The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 (Modern Library War)

by Toland, John

  19 To the Marianas

  Saipan: interviews with Shizuko (Miura) Sugano, Mitsuharu Noda, Mariano Sablan, Manuel Sablan, Joe Sakisat, John Rich, Vicente Guerrero, Tony Benavente, Jose Pangelinan and Colonel Takashi Hirakushi; The End at Saipan, by Shizuko (Miura) Sugano; Campaign in the Marianas, by Philip A. Crowl; SMITH, U. S. Marine Corps; SEMPER FIDELIS; MORISON, New Guinea and the Marianas; and Saipan: The Beginning of the End, by Major Carl W. Hoffmann, USMC.

  The Koga case: interviews with Jim Cushing, Admiral Shigeru Fukudome, Colonel Fabian Sanchez, Major Jesus Ybanez, Captain Manuel Segura and Mrs. Yuji Yamamoto; “The Capture of Admiral Koga,” a newspaper article by Gregorio M. Mercado; Allied Intelligence Bureau, by Colonel Allison Ind.

  Miscellaneous: interviews with Generals Kenryo Sato and Eugen Ott; Admirals Jinichi Kusaka, Ryunosuke Kusaka and Sokichi Takagi; Major Yoshitaka Horie; Captain Tsunezo Wachi; Marquis Kido; Yoshio Kodama; and Hideo Edo; “The Failure of the Japanese Convoy Escort,” by Yoshitaka Horie, in USNIP (October 1956); article by George Sansom in International Affairs (October 1948); MATLOFF; FORRESTAL; Tarawa, by Robert Sherrod; CROWL & LOVE; History of Naval Battles in the Pacific, by Admiral Sokichi Takagi; Undersea Victory, by W. J. Holmes; Japan’s Economy in War and Reconstruction, by Jerome B. Cohen; and The Diary of Fumimaro Konoye. The last book is a secret diary kept by Prince Konoye from June 21, 1944, through July 24, 1944, while under surveillance by the kempeitai. He dictated the entries to his secretary, Fukumatsu Ueno, who kept the document (a thick university notebook) with him at all times because of its explosive contents—at the time, Prince Konoye was plotting to overthrow Tojo and end the war. While escaping from a fire bombing in Tokyo in April 1945, Ueno lost the diary and it was presumed to have burned. According to Konoye’s mistress, the prince (who had once said that all diaries were useless) wept when he learned of the loss.

  In October 1967 the notebook was found among the effects of a man who had just died; there was no connection between him and Ueno or Prince Konoye. The handwriting was authenticated as Ueno’s, and the diary was returned to the Konoye family; it is now at the Yomei Library in Kyoto. In 1968 the diary was published in Tokyo by Kyoto Press.

  As the war progressed, Tojo became increasingly convinced that the independence of the Supreme Command was contributing to Japan’s military reverses. After the war he told interrogators, “I am not saying that the independence of the Supreme Command is a bad thing. There are some good points about it too; for example, being able to conduct operations without political interference. It was a good thing in 1890, when the Constitution was established for the High Command to be untrammeled, but these days, when the influence of a single action is felt around the world, a certain amount of control by the political authority is necessary. However, under the Japanese system it was impossible.”

  20 “Seven Lives to Repay Our Country!”

  Battle of the Philippine Sea: interviews with Admirals Sueo Obayashi and Ryunosuke Kusaka; Captains Toshikazu Ohmae and Shigeo Hirayama; and Mitsukuni Oshita; USSBS Navy interrogations #9 (Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita) and #3 (Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa); “The Shokakus,” by Hajime Fukaya, in USNIP (June 1952); The Magnificent Mitscher, by Theodore Taylor; FORRESTAL; Battles of the Philippine Sea, by Charles A. Lockwood and Hans Christian Adamson; GARFIELD; KING & WHITEHILL; MORISON, New Guinea and the Marianas; and POTTER & NIMITZ.

