TP - I know it's disappointing, but don't give up. It's all part of the learning process. It looks to me as though you'll likely lose at least a couple of buds, but there's still healthy growth so all is not lost. In the future, keep in mind that it's safer to remove the sacrifice branch in stages, rather than cutting it off all in one go. Start by cutting back and decandling the sacrifice branch. The tree will respond by diverting more resources to the interior growth. Later you can cut the sacrifice back further and/or remove more needles. As the sacrifice gets weaker, the interior growth gets stronger and it's better able to sustain the branch. It can take 2-3 years to safely remove a sacrifice branch like this. But when you do it this way there are a couple of benefits. First, it's not so much of a shock when the sacrifice is eventually removed. And second, the sacrifice will help control the interior growth and keep the internodes tight. That's good for a shohin tree. You can get a lot of your branches built while the sacrifice is being weakened and removed. Check out this picture from Eric Schrader:
http://www.phutu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2015-11-22-15.01.35mod.jpg
See how he's building branches while the sacrifice is still on the tree? There is so much strong interior growth he can remove the sacrifice at any time without worrying about dieback.
Think about it like approach grafting. You don't seperate the grafted shoot as soon as callous tissue appears - it's too weak to sustain itself and you risk losing the shoot. Rather, you weaken the connection between the shoot and it's original stem first, forcing the graft to take more resources through the graft union. Then separate.
