On the morning of August 9, 1945, Japan’s Supreme War Council met to decide whether to accept the Potsdam Declaration. Prime Minister Suzuki Kantarō could not bring the members to a conclusion, and the meeting broke up at 1 p.m.
At an Imperial Conference in the early hours of August 10, the members stood three against three. The Emperor then gave his decision, the seidan. A second seidan followed at the Imperial Conference of August 14.
A decision by the Emperor himself was the exception. It happened twice in four days.