6.13 A Nation of Imbeciles led by a Generation of Dunces

Slim Novel 6 - http://adventuresofkimi.blogspot.com - See Homepage


13. A Nation of Ill-Schooled Imbeciles

Aboard Yamato, Genda is whisked away to report to Admiral Yamamoto; I to my cabin. No geisha greets me; my requests for newspaper and stroll on deck refused. Cabin arrest!

After a week of  boredom, I awake to ship's stop. Peek out porthole and see tropic isle enclosed by curving coral. At 8 AM a military police enters cabin carrying crisp new uniform of Navy lieutenant and following him 2 geisha who commence to bathe, shave, coif, perfume and dress me.

   The geisha escort me up elevator to Yamamoto's suite. The Supreme Commander appears not to notice me when I enter. In sea blue yukata, he stands before large silkscreen canvas putting final touch on nature watercolor in Tang Dynasty style. After contemplating it he turns. “Good to see you Kimura. Congratulations. I hope you do not mind; lieutenant is highest a historian can hope for in this navy.”

   I bow mumbling how honored I am to serve.

   “From Genda, your behavior under fire was admirable. I only wish I could say as much for my other officers.” He drops onto sofa and motions me likewise as the 2 geisha bustle about, getting cups and pouring exquisite tea.

   He holds up right hand and a geisha places a king-size Rothman cigarette between his middle and index fingers and strikes a match expertly centering flame tip on the cigarette end. He takes a drag on the cigarette, savors it and expels two jets of white smoke through nostrils. “I am dealing with idiots, Kimura. How can I be expected to win a battle when my plans go directly to Washington?”

   I ask if he is talking about traitor or spy in high place.

   “Our people do not have the intelligence for that, Kimura. No, it is not treachery that un-did us; it is stupidity.”

   I express puzzlement.

   “The code, man! The code! The Americans knew our every move. Their airbase was strengthened, their carrier task force ideally positioned to intercept our strike force and they refused to be sucked into attack on my main force because they knew exactly the overwhelming superiority of our fleet. Facts speak! Such foreknowledge presupposes breaking our code.” He mashes his cigarette into a plate of half eaten sunny-side up eggs, triggering one geisha to remove the unsightly plate and the other to hand him another cigarette and light it.
   I listen amazed.

   “When I realized the code had been broken I cabled Tokyo. Can you guess the reply? Their cryptographic expert had certified the code was unbreakable and my idea was based only on coincidence. If the Americans had found out the plan, Tokyo said, it must be from a lapse in my own fleet’s security.”

   Opportunity existed for that, I thought, recalling the drinking parties but saying nothing.

   The admiral finishes his cigarette and takes tea. “It is all lamentably lucid to me, Kimura, what children we admirals, generals and politicians are, what naïve children! We have been nothing but pawns in Roosevelt's world game – mere babes playing in sandbox with toy guns, planes and ships! There is no doubt, Kimura. They broke our code before Pearl Harbor!”
   His words hit me like a bullet fired at six inches. He rises and starts to pace up and down. “Roosevelt must have known about Pearl from its earliest planning, known and – trickster he – led us on like lemmings over the cliff, set up a temptation too great for us to resist, filled the harbor with obsolete ships and cunningly kept his carriers at sea, engaged our diplomats in frustrating negotiations.”

   I ask why the Americans had not waited and attacked the Strike Force at the last moment when it was at sea nearing Hawaii?
   Yamamoto gives a savage laugh turning on me as a none-to-bright school boy.   “Exactly! That was the point of Roosevelt's machinations! Always keep in mind that what we Japanese do is – to Himself – a sideshow to his main feature – war on Hitler. He wanted Pearl Harbor as our smashing success in order first to trip the dominoes of the Axis Pact which had Germany and Italy declaring war on the U.S. because the U.S. was at war with Japan, and second to stir up the American public to righteous indignation over the ‘Day of Infamy.’ He knew if our Pearl Harbor Strike Force were preemptively destroyed, Tojo would have had to resign and Japan to give up its Pacific War. Under those circumstances with no war to inflame American war spirit, Lindbergh and his isolationists would have won the day and Hitler would have a clear path to victory and his new world order.”

   I sit stunned by his lunging logic. A nation of ill-schooled imbeciles full of feudal ideas of loyalty, being marched blindly over the cliff and dashed to death on rocks below by leaders who themselves had neither experience nor brain power to compete on the world stage.

   Interview ends. The war is lost but how many thousands will still have to die. A war is not like a chess game where, when defeat is a given, the game stops on a checkmate. Let this be a lesson for future people never to be like lemmings, never to blindly follow lost leadership.

The End of Slim Novel
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