Decisive Darkness: Part One – Majestic

by Paul Hynes

  With a violent shake a roar the door was blown open, with dust flowing in, he and his fellow officers and staff became to choke and splutter as they heard another crash but no explosion, only a low popping sound that one might experience when they’ve opened a bottle of Champagne. Mustard gas, heavier than air soon entered the shelter that would become his tomb. Unlike the brick dust that had glided in a few moments beforehand, this was a stark yellow fog that slowly moved in on the cellars inhabitants. Those who had experienced gas attacks in China clambered to find masks, or handkerchiefs to put over their faces, only to find that their efforts had been in vain.

  As Mustard Gas enters the lungs they begin to swell and blister throwing the body into spasmodic twisting as blisters break out and burn on the skin whilst the respiratory system slowly closes in. Tanabe died quickly, and in great pain. In retrospect he was lucky. There were many Japanese troops and Indonesian civilians who believed that they had survived the worst, only to find themselves covered in blisters in the preceding days, coughing and sneezing blood as their bodies also went into shock. Medical recovery teams, having learned the lessons of the First World War, were forced to wait for the gas to dissipate. In the case of Tanabe’s tomb this had taken several days, by then the story had already broken.

  Jeussen was fairly open about what he had done and reported it immediately as his aircraft began their return trip. Whilst he had considered crashing his plane into a Japanese target after the raid, he had considered that to be immoral without the consent of this fellow air crew, and though there is some discussion as to whether he would have committed suicide after landing, Australian military police were already waiting to arrest him as he stepped out of his B-25. Though awaiting trial the Australians, and shortly after, their other Allies, did not initially comment on the raid being a rogue assault, or acknowledge the raid at all.

  Considering the final events of Indonesia’s chapter in the war, It is difficult to see whether Jeussen’s raid had any direct effect on the plight of European former colonists in Japanese occupied Indonesia. Tanabe knew perfectly well that his demand to the Allies was fundamentally unworkable. Though the western powers were generally perceived to be weak willed and meek, the notion of them agreeing to actively reinforce the Japanese as the struggle for Kyushu hung in the balance was not one the leader of the Japanese forces in Indonesia believed to be particularly plausible. What he had hoped to bring about was a forced confrontation with his forces, to allow him to contribute to the final battle even if he sat thousands of miles away from the Home Islands themselves. In the midst of the slaughter of both civilians and prisoners now being carried out by Japanese troops he would finally get his wish, though his violently blistered lungs had long ceased to function.

  His appointed successor, Major General Nakao Yahagi had been on Sumatra when the Mustard Gas attack on Jakarta had taken place, as he was informed of his new position from the headquarters of the 25th Army in Bukittinggi he did not hold any less resolve over distracting Allied attention from the sokoku. Despite his intention to fight on, he was not blind to how precariously his military position now teetered.

  The Royal Navy had formed tight crown of thorns around the various major islands after eradicating what was left of the small Japanese Carrier force prior to the invasion of Singapore, with Allied dominance in the air complicating any further means of travel between Java and Sumatra. Borneo, where the bulk of Japanese heavy equipment had been transported now sat in Australian hands. Ironically fuel was not an issue in oil rich Indonesia but there remained few planes and tanks for the Japanese to operate. Ammunition of all types gradually degraded as former PETA militia’s battled his troops in the jungles. The hope of a new Stalingrad in Manila was quashed by the fact that industrial warfare was increasingly no longer an option.

  Instead the chosen strategy had been one of consecutive withdrawal via various costly pitched battles that would help bleed Allied strength, eventually drawing the Commonwealth and Dutch forces into great mountain range with many active volcanoes that runs along the length of the island. The weather on Java, hot and damp in the lowlands, with no seasonal variation; would be a nightmare without ready supplies of inoculants. The cooler highlands better served to protect Japanese troops from disease, whilst allowing for rice to be grown on the terraced hillsides. Refineries would be set alight and road and rail links between the islands ports sabotaged as far as possible. The ‘defence’ of Java was to become one large scorched earth policy and in its wake a bleeding sore, perpetually draining Allied resources away from their operations against the Home Islands.

