In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, our people had sunk to despair. Even by December of 1945 many thousands who had fled the cities after the bombings had not returned. Their paralysis was remarkable; they could not immediately throw off the full terror of the bombings. Their lot was merely representative, however, of the great devastated areas, where the people lived in primitive squalor, hungry and with few creature comforts, in want of medical attention and other necessities.
And what of our Navy, once one of the most powerful battle fleets afloat? When the war ended we possessed, able to cruise under their own power, only two aircraft carriers, one of which was damaged, three damaged cruisers, only a few of forty-one destroyers left in docks and harbors, and fifty-nine submarines. We still had a total of 829 vessels of all types, but only the handful of ships mentioned above were capable of sailing.
Still armed and equipped on the mainland were seventy powerful Army divisions, more than one million fighting men who formed the core of the defense forces which were to resist the invasion. The Pacific War, fought chiefly in the air and on the sea, came to a halt before these Japan-based troops fired even a single shot in the defense of the country.
CHAPTER 29
Jiro Horikoshi’s Final War Diary
AS WE HAVE RELATED in this book, without the Zero fighter Japan could not possibly have effected her early war gains in the Pacific and Indian oceans and on the Asiatic mainland. Everything depended upon the Zero’s ability to wrest the all-vital command of the air from the enemy in every theater of action. This the airplane did with amazing effectiveness during Japan’s widespread initial operations.
Jiro Horikoshi, the engineer responsible for the Zero fighter and other Japanese front-line fighter planes, is seen thereby to be an exponent, so to speak, of Japan’s position in the war. The following pages contain extracts from his personal diary which refer to the final nine months of the war. They provide an unusual look at inner Japan during these months of great crisis:
“December 5, 1944: I left Nagoya by train today for Yokosuka. I was scheduled to attend the Navy-industry conference on the new Reppu fighter plane, to be held on December 6 at the Naval Air Research and Development Center. I would return to Nagoya after completing the necessary liaison work with the Navy on the new plane, traveling about the Tokyo and Yokosuka areas after the conference.
“On December 7, however, a heavy earthquake rocked the Tokai area (the southern coast of central Japan). The quake caused extensive damage and wrecked the long railroad bridge of the Tokaido Line on the Tenryu River. In a single stroke Japan’s most vital rail transportation line was cut. My concern for the factories in the Tokai area rose when I learned that the earthquake had been so severe as temporarily to halt all manufacturing operations at the Mitsubishi Aircraft Works in Ohe-machi, Nagoya, where I worked with my design staff.
“My first impulse was to start out at once for Nagoya to do what I could in returning the factory to production. However, I was warned against making the trip by train, since the wrecked bridge meant that I would have to travel by foot in the cold of the winter night before I could reach another train. For months I had been exhausted from constant overwork, and I realized that the trip might cause me to become seriously ill. Nagoya granted me special permission to remain in Tokyo, and to carry on all the work necessary with the Navy on the Reppu until the next scheduled conference at Yokosuka on the fifteenth.
“Misfortune did not stop with the earthquake. On the afternoon of the thirteenth B-29s for the first time struck a devastating blow against Nagoya, concentrating on the Mitsubishi Engine Works factories in Daiko-cho, Nagoya. The sprawling buildings suffered extensive damage which caused a severe setback in production.
“December 16, 1944: The Tokaido Line still had not repaired the bridge damaged by the earthquake. I had to return to Nagoya, and I was compelled to take a roundabout mountain route to reach the city. I took a Shinetsu Line Train which left Uyeno Station in Tokyo on the seventeenth, and arrived at Nagoya via Nagano City late in the night of the seventeenth. I had been on the train for more than twenty hours; the regular Tokaido Line journey required only five and a half hours by express train between Tokyo and Nagoya.
“December 18, 1944: This afternoon B-29s returned for their second attack on Nagoya, attacking the Mitsubishi Airframe Works, to which I belonged. As soon as the air-raid warning screamed we ran to a vacant lot near the main factory buildings and dropped into ‘trenches’ and ‘dugouts’ prepared as shelter areas. Protected against bomb shrapnel and blast, we searched the sky for the bombers; we noticed several waves of B-29s, appearing white at a height I estimated to be thirty thousand feet. The great planes maintained a steady formation, releasing their bombs in salvos aimed to ‘walk’ across the factory buildings from the east to the west. This was my first experience under heavy air attack, and I remember vividly the screeching sound of the falling bombs and the unbelievable sound of the bomb explosions. My ears rang and I was deafened for hours afterward.
“December 19: The Mitsubishi plant manager has ordered an emergency dispersal program. We fear that the bombers will return in ever-greater numbers and, if the machines remain so exposed to the giant B-29s, we soon will lose all production. The men have begun the task of transporting machines to schools and factory buildings in the city and in the suburbs.
“December 25: The Engineering Department, to which I am attached, has completed its evacuation from the main factory buildings. We are now located in several school buildings in eastern Nagoya.
