35. Some Japanese Convinced Themselves That the Surrender Was Fake News
Some Japanese took a different route, neither killing themselves in shame nor obeying orders to put down their weapons and turn themselves in to Allied forces as prisoners of war. Instead, they convinced themselves that the surrender was “fake news”. They had been so strongly indoctrinated with bushido-based notions of fighting unto death and avoiding the ignominy and dishonor of surrender, that it was inconceivable that their leaders could have accepted the ignominy and dishonor of surrender. It thus followed that the orders to surrender could not have come from their government, but were an enemy ruse.