STORY

April 1941. Japan’s top elites, with an average age of just 33, were summoned to join the Total War Research Institute, a special organization operating directly under the Prime Minister. There, they formed a “mock cabinet” mirrored the real one.

Their mission: to use top-secret national data to conduct a precise simulation of a possible war between Japan and the United States — and to report the results to the actual Cabinet.

Despite the risk that their findings could endanger their own lives, the young “ministers” of this simulated cabinet engaged in heated, passionate debates — driven by a mixture of fear and intellectual excitement.

The final conclusion they reached was an unflinching one: “If Japan goes to war with the United States, defeat is inevitable.” Their rational minds told them one undeniable truth
— “This war must be stopped.”