe Saburo's notes: "We did not know that today was the day of our defeat, and we set out with enthusiasm, thinking that today was the first day of a full-scale counterattack." About seven hours before the broadcast, Abe's unit set out from Mobara Air Base in Chiba. Only a dozen planes faced off against 103 Allied planes. From Abe Saburo's notes: "In an instant, a melee ensued. We approached at close range. The enemy, sensing our presence, met the author's gaze for a moment. A look of despair crossed his face. The moment he pulled the firing lever, half of his head was blown off. The windshield turned red.' Abe's Zero fighter was also hit and made an emergency landing on the Edogawa River that runs through Tokyo. From Abe Saburo's notes: 'I looked at my watch and it was six in the morning. That was strange. It felt like it must have been well past noon by now. (Omitted) I guess I was that nervous.' Just 15 minutes later, the Allies learned of Japan's surrender and ordered their frontline troops to cease attack. When Abe returned to base, he learned from the battle log written on the blackboard that five of his comrades had been killed in action. His sister Yuriko vividly remembered Abe's state after the battle. Yuriko Abe, Saburo Abe's sister (90): "When my brother came home, he had eyes like a hawk. They were not human eyes. They were murderous eyes. He sat upright in his six-tatami room with his military sword in hand and did not speak for about a week. He apparently thought about dying at that moment." From Abe Saburo's notes: "I had survived, but I felt guilty about my fallen comrades, and at the same time, I felt a secret sense of relief that I no longer had to die. These were emotions that outsiders could not understand. But the Japanese military's attacks were not over yet. They carried out their "final suicide attack." Two hours before the Emperor's surrender broadcast. More than ten planes took off from bases in Chiba and Ibaraki. 18 members of the suicide squad died that day. Thirty minutes after the last plane took off, Japan came to an end in the war. Abe Saburo, who fought on August 15, learned of the defeat through the Emperor's surrender broadcast. After the war, he wrote down the words of his former superior officer. From the notes of Lieutenant Abe Saburo (his superior officer's words): "If I had known that we were going to lose, I would not have sent them out on a mission. That would have prevented so many pilots from having to die." The Japanese military officially issued a ceasefire order the following day, on August 16th. [Source of opening footage: TheLastBomb-Identifier: 342-SFP-193] The Emperor's radio broadcast, which is also a "symbol of the day the war ended," was the Emperor's announcement of the defeat to the people, and was not a "ceasefire order." However, it took Japan longer to issue a ceasefire order than the United States. Let's look at the time from "Japan's surrender" to the time the ceasefire order was issued to the navies of both Japan and the United States. First, Japan informed the Allies of its surrender at 11:00 p.m. on August 14th, the day before the broadcast. In response to this, the United States issued a ceasefire order to the Third Fleet off the coast of Boso at 6:15 a.m. on the 15th. Meanwhile, Japan did not issue a ceasefire order until the following day, the 16th. Why did the Japanese military delay? Professor Toshiya Ichinose of Saitama University, who studies the Japanese military during the Pacific War, says, "Imperial Headquarters was wary of the possibility that the announcement of surrender would cause rebellions among the various units on the ground, making it impossible to surrender, and so it is believed that they issued ceasefire orders in stages." Let's take a look at the instructions that Imperial Headquarters issued to the Navy's headquarters. The instruction on the 16th stated, "Fighting must cease immediately," but also stated, "Fighting for the purpose of self-defense will not be impeded until ceasefire negotiations are concluded," making it a conditional ceasefire order. The next instruction was issued on the 19th, which stated, "All fighting must cease," but the deadline was "0:00 on the 22nd." Moreover, it acknowledged the exception of "the current China area will be determined later." Professor Ichinose analyzes the situation at the time, saying, "In fact, it is more difficult for a defeated nation to suppress the backlash of its hard-liners than to accept surrender." [TV Asahi News] https://news.tv-asahi.co.jp