He knew a lot of folks at the Pentagon (he continued in the Reserves after the war and retired as a bird colonel) and he said so far as he could determine that story was accurate.
Didn't surprise him one bit. He said the Japs were fanatics to a degree we couldn't even imagine.
Towards the end of the war, Japanese Army factions led by Col. Tsuji tried to kidnap the Emperor so that he wouldn’t accede to demands of surrender. This was supposed to have been foiled at the last minute on the initiative of the palace.
Some historians claim that Emp. Hirohito tried his level best to prevent war with the Allies but was overruled by the Army. I don’t know what to make of this claim for various reasons.
On a related note: the world seems to be ignoring China’s militaristic behavior at the current time as it ignored Japan’s in the early part of the last century (even after Japan completed a comprehensive victory over Tsarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905).
:’)