  Saipan: interviews with Shizuko (Miura) Sugano, Ryoko Okuyama, John Rich, Mitsuharu Noda and Colonel Takashi Hirakushi; “A Lone Survivor at Saipan—Isle of Death,” by Ryoko Okuyama, in Fujin Koron (December 1966), and Left Alive on Saipan, the Island of Suicide, by the same author; SUGANO; CROWL; SEMPER FIDELIS; SMITH, U. S. Marine Corps; CRAVEN & CATE; HOFFMANN.

  Miscellaneous: interview with Marquis Kido; THE KONOYE DIARY; and Information Never Reached the Emperor, by Morisada Hosokawa.

  21 “Let No Heart Be Faint”

  Leyte: interviews with President Sergio Osmeña; Generals Carlos Romulo and Yoshiharu Tomochika; Admiral Ryunosuke Kusaka; Lieutenant Colonel Shigeharu Asaeda; Eduardo Montilla, Bob Price, Joe Price, Cesario Sipaco, Valeriano Abello, Vicente Quintero, and the following members of the 16th Division: Waichi Ito, Shinjiro Terasaki, Sadahiro Yamada, Kiichiro Yamada, Kazuyuki Okumura, Hideichi Nakamura, Noboru Furukawa, Dr. Yoichi Misaki, Kunio Nishimura and Hiroshi Morishima; “The True Facts of the Leyte Operation,” a monograph by Major General Yoshiharu Tomochika; “Souvenir Program on the 13th Anniversary Celebration Leyte Landing of the American Forces of Liberation,” compiled by the Tacloban Lions Club; “Lovely Americans,” by Robert Shaplen, in The New Yorker (November 28, 1944); “35th Army Operations, 1944–1945” (official report); Command Decisions, prepared by Office of the Chief of Military History; TAYLOR; MATLOFF; HALSEY & BRYAN; KING & WHITEHILL; End of the Ogasawara Army Corps, compiled by Yoshitaka Horie, and others; The Approach to the Philippines, by Robert Ross Smith; Leyte: The Return to the Philippines, by M. Hamlin Cannon; Decision at Leyte, by Stanley L. Falk; Reminiscences, by General Douglas MacArthur; and MacArthur’s Amphibious Navy, by Daniel E. Barbey.

  Miscellaneous: interviews with Prince Mikasa, Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, Marquis Kido, General Kenryo Sato, Admirals Naokumi Nomura and Sokichi Takagi, Colonel Sei Matsutani, Morisada Hosokawa, and Mrs. Hideki Tojo; “Strategic Aspects of the Battle off Formosa,” by Vice Admiral Shigeru Fukudome, in USNIP (December 1952); IMTFE documents #58228 and #53405 (Admiral Keisuke Okada); Memoir of the Termination of the War, by Sokichi Takagi; The History of the Great Rightists, by Bokusui Arakara; HOSOKAWA; THE KONOYE DIARY; Diaries in Darkness (diaries of civilians), compiled by Kiyoshi Kayosawa, and others; and COHEN.

  22 The Battle of Leyte Gulf

  Interviews with Admirals Tomiji Koyanagi, Kiyohide Shima, Keizo Komura and Ryunosuke Kusaka; Captains Toshikazu Ohmae and Tatsumaru Sugiyama; Shigeo Hirayama, Kenkichi Kato and Sadae Ikeda; Commander Shigeru Nishino; Lieutenants Heiya Yamamoto, Wahei Asami and Masanao Naito; Ensign Fukujiro Shimoyama; Kiyoshi Takahashi, Shiro Hosoya, Taro Sato and Hisao Tomokane; “The Japs Had Us on the Ropes,” by Rear Admiral C. A. F. Sprague and Lieutenant Philip H. Gustafson, in American magazine (April 1945); “With Kurita in the Battle for Leyte Gulf,” by Rear Admiral Tomiji Koyanagi, in USNIP (February 1953); “Battle Stations Submerged,” by Lieutenant Commander R. C. Benitez, loc. cit.; USSBS Navy interrogations #69 (Rear Admiral Chiaki Matsuda), #58 (Commander Kokichi Mori), #55 (Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa), #41 (Commander Tonosuke Otani), #35 (Rear Admiral Tomiji Koyanagi) and #9 (Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita); The Kurita Fleet, by Tomiji Koyanagi; MORISON, Vol. XII, Leyte; ITO; The Divine Wind, by Rikihei Inoguchi, Tadashi Nakajima and Roger Pineau; FALK, Leyte; LOCKWOOD & ADAMSON; TAYLOR; HALSEY & BRYAN; and Battle Report: The End of an Empire, by Walter Karig, and others.

