Truman had wondered about that as well. "Do you think he did that on purpose to help us get those boys out of the water, or was he trying to show off and rub it in?"

"I don't know. Although rather unlikely, it is just possible that he was trying to save lives by the time he sent his message. If the war ever ends, we might have a chance to ask him."

Truman stood and looked out the window behind his desk. "I'm curious. England had any number of ports where a liner full of soldiers could disembark troops, while we don't yet hold a single good-sized Japanese port. Just where on earth was the Queen Elizabeth going to dock and unload all those troops?"

"She was going to reach a point off Japan where she would be surrounded by a horde of destroyers to protect her. LSTs and other smaller craft would swarm around her, and men would disembark directly onto them. As Nimitz's boys had it planned and rehearsed, the Queen Elizabeth would be emptied in a few hours and be back on her way to Hawaii or California."

But it hadn't gone as planned and almost twelve thousand American boys had been drowned. So far, they'd managed to keep news of the catastrophe out of the newspapers and off the radio. Just how much longer this could keep up was debatable. A few days was the best guess. With the earlier crises of the war behind them, many reporters and correspondents were openly chafing against what they felt was unnecessary government censorship. Several papers had already announced that they would no longer abide by censorship rules, and the attorney general had told Truman that there really wasn't much the government could do about it. Prosecuting newspapers would be politically disastrous and might not result in a favorable verdict in the courts.

A few days, Truman thought. Just a few days and then the world would know that twelve thousand GIs had died not in battle but in getting there. That it was nearly Christmas would make it even more devastating. The atom bomb had killed thirty thousand Jap soldiers a few days earlier, and a conventional torpedo had just killed twelve thousand Americans in what the Japanese were sure to call justifiable revenge. Where was the justice? What the hell use was it to have superweapons when the enemy's old ones worked so damnably well?

Chapter 53

Joe Nomura was about to lose the chess match to the Son of Heaven.

"Check!" he said in an undeniable tone of gloating.

Joe bowed and smiled. "You win, Your Majesty. Would you like another game?"

Hirohito laughed again. "No, beating you four times in a row is enough. You try hard and are improving, but you really aren't a very good player."

"It's been years since I had the opportunity to play, sir." And that was in Hawaii, dammit!

"I know," the emperor said gently. "I did not mean to make fun of you. I enjoy playing chess with you and I enjoy having you to talk with. You are so much less a radical than the good colonel, my jailer." Joe was genuinely surprised. "Oh, I know you are a member of the kempei, which means you should be a fanatic like Sakei, but I see in your eyes that you are wearied by the war."

"I think everyone is, Your Majesty." It was a good, safe answer.

"Of course, but there is a great deal of disagreement over what to do about it. You are aware, are you not, that I am here because I agreed to surrender to the Americans?"

"Yes."

"Anami and the others who took over are afraid that the Americans will destroy Japanese culture. I disagree. I feel that surrender is the only way to preserve it, and there are many who agree with me. Tell me, Captain, what do you see in this camp, and when you leave here and walk through the countryside? Do you see a culture being preserved, or do you see dirty and starving people eating roots and dying of cold? And when you listen to military reports, do you hear that the Americans have been driven from Kyushu or that their planes have stopped bombing our few remaining cities?

"No! Captain, I believe that it is men like Anami and his puppet Colonel Sakei who will destroy Japan if they are not stopped. It is they who threaten the continued existence of Japanese culture, and not your emperor."

Joe said nothing. Even though his few sessions with Hirohito had been cordial, one did not argue with one's emperor. Nor did one agree with him too promptly. There was the concern that he was being tested, but for what? Silence was the best course.

"I understand, Captain, that you will neither say nor do anything that will put you in any jeopardy, and I applaud both your tact and your restraint. Yet again your eyes betray you. You wish you could say something, but don't know how or what to say, do you?"

Joe smiled. "Your Majesty is quite wise."

"And perceptive."

Joe did not disagree. Where the hell was this going? he wondered.

"Someday you may have to make some difficult, even agonizing decisions, Captain. You may have to decide where your true loyalty lies. Is it to Anami and Sakei, or is it to Japan and your emperor? My duty lies in ending this war as quickly as possible and by using any means available. I feel that I could have been the instrument of peace. I pray that it is not too late for me."

Hirohito clapped his hands. "Go now. Think about what I have said and what is the evidence of your eyes, your mind, and your heart. I know you will make the decision that is best for Japan."

Almost in shock, Joe stood and bowed. He left the compound hastily and rode his bike out into the countryside. What the hell was Hirohito saying? It sounded as if he wanted Joe's help to spring him from his prison, and the more he thought about Hirohito's words, the more he became convinced that his assumption was correct.

Now what? Jesus. Just when he thought he had a handle on things, someone went and changed the damned rules. He had to get back to camp and contact his handlers. Maybe it was time to break into the new code? He was only to use it as a last resort because, after that, there was no other. Maybe he should try to use the old one without compromising himself. He'd have to talk to Dennis. Dennis was damned clever and would help come up with something.

With a jolt that nearly caused him to fall off the bike, he realized that he might have it within his power to end the whole war if he could get Hirohito out of his confinement and into the hands of other people who thought the way he did.

Chapter 54

Ernest Bevin was Great Britain 's secretary of state for foreign affairs in the relatively new government of Prime Minister Clement Attlee. It seemed poignant and significant to President Truman that the heads of both the world's greatest democracies had fallen within a couple of months of each other. Franklin Roosevelt had died of a massive stroke, while Winston Churchill had been replaced by a Labour government that the British people felt was better qualified to lead them through the coming peace.

Of the three world leaders who'd forged the wartime alliance against the Nazis, only Joseph Stalin remained.

"Mr. President, I have come on a mission of great urgency, and it is imperative that we be able to speak frankly and candidly, even though that will require the stating of some unpleasant truths." Bevin chuckled. "Indeed. First let me say that I come as the representative of a country, Great Britain, that is your only true friend on this earth."

Byrnes responded quizzically, "I'm delighted that you reaffirm our alliance, but why do you state that you are our only true friend?"

Bevin nodded. "Because France, under the insufferable Charles de Gaulle, is going its own arrogant way, and the other European countries are too devastated to provide anything beyond lip-service support to you as allies. In Asia, Chiang's China is tottering and claims to be your ally for the sole reason that you provide Chiang with the material resources to fight the Japanese and the Communists. Russia, of course, is betraying you routinely."