  Though some feared the Japanese would have to fight the Indonesian insurgents whilst waging a guerrilla campaign, it was expected that the arrival of the Dutch would force the Indonesians into an alliance of convenience with the remaining Japanese forces. In confidence, or in desperation, the trap without springs had been set.

  Oboe 4, the Australian and British landings against Jakarta and Surabaya, began on January 25th, 1946 with vast plumes of ominously dark smoke rising into the air. To the dismay of those entering into the largely undefended cities it came not solely from their shells and incendiary bombs but from the rings of fire that now surrounded the Barat and Timur refineries. The mass slaughter of civilians and prisoners, European and Indonesia, was no longer fitting any timetable. As the Commonwealth, Dutch and Japanese forces fought in the cities, whilst the Indonesian guerrillas within the jungles prepared to face whoever the victim was, the massacres were perpetrated by retreating Japanese soldiers who knew their reign was coming to an end. Whether this was a direct response to Jeussen’s actions or merely a copy of the atrocities committed during the Operation Zipper remains debated to this day. The subject of whether the many ‘reprisals’ conducted by Dutch soldiers on Japanese civilians and prisoners were officially encouraged remains equally contentious.

  Even as oil soaked rain drops mixed with the blood seeping into the soil from the manic slaughter, the Americans were no longer concerned with Indonesia. Through naval codes they could read the reports of the surviving officers of the Indonesian occupation to Tokyo, where they stated with full confidence that they had been attacked with gas, and awaited further instructions. For a junta so dedicated to virulent and apocalyptic announcements of their own righteousness, the Truman administration found their silence deeply concerning.

  The news of the Batavia raid was met with great alarm from the Supeme War Council, even as they sat personally safe under the hills outside Nagano. The Allies had never used gas before, and it was feared that the strike on Java that killed so many Japanese officers may have been a forewarning of what was to come. Though Japan had made great use of Chemical weaponry in their war against the Chinese, they had never allowed the deployment of gas against the western Allies , to the point that battlefield commanders were urged to ignore isolated tactical uses of gas by Allied forces and avoid retaliation.

  Considering the status of Japan in late 1945, this was a perfectly rational policy to maintain. Though the Allies had feared that vast amounts of Japanese gas had been stockpiled by the Japanese for use in the final battle for Kyushu as it had been in China, Japanese production of Chemical weaponry had been in decline for almost a decade with virtually nothing being produced after 1941 and had even ended Chemical warfare training for new recruits in 1942. Though the Japanese had recalled all chemical weaponry to the Home Islands in 1944, this had still only left them with an arsenal of 7,500 tonnes of Mustard, Chlorine and other gasses, which combined with a lack of bomber aircraft and artillery, left them unable to retaliate in any meaningful sense if the Allies were to attack. The predictable wind patterns of Japan as well as a serious shortage of gas masks had made this contingency especially worrying, with casualties predicted to be in the millions due to the Allies dominance of the skies.

  Though despite their Chemical deficiencies, the Japanese Biological warfare program was highly advanced, second only to the British in terms of destru
ctive potential and premier in their varied arsenal of Anthrax, Cholera, Botulism, Typhoid, Smallpox and a list of other horrors developed and turned into weaponry by the members of Unit 731, based in Manchuria under General Shirō Ishii. Whilst the British had experimented upon Sheep, Ishii had subjected thousands of Chinese, Russians, South East Asians and a small number of Allied prisoners and civilians to a vast number of sadistic experiments, often of dubious scientific value, in his quest to develop weapons that might break the stalemate in China.