  23 The Battle of Breakneck Ridge

  Interviews with Generals Tomochika and Miyauchi; Lieutenant Colonel Shigeharu Asaeda; Kiyoshi Kamiko, Yoshio Noguchi, Noboru Furukawa and Hiroshi Morishima; “Staff Studies of the Japanese 35th Army on Leyte,” by Colonel Toshii Watanabe; “Operations of the 1st Japanese Division on Leyte,” a report by Colonel Junkichi Okabayashi; TOMOCHIKA, “Leyte Operation”; I Didn’t Die on Leyte, by Kiyoshi Kamiko; FALK, Leyte; and CANNON.

  In August 1966 I accompanied a Japanese party (fifty survivors and relatives of soldiers who had died) to Leyte. The survivors collected the remains of comrades who had fallen, and the entire party conducted a number of Shinto memorial services at the battle sites. Kamiko and Noguchi re-enacted their battle experiences on Breakneck Ridge.

  24 Debacle

  Leyte: interviews with Generals Yoshiharu Tomochika and Yoshio Miyauchi; Captain Arashi Kamimura; Kiyoshi Kamiko, Yoshio Noguchi, Hiroshi Morishima, Noboru Furukawa, Eduardo R. Bugho (and other members of the 4th Leyte Warfare Guerilla Brigade), Ricardo P. Negru and Zoilo Andrade; two reports: “The Relief of Lieutenant General Shimpei Fukue of His Command of the 102nd Division” and “35th Army Operations, 1944–1945.”

  Pri
soners of war: correspondence with Calvin Graef, Donald Meyer, Colonel James O. Gillespie, Colonel Curtis Beecher; Lieutenant Colonels Virgil O. McCollum and Adrianus J. van Oosten, and Major Roy L. Bodine, Jr.; “Notebook” of Colonel James O. Gillespie; “Five Came Back,” by Gene Weeks, in Hence (July–August–September 1946); an address, “Medical Experience in Japanese Prison Camp,” delivered by Major Samuel M. Bloom at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, on May 15, 1945; Jap POW Diary (unpublished), by Major R. L. Bodine, Jr.; “Hell Ships,” unpublished article by A. J. van Oosten; official report by Lieutenant Colonel O. O. Wilson; Prisoner of War, World War II, by Hugh H. Myers; and My Experiences during the War with Japan (privately printed), by Colonel V. N. Cordero.

  25 “Our Golden Opportunity”

  Burma: interviews with Generals Hideo Iwakuro and Tadashi Katakura; and Captain Hiromu Kumano and Sajibei Noguchi; “Retreat to the Chindwin,” by General Iwaichi Fujiwara, in History of the Second World War magazine, Vol. 5, No. 10; Defeat into Victory, by General William J. Slim; BA MAW.

  China: interviews with John Emmerson and Vice President Chen Cheng; “Propaganda Used against China by the China Expeditionary Army during ICHI-GO [Operation Ichi],” a report by Lieutenant Colonel Tadao Inoue; CHENNAULT; The Stilwell Papers; Thunder out of China, by Theodore H. White and Annalee Jacoby; Outline of the Course of Eight Years of Resistance (unpublished), by Chen Cheng; Stilwell’s Mission to China, Stilwell’s Command Problems and Time Runs Out in CBI, by Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland; The China Tangle, by Herbert Feis; China and the Helping Hand 1937–1945, by Arthur N. Young; FITZGERALD; VAN SLYKE; HSU KAI-YU; and CHIANG KAI-SHEK.

