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This refers to The Man in the High Castle S3/Ep9 "Baku".

When Kido takes Frank to his place of execution, he chooses a location--a former Japanese internment camp--where Frank's symbol has been painted on a rock. Kido bows to Frank, a sign of respect. Kido shows him further honor by changing into his uniform to perform the execution, a recognition of the formality, and executes him in an honorable way, by a clean beheading with a single stroke of the sword. (Compare to the execution of the traitor Nakamura. In seppuku, ritual suicide, kaishaku is a beheading at the moment of greatest agony, to preserve the honor of the dying samurai.)

Why does Kido pay such honors to Frank?

The Japanese term Baku refers to "supernatural beings that are said to devour dreams and nightmares."

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    I am speculating hence comment and not answer: I don't believe Kido was honoring Frank. I believe he was making up for his mistake in the past of letting Frank go and then bad things happening to the Empire afterward. Kido essentially decides to make up for the mistake he made and to do it in the way that would preserve HIS honor. 1) in traditional Japanese military uniform, 2) at the place that many of his people were interned by the US Government in the early war days as an ironic-allegorical "middle finger", and 3) to know HE himself had killed Frank and that he would no longer be a threat. Commented Aug 8, 2019 at 17:52
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    The bow might have simply meant, "You did a nice job running and eluding, hat's off to you for that. Now it's over and time for you to die." Kido might have also understood that Frank's passion for resistance was true and that he was not a coward, something that even Kido could respect. Of course, I'm going to add on the classic phrase that "this will likely be answered in Season 4". Commented Aug 8, 2019 at 17:54
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    @MissouriSpartan Nice thoughts. (I like the second comment more than the first.) It seems clear Kito is undergoing a major transformation, and I think he may have come to realize that Frank is honorable, which is a pretty major leap from his prior attitude about gaijin in general. The choice of the internment camp might be a recognition of the adversary's moral fallability, and by extension, his own faction's.
    – DukeZhou
    Commented Aug 8, 2019 at 18:00
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    I'm curious to see where they'll go with the character in S4. My thought there is: we see Kido begin, not to doubt the Empire obviously, but to take more of a "maybe these resisting Americans aren't all so bad compared to the Nazi pigs" kind of attitude, and takes a lighter-handed position upon them. Course, Amazon's done a nice job with the "gotcha" curve-balls in that series, so who knows! :) Commented Aug 8, 2019 at 18:05
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    @MissouriSpartan slightly off-topic, but it's a pretty major accomplishment that we're empathizing not just with Frank, Julia, Tagomi, but with Smith and even Kito!
    – DukeZhou
    Commented Aug 8, 2019 at 18:09

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Kido understands that killing Frank's family and the kids, but letting Frank to live was a mistake. Kido accepts his mistake, and as the mistake is Kido's, he honors his enemy for his right fight against himself.

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