6.(7-9) Midway - A Grand Delusion - Nearer & Nearer

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7. Midway a Step-Stone to Hawaii

28 May 1942, Thursday 6 AM. On Akagi command deck. As the carrier slices through blue waters directly into rising sun, Genda says “Admiral Yamamoto wants photos of the Strike Force heading out to sea.”

Our seaplane, with Genda flying it and me in the rear 2nd seat, takes off, and we get a view of the Strike Force, a line of ships led by the Akagi moving out into the Pacific Ocean. In rear are 3 carriers – the Kaga, Hiryu and Soryu, and following are 11 destroyers, a light cruiser and 2 battleships. In single file the ship column creates large V-shape ripples. It is part of an armada of 200 warships over 3,000 kilometers stretching from Dutch Harbor Alaska to Midway
   Our plane returns to the Akagi and Genda takes me to the tactical planning cabin which has a big table map of the battle area. The original Pacific War battle plan, he explains, was to fight defensively, to suck the U.S. fleet into our waters, and to smash it in one battle that would see the U.S. carriers destroyed by our land-based bombers. Then the Navy would defeat the remaining U.S. ships. But our surprising success at Pearl Harbor tempted Yamamoto now to try for Hawaii. He wanted to follow Pearl Harbor with an invasion but was overruled by the Army leadership in Tokyo, who see the Asian mainland as the center for Army operations and do not wish to waste troops on Yamamoto's Pacific ploy.
   The Admiral's plan is to occupy Midway as step-stone to the invasion of Hawaii to cut the supply line between the U.S. and Australia. The Army turned thumbs down on it when Yamamoto showed it to them informally at a geisha party that ended in a drunken brawl, and Yamamoto threatened to resign if the plan was not approved. But still the Army refused.

  Then Doolittle’s raid! The unspeakable spoke! American bombs on Tokyo from an aircraft carrier 700 miles offshore! The Army suffered loss of face and Yamamoto's idea of neutralizing U.S. air power by the Midway attack and occupying Honolulu now had the most powerful support in Japan. Operation M was approved. Using the table map he details tactics: To capture Midway Airfield as bait in a trap to lure the 3 remaining U.S. carriers into battle. The attack on Dutch Harbor and occupation of 2 Aleutian Islands is to fool the Americans into thinking its objective is a beachhead on continental U.S, but the next day we will hit Midway with everything and 24 hours after that our ship-born Army divisions are expected to take Midway. By then, it is hoped, American air and naval power will have been smashed. According to the timetable, Midway should be in our control by 7 June and then the U.S. is expected to throw its 3 remaining carriers into the battle. Once the carriers launch their planes, our suicide fighters will sink them, and Yamamoto's armada which has followed the action 700 kilometers in the rear will pounce on the U.S. fleet and our troops will storm ashore and capture Honolulu, and then Japan will offer to stop hostilities and give back Honolulu & Midway in return for a peace treaty that recognizes mutual spheres of influence in the Western Pacific, China and SE Asia.

   That completes Genda's explanation.
    I ask: “What happens if surprise is lost?”

   Genda replies: “In that case the peace will be dictated by the Americans in Tokyo."

8. D Day

2 June 1942, Tuesday aboard Akagi: Genda and I breakfast with Admirals Nagumo and Kusaka. Only two days to D Day and the strain is showing on Nagumo: face pale, hands a slight tremble, he picks at his rice. Kusaka reviews the situation: Northern Strike Force is within 24 hours of destination and will hit Dutch Harbor 0600 tomorrow. To south, 5,000 troops have set out in an armada of transports, and tomorrow are expected near Midway where they should storm the beaches after Nagumo's Strike Force destroys U.S. air defenses. And 700 kilometers behind them, Admiral Yamamoto's 34 warships led by Himself on the Yamato are poised for the expected decisive naval battle of the war. So far, according to Kusaka, things go perfectly.

Same day, afternoon on deck with Kusaka and Genda: Thick mist, like huge sauna. Strain telling, even on the optimistic Kusaka. With good reason! Unexpected fog prevents launching the reconnaissance. Also the 7 submarines that are to form an underwater picket between Hawaii and Midway will not reach destination on time, so on the eve of the great battle we will have no intelligence on the position of the U.S. fleet!

   Nagumo has had a bout of seasickness that disabled him and Kusaka has assumed command. I guess this is the real cause in his change in mood.

Night: We steam forward in complete quiet into utter black, our lights cut and radios silent. Genda and I sit in his cabin the only un-silent place, with radio tuned to all-night disc jockey in Honolulu. We drink black coffee hoping for announcement of attack on Dutch Harbor but all we hear is Glenn Miller's In the Mood, Little Brown Jug, Pennsylvania Six Five Oh Oh Oh, and best of all Moonlight Serenade.

9. A Grand Delusion

3 June 1942, Wednesday 8AM. Listening to secret Imperial Navy frequency we intercept code message from invasion transport 100 miles to south: An American reconnaissance spotted at daybreak but disappeared into clouds. Genda is concerned the transports will be targets for U.S. bombers.

5 PM, supper with Kusaka and Genda. The admiral is openly voicing anxieties. He has an order from Yamamoto he must attend to by tomorrow: to launch the attack to destroy the enemy fleet. But where is the enemy fleet? In absence of reconnaissance, a limitation imposed by bad weather, he has no idea where the Americans are. It is a distressing dilemma and since time is withering away he decides to throw everything into the assault on Midway Airfield but he cannot transmit this to Yamamoto because of the radio silence. Supper ends and Kusaka retires to his lonely command on the bridge while Genda takes me on eve-of-battle tour.

  Below deck each man who flies tomorrow is busy writing last letter, clipping fingernails and snipping hair locks for family in case he is killed. Many have thousand-stitch bands – long pieces of white cotton decorated with 1,000 red stitches by a sister, girlfriend, wife or mother. Others have good-luck red-ball flag that schoolgirls sent with hundreds of well-wishes inscribed. They will be carried wrapped about body into battle expecting to ward off enemy bullets.

   So sad that youths who should have so much life ahead prepare for meaningless death. Seeing them toasting the Emperor with saké for a heroic death to help win the war, I hear an echo: A voice stating “America's win is a given.”  And I think of the Emperor safe in his palace in Tokyo, and of Prime Minister Tojo in the massive bomb-proof diet building, and of Yamamoto being massaged by his favorite geisha 700 kilometers behind the sound of battle, and I realize that it is after all a Grand Delusion that is being put over on young men educated into mindless uncritical acceptance of received opinion from authority figures and put here to fight an un-winnable war and die deaths that won't make the slightest iota of a difference.

Young men everywhere and in all times (and women too) ought to take note from this sad example! Before risking life in war, and before a war starts, all should study its reason and purpose and constantly critically ask: "Is there a less bloody way to accomplish the same aim?" And even if there is not a better way, "Is the aim worth one's crippling or death?"
   For next, click 6.(10-12) Battle On