At the Imperial Conference of September 6, 1941, the cabinet of Konoe Fumimaro confirmed its policy. If there was no prospect of Japan’s demands being met by late October, Japan would go to war with the United States, Britain and the Netherlands. At the conference, Emperor Shōwa read aloud a poem by Emperor Meiji.
Yomo no umi mina harakara to omou yo ni nado namikaze no tachisawaguramu. In a world where I think of all the seas on every side as brothers, why do the winds and waves rise so?
Emperor Meiji had written the poem before the Russo-Japanese War, in a wish for peace. The Emperor’s recital is generally read as a sign of his wish for peace. One author reads it instead as bitter irony from an Emperor who saw war as unavoidable.