1945

Homma nodded and responded firmly, "A doctor has been summoned, but for what purpose I don't know. It appears that General Anami has suffered a heart attack or a stroke." He looked at the faces assembled just outside the open office door. Many looked stunned, but some appeared strangely hopeful. "I am senior here," Homma went on, "therefore, I am assuming command. You will return to your duties and continue as before. Captain Genda, you will follow me and make a brief statement for the record."

Genda's statement to a clerk was a formality. Anami was dead of a massive heart attack probably brought on by the immense strain of his duties. In a few minutes Genda was aboveground after watching Homma begin to take over the reins of the Japanese government. Only the plotters knew that a coup had just occurred, and that Homma and Ozawa were part of it. As part of their plans, "emergencies" had sent both Admiral Toyoda and Field Marshal Sugiyama away from the headquarters.

Even though political assassination had been a macabre kind of Japanese tradition in the decades prior to the war, Genda deeply regretted that necessity had forced him to do it. Genda was a warrior, not a murderer. Anami had been a warrior too before he had succumbed to the madness that was keeping Japan in the war. Now Genda would inform his friend and mentor Admiral Ozawa that his mission was completed.

Even now, General Homma was setting more wheels in motion. There were others to round up or dispose of before a new government could be formed under General Homma and Admiral Ozawa. A government, Genda hoped, that would bring an end to the war that was destroying Japan.

As he walked toward his hidden vehicle, he chuckled. Who on earth was also plotting the overthrow of the government? Despite his disclaimer, he felt that the kidnapping of Hirohito must have had high-level help for it to have succeeded so neatly. He earnestly hoped that the various sets of conspirators didn't get in each other's way.

CHAPTER 77

KAGOSHIMA BAY

The weather on the flight deck of the Midway continued wet and miserable. Despite this, both men had dressed formally and intended to be photographed without overcoats. It was important that they be seen as dignified heads of state, and not as ordinary people scuttling about in the rain.

Equally important was the need for a background that would convince the Japanese people that the emperor was both respected by the United States as a head of state, and that he was still in Japan. A picture of him anywhere else might be interpreted as his having fled the land and would mean his disgrace and the failure of his historic mission.

At first there had been hope that something in the city of Kagoshima could be used as a background, but little was left that was more than three feet tall. Weeks of hard fighting, coupled with the flimsy construction of most Japanese buildings, had resulted in an appallingly unrecognizable collection of ruins.

Then Undersecretary of State Joseph Grew thought of using Mt. Kagoshima as a background. While hardly as well-known as the snowcapped extinct volcano Mt. Fuji, it was well enough known to those who lived in the area as it dominated both the bay and the city. At any rate, it would have to do. The emperor and the president could only hope that enough Japanese soldiers would recognize the background as being uniquely Japanese and then be impressed by the message.

The weather refused to cooperate, though. Rain and large flakes of soft snow obscured the view of the mountain from the carrier. A photograph near the side of the flight deck could be posed to show nothing of the carrier, which might indicate that Hirohito was a prisoner, and all of the mountain, which would indicate that he was free. If only, of course, they could see the damned mountain.

Truman paced back and forth in the small room off the superstructure where he and Admiral Nimitz waited. "We can't stay here forever. Why not just take some pictures and get on with it."

"If it comes to that, we will," Nimitz answered wearily. He desperately wanted to get the Midway and Truman out of the area. "But I agree with Mr. Grew and so does Hirohito. We need to get that mountain in the background if there's any way we can."

"But we can't wait too much longer," Truman insisted. Indications were that the Japanese counterattacks would begin at any time if they hadn't started already. Who really knew what was going on in the misty hills beyond the bay? If it was too late to stop all the bloodshed, then they could at least stop some of it.