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That's patreon.com slash we have ways. All the leaders asserted their right to decide Japan's fate by initiating a war, while paradoxically

insinuating that they had no ultimate control over the day to the country they led. Above all,

they were eager to absolve themselves at the responsibility for whatever consequences might follow

from their tortured decision, sensing that they would be truly devastating. The Imperial Conference,

a ceremonial studio religious right meant to depoliticise

huge political decisions, ensured that no one party or individual would be forced to shoulder

the enormous burden of Japan's grave future. That's historian Ari Hotta in Japan, 941, Countdown to

Infirmly a fantastic book that leads you through the

the labyrinth of Japanese decision-making, intention and the terrible business of saying one thing

to one person and saying another to another, on a tatamai, this idea that you've got to say

the right thing in the right time, regardless of whether it's the truth at the right time.

In our last episode, I think we underlined that the real tangle that the Japanese have got

themselves into with deadlines for war, preparations for war while everyone's saying, but of course,

we don't want one. The American, growing american exasperation with this endless business of proposal and counter

proposal whether the americans have remained consistent in their position of the japanese have just

slid about trying to backpedal trying to reverse if you were um secretary state cordel

hall you'd be within your

rights now to think, oh, for goodness sake, how do I deal with these people? Yes, it's not as if the

Americans are acting like bulls in a China shop, is it? I mean, they're actually being quite measured.

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