  By the Summer of 1945 it was clear he had failed, and fearing a Soviet invasion from the north in the wake of their German allies surrender, the Unit had attempted to eradicate any signs of their presence and the atrocities that they had carried out, destroying their facilities at Pingfang , Dalian and Zhongma whilst the main staff integrated themselves into the Kwantung Army, before fleeing to Japan as their mainland empire collapsed in the face of the Soviet invasion. Though even as life’s work lay in ruins or in the hands of Japan’s enemies, it had not all been for nothing, for his greatest accomplishment, and the means to deliver it had accompanied him in his flight. In the face of American Chemical and Nuclear supremacy, the question was whether Bubonic Plague could prove to the decisive equaliser.

  At several times during the war the Japanese had flirting with using their ‘super weapon’ against the numerically and industrially superior Allied forces. Saipan, an island from where American bombers could reach Japan, was considered too dangerous to fall into American hands and in the prelude to the expected American invasion twenty biological warfare specialists and the equipment necessary to bombard the Americans with plague and other diseases had been sent to the island should the Japanese decide that it was too important to lose. However their ship had been sunk by an American submarine during their journey, and subsequent voyages were cancelled. Unit 731 had also been preparing weapons for the defence of Okinawa only for the Americans to land and surround the island before anything could be dispatched. Now the Americans were on Japan proper, a fact that made use of the fleas and rats that would carry the plague all the less attractive, for the often static frontline on Kyushu would almost certainly lead to the infection of Japanese troops as well, and with less access to medicines, could actually cause more casualties to themselves than the enemy. Use against Soviet occupied Hokkaido was also out of the question for this reason, not to mention the propaganda value of the Japanese attacking their own civilians, which could only help to legitimise whatever revolution Sanzo Nosaka claimed to be spreading. Though Japan was now a battlefield, it was where their most powerful weapon could not. Of course, that did not mean that there did not exist other targets further afield.

  The plan was uninspiringly dubbed "Operation PX". Initiated as a joint army-navy project, the operation called for Japan’s remaining 1-400 Submarine Aircraft Carriers to launch a biological attack against the West Coast of America, first by launching their planes to spread plague, cholera, and other pathogens from the air, then by having submarine crews themselves run ashore, carrying further germs amidst the chaos. The entire attack was a suicide mission even if it survived the high risk journey towards the US, but nonetheless the plan was finalised on 26th of March, 1945 and was due to proceed, until General Umezu Yoshijiro, Chief of the General Staff, stepped in and ordered the plan scrapped at the last minute.

  Yoshjiro had neither spoken in favour or against the Anami coup, this fact, along with his stature had allowed him to not only survive the wave of Court Martials and house arrests that had followed the events of August 15th, but also to remain on the Supreme War Council. Though most were in agreement that the plan seemed to be the best means of retaliation in case that the Americans chose to launch further Chemical attacks, he continued to protest their use passionately, arguing that it would only cause further Allied use of Chemical weapons rather than cease them. For the first time since the original Atomic Bombings, council meetings became heated again with both Anami and Yoshjiro beginning to abandon calm and etiquette over rants and insults. It was only when Yoshjiro’s position itself was overtly threatened that he proceeded to abstain from the further comment, though the enmities remained unresolved.

  As Japan’s two remaining I-400’s were recalled from their lone hunts against Allied, whilst Ishii was set to work breeding the flies that would be used against the unsuspecting residents of San Francisco, the bitterness and alarm within Yoshjiro grew.

  Several days later, he acted on them, for even if Kenji Doihara had indeed only wanted a drink and a game of Chess when he had called him at his home, the conversation would likely prove to be interesting nonetheless.

