On the night of August 14–15, 1945, following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, a battalion of rebellious Imperial Japanese Army officers and soldiers led by Major Kenji Hatanaka take over the Imperial Palace to prevent the surrender of Japan. They attempt to persuade the war minister, General Korechika Anami, to join the coup in order to gain the support of the rest of the military. Instead of staying loyal to Emperor Hirohito, as in actual history, Anami sides with the coup plotters and orders the imprisonment of Hirohito and eventually establishes himself as the "de facto" military dictator of Japan.