36. Some Japanese Preferred Death Over Surrender
Japanese military personnel who learned of the surrender had to first overcome the shock of defeat. For some, it was too much to process, as years of indoctrination that Japanese soldiers simply did not surrender overwhelmed their coping capacity. So caught between the imperative of obeying orders from their chain of command and laying down their arms, and the imperatives of their honor as they had been taught to see it, they committed suicide. The majority, however, got over it and surrendered in accordance with their orders.