  Prisoners of war: see Notes for Chapter 24.

  Yalta: interviews with Ambassador W. Averell Harriman and Charles Bohlen; SNOW, “Fragments from F.D.R.”; The Last 100 Days, by John Toland; FRUS, The Conferences at Malta and Yalta 1945; KING & WHITEHILL; EDEN; The Meaning of Yalta, by John N. Snell, and others; LEAHY; and BIRSE.

  Miscellaneous: interviews with General Yoshiharu Tomochika, and with Shizuo Fukui; correspondence with Captain John F. Enright; “Statement on the Philippine Operations in 1944–1945,” by General Tomoyuki Yamashita at his trial; “Shinano: The Jinx Carrier,” by Lynn Lucius Moore, in USNIP (February 1953); THE KONOYE DIARY; HOSOKAWA; Mission with LeMay, by General Curtis E. LeMay, with MacKinlay Kantor; Triumph in the Philippines, by Robert Ross Smith; and Submarine, by Edward L. Beach.

  26 “Like Hell with the Fire Out”

  Interviews with Major Yoshitaka Horie, Captain Tsunezo Wachi, Dr. Masaru Inaoka, John Rich, Toshihiko Ohno, Satoru Omagari, Kiyomi Hirakawa and Yoshimi Fujiwara; a series of interviews conducted by Major Horie for this book in 1970; “Translation of Diary Found on Dead Japanese Officer on Iwo Jima” by a patrol from C Company, 147th Infantry, March 27, 1945; “A Japanese Remembers Iwo Jima,” by Toshihiko Ohno, in the New York Times Magazine (February 14, 1965); “Iwo Jima,” by Yasuo Kato in Jiji Shimpo (February 18, 1952); “Prisoners of War,” article by Yoshitaka Horie; Fighting Spirit—Iwo Jima (unpublished), by Yoshitaka Horie; HORIE, End of the Ogasawara; SEMPER FIDELIS; Iwo Jima: Amphibious Epic, by Lieutenant Colonel Whitman S. Bartley; Iwo Jima, by Richard F. Newcomb; The Hero of Iwo Jima, by William Bradford Huie; MORISON, Vol. XV, Victory in the Pacific; VANDEGRIFT (with ASPREY); Thirty Years, by John P. Marquand; and The Assault, by Allen R. Matthews.

  The letter Rear Admiral Toshinosuke Ichimaru addressed to President Roosevelt was found by a Marine in a cave in the northern part of the island. It is now in the museum of the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. It is reprinted here in full:

  Rear Admiral T. Ichimaru of the Japanese Navy sends this note to Roosevelt. I have one word to give you upon the termination of this battle.

  Approximately a century has elapsed since Nippon, after Commodore Perry’s entry to Shimoda, became widely affiliated with the countries of the world. During this period of intercourse, Nippon has met with many national crises, as well as the undesired Sino-Japanese War, Russo-Japanese War, the World War, the Manchurian Incident, and the China Incident. Nippon is now, unfortunately, in a state of open conflict with your country. Judging Nippon from just this side of the screen, you may slander our nation as a yellow peril, or a blood-thirsty nation, or maybe a protoplasm of military clique.

  Though you may use the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor as your primary material for propaganda, I believe you, of all persons, know best that you left Nippon no other method in order to save herself from self-destruction.

  His Imperial Highness, as clearly shown in the “Rescript of the Founder of the Empire” “Yosei” (Justice), “Choki” (Sagacity) and “Sekkei” (Benevolence), contained in the above three-fold doctrine, rules in the realization of “Hakko-ichiu” (the universe under His Sacred Rule) in His Gracious mind.

