A slapdash debut thriller about the bumpy road from Nagasaki to the Japanese surrender aboard USS Missouri. Reeling from the effects of the atom bomb, Japan is clearly at the point of surrender, but a faction of extremists--unable to accept the defeat of the Emperor or the military--plots to prevent the signing of the treaty in any way they can. Enter Sgt. John Ballard, commanded by Gen. MacArthur to penetrate--together with his old sidekicks Tex Hanklin and Wilbur Mischkie--a Japanese enclave in the Philippines and bring back renegade commander General Moro alive so that he can issue orders for his guerrillas to surrender. It's an impossible mission, but Ballard and Co. accomplish it with surprising ease, only to face new plots--another faction wants to assassinate the Emperor before his speech making the surrender public can be broadcast, and still another plans to assassinate Mac-Arthur. In fact, the Japanese are so divided among themselves that their war against America seems secondary; and it's not at all a surprise when Keiko Tamura defies her arch-traditionalist uncle, Baron Tamura, runs off to warn Mac Arthur, and falls for Ballard before facing the Baron in a one-on-one attempt to short-circuit his kamikaze mission. Forgettable characters and too many counterplots stall this one until the eminently predictable action picks up halfway through.