 The army's manual on defending the homeland called for the slaughter of any Japanese who impeded the defense.Japanese propaganda of "fighting to the bitter end" and "the hundred-year war", indeed, led many Americans, beyond questions of hatred and racism, to conclude that a war of extermination might be the only possibility of victory, the question being whether the Japanese would surrender before such extermination was complete.Even after the atomic attacks and the Emperor's insistence that they surrender, Inaba Masao issued a statement urging the Army to fight to the bitter end; when other colonels informed him of a proclamation made to hint of the prospect of surrender to the population, they rushed to ensure Inaba's was broadcast, to create conflicting messages.