“From December 25, 1944, to April, 1945: The long hours of exhaustion and overwork have exacted their toll. Suffering from pleurisy, I have been compelled to confine myself to bed, beginning on December 25. It is strange to remain bedridden, and to hear the sounds of the bombing attacks, which now come often, during both day and night. There is what is to me the now-familiar scream of the falling bombs, the thundering explosions in the city, and the roar of the great fires. From my house I have on many occasions watched the frightful flames devouring the homes and buildings, and the towering clouds of smoke which completely cover the sky over the city.
“During this period I maintained contact with my projects at Mitsubishi—the Reppu and other fighters. Many of my colleagues and assistants visited me frequently. I had noticed as far back as December that our employees’ will to work had suffered badly; the reports from my men now indicated that this mental deterioration had progressed even further. Complicating the natural state of despondency because of the progress of the war were the increasing difficulties in their private lives, the lack of food, and problems of travel to and from work, and so on.
“It is now the middle of March. Apparently the B-29s have changed their bombing tactics. Where they formerly concentrated on the factories and military establishments, they are now attacking the populace through terrible fire attacks on their homes. With a sense of impending total doom, I received the reports of the terrible incendiary attack against downtown Tokyo, which lasted from the night of March 9 to early morning of the following day. The overwhelming incendiary saturation raid appears to be only the first of a new series of attacks. I have been told the heart of the city is gutted, and they have already counted more than eighty-three thousand dead and missing. Tens of thousands of people were injured and burned. (Here I have added a postcript. The loss of life in this great air attack exceeded even the atomic bombings of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. What happened to our cities is unbelievable.)
“It is now Nagoya’s turn. From the night of March 11 until the early morning of the twelfth, B-29s hurled tens of thousands of incendiary bombs into the city. Great fires arose and swept unchecked through the flimsy wooden homes and other buildings. The people fortunately managed to escape a fate similar to the March 9 raid on Tokyo. The comparatively small city area of Nagoya enabled many of the populace to escape the advancing sheets of flame. The loss of life has been relatively small.
“It is obviou
s now that the B-29s will attack each of our cities in this fashion. (Postscript: More than half of all my relatives living in Tokyo had lost their homes by May.)
“March 12, 1945: Against their protests, I ordered my family, except for my wife, to leave Nagoya at once. Much of the city is already gutted and desolate, but the B-29s may return. My family, escorted by my brother-in-law and my housekeeper, left for my home village, which is located near the city of Takasaki in Gumma Prefecture, about sixty miles northwest of Tokyo.
“It was strange to be alone in this empty house while my wife is at Ozone Station in Nagoya seeing off the family. It was a time for thought, and I felt deep concern about the future life of my family and my people, about our jobs, the future of the company with which I had worked so long. When I thought of the inevitable course the war would follow, the certain defeat of my country and my people, I could not prevent the tears from coming. I must confess in these pages that the misery which is in store for Japan has caused me to cry; I was unable to stop the tears.
“When we awoke on the morning of December 8, 1941, we found ourselves—without any foreknowledge—to be embroiled in war. The realization was astonishing. Since then, the majority of us who had truly understood the awesome industrial strength of the United States never really believed that Japan would win this war. We were convinced that surely our government had in mind some diplomatic measures which would bring the conflict to a halt before the situation became catastrophic for Japan. But now, bereft of any strong government move to seek a diplomatic out, we are being driven to doom. Japan is being destroyed. I cannot do other but to blame the military hierarchy and the blind politicians in power for dragging Japan into this hellish cauldron of defeat.
“April 8: The cabinet has changed. The new lineup suggests strongly that a big change may appear soon in the government’s diplomatic policies and its attitude toward the war.
“April 15: My health has improved remarkably, and there are times now when I can leave my bed. It is a wonderful feeling to know that I have cheated death and that soon I will be up and around again. For the first time in four months I was able to get a haircut, to take a long-desired bath, to walk around the familiar rooms of my own home. I had improved so much that I was able to walk by myself to an air-raid shelter when the B-29s came, instead of being helped as if I were a cripple.
“May 15: I was now well enough to return to travel by train. The No. 1 Works of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., to which I was now assigned, was located at Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture. I left Nagoya by train for the plant. For the first time I really saw the effects of the incendiary raids on Nagoya. The city is a wasteland, charred and unspeakably desolate. My former factory is a ghostly, steel-ribbed wreck, shattered by bombs and torn apart by the dispersal crews. It is hard to believe that all this is true.
“I knew that soon I would be well. Strangely, however, I had little desire to return to work. The impression of the shattered city and the wrecked factories will not leave me.
“May 22: Apparently my illness had weakened me much more than I believed. I was ordered to rest, and I left Matsumoto to join my family. For the next two months (until July 21, when this entry was completed), I remained with my family, including my aged mother, and rested as much as possible to regain my strength. Fortunately, the village is small and has not been bothered by air attacks.
“Even here, however, the air-raid warnings sound across the countryside. The enemy planes are everywhere, bombing and shooting and hurling their rockets against our buildings. When the heavy B-29s thundered overhead to attack Maebashi, Takasaki, and Ota in Gumma Prefecture, we could hear the distant explosions which sounded like deep rolls of thunder, even though we are quite far away.
