# Inaba Masao

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{{short description|Japanese military officer}}
{{family name hatnote|Inaba|lang=Japanese}}

{{Nihongo|Lieutenant Colonel '''Inaba Masao'''|稲葉 正夫|Inaba Masao|May 1, 1908 - October 10, 1973}} was a Japanese officer during World War II of the Military Affairs Bureau.<ref name="toland815">[John Toland](/source/John_Toland_(author)), ''[The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire 1936-1945](/source/The_Rising_Sun%3A_The_Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Japanese_Empire_1936-1945)'' p 815 Random House New York 1970</ref>

In 1945, after the Emperor and his ministers were seeking to surrender, he urged [Korechika Anami](/source/Korechika_Anami), the War Minister, that the soldiers be told to keep fighting, especially with the Soviet Union massing its forces.<ref name="toland815"/>  He prepared a statement urging soldiers to fight to the bitter end, without reference to surrender.<ref name="toland815"/>  Two lieutenant colonels, one of them [Masahiko Takeshita](/source/Masahiko_Takeshita), came to tell him that the Cabinet was about to issue a statement hinting at surrender, and they hastened to broadcast his message without Anami's approval.<ref name="toland816">John Toland, ''The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire 1936-1945'' p 816 Random House New York 1970</ref> The Director of the Information Bureau, Hiroshi Shimomura, concluded that without its broadcast, Anami might be assassinated by younger officers, and so broadcast it.<ref>Kazutoshi Hando, The Pacific War Research Society, ''Japan's Longest Day'' (Tokyo: Kodansha International, Ltd., 1968), [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/hando/hando.htm pp. 41] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110225124451/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/hando/hando.htm |date=2011-02-25 }}.</ref>

This caused consternation in the government, which feared that his statement would provoke a third atomic bomb, and arranged for the message to be sent as a news broadcast, in English and Morse code, to escape military censors and so arrive in time.<ref name="toland816"/>

When the [Kyūjō Incident](/source/Ky%C5%ABj%C5%8D_Incident) was plotted, to prevent the emperor's declaration of surrender from being broadcast, Inaba refused to join the conspiracy and told the conspirators that the attempt was useless.<ref>John Toland, ''The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire 1936-1945'' p 835 Random House New York 1970</ref>

==References==
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Category:Japanese rebels
Category:Imperial Japanese Army personnel of World War II

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Inaba Masao](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inaba_Masao) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inaba_Masao?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.