  Though he was arguably the second most powerful man in Japan, Kenji Doihara did not live in this bubble. A ruthless careerist, he had fought his way up from the poverty of his youth to lead the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, going on to fight a victorious intelligence war against both the Chinese guerrillas within Japanese occupied territory and those across the frontline. This had won him illustrious praise from the Japanese military establishment, and further promotions. By December 1945 he had been appointed the prestigious rank of Inspector General of Military Training, and had been given command of the huge 1st General Army, the force responsible for the defence of the Kanto Plain. His predecessor, Field Marshal Hajime Sugiyama had been deemed insufficiently patriotic in the wake of Anami’s coup d’etat, his role in the crushing of a failed coup in with similar aims in 1936 left Suhiyama suspect. Doihara had gotten where he was by never being suspect, keeping a self-centred state of mind, free from the Imperial and Religious delusions of others, he had been willing to join any clique that might raise his profile, and commit any act that might further his career. In this aim he now found himself too successful, he had amassed a huge power base, with roles that had left him almost solely responsible for the defence of Honshu but the deeds in which he had attained it, those of unprovoked aggression, slavery, forced prostitution, and his mass circulation of opium in China would ensure that he would hang should he have to face an Allied court.

  Due to this eventuality, it is little surprise that he had been one of the foremost supporters of the coup that had seen Anami installed and the war continued, he had been sceptical as to the merits of the ‘Decisive Battle’ strategy though he had thought it to at least have a chance of success, one that would ensure his prominence in Japanese society. He was right to be sceptical, as American atomic bombings had eradicated the chance of the Americans being pushed into the sea, even as they encountered ghastly casualties it was clear now to Kenji that American victory was assured, for they could replace their casualties with relative ease, whilst Japan had long scraped her barrels of experienced troops. He had little doubt that the Americans would eventually land on the Kanto Plain, where he would likely be outnumbered three to one, and without the massed reserves of Kamikazes, food, and ammunition that the Sixteenth Area Army on Kyushu were enjoying his own attempt at turning the Americans back could only have one outcome, not just the loss of his position, but likely his life. Kenji saw no glory in dying for an Emperor, especially not the meek little man that was currently the hostage of delusional buffoons, though he realised that a vengeful Allied War Crimes trial would likely take him by the noose if not by the sword. He could flee, but with the world universally contemptuous of the Anami regime, where could he hide, and for how long? With all the conventional options gone, there seemed to be only one, unorthodox, chance.

  He had gotten as far as far as he had in large part due to the vast array of connections that he had established for himself, and now he would utilise them to their greatest extent, all those who had supported the coup, but were now having doubts as to the success of the Decisive Battle, those who hated Anami for the way he put the Imperial System into disrepute, those who feared an impending Socialist revolution instigated by an encroaching Soviet Union, those who had been led to the believe the Americans only had two bombs. Those who wanted to prevent any attempt by Anami to provok
e biological and chemical reprisals against Japan by the Allies.

  Individually, and in small groups, he had begun facilitate discussions of the similar conclusions these groups had all come to, despite the divergent paths in which many had gotten there. Soon he would press home his own plan on how to proceed.

  SANDMAN: The Culmination of Operation Majestic

  Though the Japanese dreaded an immediate large scale Chemical follow-up to the assassination of Tanabe, Truman was personally furious at Jeussen’s insubordinate actions, a fact that had been explained to him by the Australian ambassador who had also confirmed that he had used Mustard Gas that the United States alongside their British allies had sent to the Australians in case of a Japanese invasion of their homeland. Whether the Japanese on the island had incorrectly identified the aircraft as an American bomber, or one of the Mustard Gas bombs had turned out to be a dud with American designations on it, he could only speculate, though it was clear from the de-encrypted Japanese naval codes that the Japanese had somehow come to believe that the attack was of American origin. The fact that they had remained eerily quiet about this potential propaganda coup invited several questions and those who had advocated the use of gas as they had seen the casualties on Kyushu mount reckoned that they had the answers. The Japanese were treading carefully on the gas issue because they were terrified that the weapon would be their undoing, which also likely meant that they had little means on retaliation. Though it was impossible to correctly guess that the Japanese only had a miniscule supply of gas, it was readily apparent that they were running out of aircraft and artillery to deliver it. The United States on the other hand, had no such limitations.