  The realization of which means the habitation of their respective fatherlands under their own customs and traditions, thus insuring the everlasting peace of the world.

  Emperor Meiji’s “The four seas of the world that are united in brotherhood will know no high waves nor wind” (composed during the Russo-Japanese War), won the appraisal of your uncle, Theodore Roosevelt, as you yourself know.

  We, the Nippon-jin, though may follow all lines of trade, it is through our each walk of life that we support the Imperial doctrine. We, the soldiers of the Imperial Fighting Force take up arms to further the above stated “doctrine.”

  Though we, at the time, are externally taken by your air raids and shelling, backed by your material superiority, spiritually we are burning with delight and enjoying the peace of mind.

  This peacefulness of mind, the common universal stigma of the Nippon-jin burning with fervour in the upholding of the Imperial Doctrine may be impossible for you and Churchill to understand. I hereupon pitying your spiritual feebleness pen a word or two.

  Judging from your actions, white races, especially you Anglo-Saxons at the sacrifice of the coloured races, are monopolizing the fruits of the world.

  In order to attain this end, countless machinations were used to cajole the yellow races, and to finally deprive them of any strength. Nippon in retaliation to your imperialism tried to free the oriental nations from your punitive bonds, only to be faced by your dogged opposition. You now consider your once friendly Nippon a harmful existence to your luscious plan, a bunch of barbarians that must be exterminated. The completion of this Greater East Asia War will bring about the birth of the East Asia Co-Prosperity Area, this in turn will in the near future result in the everlasting peace of the world, if of course, it is not hampered upon by your unending imperialism.

  Why is it that you, an already flourishing nation, nip in bud the movement for the freedom of the suppressed nations of the East. It is no other than to return to the East that which belongs to the East.

  It is beyond our contemplation when we try to understand your stinted narrowness. The existence of the East Asia Co-Prosperity sphere does not in anyway encroach upon your safety as a nation; on the contrary, will act as a pillar of world peace insuring the happiness of the world. His Imperial Majesty’s true aim is no other than the attainment of this everlasting peace.

  Studying the condition of the never ending racial struggle resulting from mutual misunderstanding of the European countries, it is not difficult to feel the need of the everlasting universal peace.

  Present Hitler’s crusade of “His Fatherland” is brought about by no other than the stupidity of holding only Germany, the loser of the World War, solely responsible for the 1914–1918 calamity and the deprivation of German’s re-establishment.

  It is beyond my imagination of how you can slander Hitler’s program and at the same time cooperate with Stalin’s “Soviet Russia” which has as its principle aim the “socialization” of the world at large.

  If only the brute force decides the ruler of the world, fighting will everlastingly be repeated, and never will be world know peace nor happiness.

  Upon the attainment of yo
ur barbaric world monopoly, never forget to retain in your mind the failure of your predecessor President Wilson at his heights.

  27 The Flowers of Edo

  Interviews with Rikuro Iwata, Emi Sekimura, Yoshie Sekimura, Tosaku Hayashiya, Yuichiro Kominami and Susumu Takahashi; USSBS Navy interrogation #28 (Major Hiroshi Toga); KIYOSAWA; The Diary of Jun Takami; The Broader Way, by Sumie Mishima; LEMAY (with KANTOR); A Torch to the Enemy, by Martin Caidin; CRAVEN & CATE, Vol. V, The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki; SMITH, Triumph; PRINCE HIGASHIKUNI; HOSOKAWA; and BA MAW.

  28 The Last Sortie

  The last sortie: interviews with Admirals Keizo Komura and Ryunosuke Kusaka; Commander Tochigi Terauchi; and Lieutenant Akira Yunoki; “Okinawa Area Naval Operations,” Japanese Monograph #83 (OCMH); USSBS Navy interrogation #32 (Commander T. Miyamoto); Sea of Lamentation, by Captain Jiro Nomura; FORRESTAL; ITO; and Japanese Destroyer Captain, by Captain Tameichi Hara.