“Every now and then I could see the American carrier-based fighters and bombers racing low over the countryside, searching for targets. Our planes can do little against the tremendous power of the enemy air fleets, which completely control the air over Japan.
“This has been the first time in eighteen years, since my college days, that I have spent more than one month continuously with my parents in their home. The hills and the rivers are the same as ever, but the fields are different. Most of the copses and groves where I played in my childhood are no longer playgrounds for youngsters, but have been tilled to produce food. The country is hungry. Our ships are not getting through with supplies.
“Our national situation is deteriorating swiftly. It feels as if certain elements are rotting the country from within. There has been a tremendous increase in the number of people who suffer directly from the bombings; inflation has spread like wildfire throughout the country, and the salaried class most of all suffers from it; cunning people propose new random policies and measures to the bewildered government offices and somehow get new jobs which provide them with both good income and position—A.M.,while the honest people (the majority of our country) are driven to war or to a life of hardship and bitterness; many foxy merchants and industrial people flatter and beguile the military; they seek and they obtain big profits through unjust, dishonest business dealings; the government is at a loss to distinguish true from false; the clamor of the favored grows ever louder; many a government official is bent solely upon shirking his responsibility; high-ranking officials frequently change their positions; they move about constantly.
“The country seems as if it were rife with corruption. Rottenness in government is spreading. The whole nation has been exhausted. Japan is quickly losing the strength, it hardly has the will, to continue the war.
“I met many of my old school friends and had the opportunity to discuss the old days. Often I walked through the hills and along the river banks. Often I was reminded of a line from an ancient Chinese poem; ‘Mountains and rivers remain unchanged in this war-ruined land.’ During my stay in the village I often was tempted to forget my duties and responsibilities in the war effort. The war situation had deteriorated to such an extent that even the people in the countryside desperately wanted peace. They often discussed the possibility of requesting the Soviet Union, the only powerful neutral country between the Allied Powers and Japan, to intercede in the war and end the conflict. Japan has made special efforts to maintain neutrality with the Russians, and we hoped that we could rely on her fairness and friendship in mediating with the Allies.
“July 22: I returned to the Mitsubishi No. 1 plant in Matsumoto City, where I was assigned a new engineering position. Matsumoto was one of the very few cities which had been spared the enemy air attacks; the others were Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nara, Nagasaki, Fukuyama, and Mito. The company had tried desperately to organize the new workshops and to establish effective liaison with the other divisions and workshops scattered about the country as a result of the dispersal program. The effort, however, had done little good, and affairs were in chaos. Management was inefficient, and we accomplished little because of the unending confusion. Our efforts appeared hopeless. Bombing damage had become so great throughout the entire country that everybody realized that the war could not possibly be won. It was senseless to continue fighting, but the very momentum of our combat activities appeared to carry us on.
“August 7: A report says that the enemy has used an apparently altogether new type of bomb yesterday. We learned that the bomb is incredibly more powerful than an ordinary weapon, and that yesterday morning it was dropped over the city of Hiroshima. There are very few details concerning the new bombing, but we have learned that the horrible effects of the bomb, the human suffering and loss of life, the destruction of buildings, are beyond all description. This is all we know so far.
“August 10: Yesterday, again Japan was struck with the new bomb. This time the city of Nagasaki was the target. A still more shocking report came in to us, saying that, like a lightning bolt from a blue sky, Russia has declared war and has commenced the invasion of Manchuria and North Korea. We hear that mighty land armies and hordes of bombers already have struck.<
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“This means the final blow to a Japan which already is reeling from the unremitting American assault. The local authorities recommended, but with little official enthusiasm, that the residents of Matsumoto quickly evacuate the city which has, so far, escaped air attack. The majority of the company’s employees now are busily occupied with dispersal of their private belongings, of hiding factory machines and equipment. Their daily shop work has been forgotten. They seem to have accepted defeat as only a matter of time.
“August 15: The radio has announced that the Emperor would broadcast a special and a very important message. I knew at once that this would be the rescript of a surrender. The transmission was poor, and I missed many passages of the talk. It was of little matter. Japan had been helpless against the enemy for months.
“The war is over. We were defeated after what amounts to literally a total exhaustion of our national power. This is the first defeat my country has ever experienced, and it is a strange feeling for the populace. Let us face the reality that the Japanese people do not have a social organization which lends itself to a cohesive national effort. We have never been highly trained to combine our intellectual abilities and to think and work in scientific or efficient terms. We have poor natural resources and the land is terribly overcrowded.
“Japan has too many vital problems which we cannot solve through our own resources and abilities or efforts. My country will not be able to maintain a civilized and prosperous existence unless we can rely upon the generous aid and industrial and trade intercourse of the world. We require an open-door principle from the world for the good of our people and all nations. I have little doubt that the lack of such things was probably the greatest of the remote and the basic causes of this insane war. Things that our people see before them are economic difficulties and moral confusion. If Japan must grow, then we must face our responsibilities of the future in a fashion entirely different from that adopted by the government which led us into the abyss of war and utter defeat. And then we must endeavor to secure the fair and generous attitude of all this world.
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