13. The Glorious Death of One Hundred Million campaign in Japan
After the fall of Okinawa, despite continuing resistance in the Philippines, it was evident to the Japanese that an invasion of the home islands was coming. Japanese military leadership developed a plan of resistance, designated Ketsugo, meaning Decisive. As part of the defensive operations, the Japanese planners enlisted the support of the entire civilian population of the home islands, in a propaganda campaign which began while the fighting on Okinawa was still underway. The campaign called for the “Glorious Death of One Hundred Million” men, women, and children, rather than allowing any American to desecrate the islands of Japan.
The propaganda campaign stressed that dying for the emperor, who was also in Japanese minds a god, was a glorious death which would be honored by one’s ancestors and rewarded in the afterlife. To die gloriously for the god/emperor was preferable to living in shame while the emperor was destroyed. At the same time the emperor was venerated, the Americans were depicted as monstrous animals, who were likely to kill all the civilians anyway, after rapine and torture. Both Japanese and American planners estimated Japanese deaths would be in the millions as a result of the invasion and the preliminary bombardments.