Kyūjō incident

Kyūjō incident
Kyūjō incident
Part of the Surrender of Japan
	Major Kenji Hatanaka, leader of the coup
Date	14–15 August 1945
Location	Tokyo, Yokohama
Goals	Prevent the surrender of Japan; Place the Emperor under house arrest; Destroy the Hirohito surrender broadcast recording; Assassinate the doveish Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki;
Resulted in	Coup failed
Parties
Japanese putschists	Japanese government
Lead figures
	Kenji Hatanaka †; Jirō Shiizaki †; Masataka Ida; Takeo Sasaki Kantarō Suzuki; Kōichi Kido; Shizuichi Tanaka; Takeshi Mori †
Number
18,000 rebels; 687 officers	25,000 soldiers
Casualties and losses
4 suicides	2 killed

The Kyūjō incident (宮城事件, Kyūjō Jiken) was an attempted military coup d'état in the Empire of Japan at the end of the Second World War. It happened on the night of 14–15 August 1945, just before the announcement of Japan's surrender to the Allies. The coup was attempted by the Staff Office of the Ministry of War of Japan and many from the Imperial Guard to stop the move to surrender.

The officers murdered Lieutenant General Takeshi Mori of the First Imperial Guards Division and attempted to counterfeit an order to the effect of permitting their occupation of the Tokyo Imperial Palace (Kyūjō). They attempted to place Emperor Hirohito under house arrest, using the 2nd Brigade Imperial Guard Infantry. They failed to persuade the Eastern District Army and the high command of the Imperial Japanese Army to move forward with the action. Due to their failure to convince the remaining army to oust the Imperial House of Japan, they committed suicide. As a result, the communiqué of the intent for a Japanese surrender continued as planned.

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