Mitsumasa Yonai
On August 9, 1945, the Japanese government, responding to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to the declaration of war by the Soviet Union and to the effective loss of the Pacific and Asian-mainland territories, decided to accept the Potsdam Declaration. On the same day the Supreme Council for the Direction of War opened before the Japanese Imperial court. In the Council the Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki, the Navy Minister Mitsumasa Yonai, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Shigenori Tōgō suggested to Hirohito that the Japanese should accept the Potsdam Declaration and unconditionally surrender.