Meeting with Anami on the night of August 13 (two days before the surrender), Arao was informed that the Minister stood behind the Emperor's decisions, and that in any case, Japan could not afford to continue fighting.
This was originally supported and approved by General Anami; however, while he spoke with the War Minister, several of the more rash members of the conspiracy broadcast an earlier, more inflammatory, draft.
The following morning, Arao and the other conspirators met to plot the actual details of their plan to take over the Imperial Palace, placing the Emperor under house arrest, and preventing the surrender speech from being delivered.
Though he was one of the original conspirators, Arao in the end turned his back on the coup, and helped write the generals' agreement document stating that those military commanders who signed swore to abide by the Emperor's decision.
Unlike many of the other conspirators, Arao survived through the events of August 15, 1945, and would, many years later, continue to admire General Anami, and the devotion and strength it took to bring the war to an end in the way he did.