For That One Day: The Memoirs of Mitsuo Fuchida, Commander of the Attack on Pearl Harbor

by Tadanori Urabe

  When the opportunity arose, the US Army launched a counter-attack on Luzon Island, and that totally changed the situation. The Japanese Army suffered a defeat in the battle on the Manila Plain, and they were chased into the mountains of Luzon, where they barricaded themselves in trenches, determined to fight to the death rather than surrender. Taking advantage of the situation, guerrillas in North Luzon attempted to infiltrate behind Japanese lines. The Japanese Army had already lost its ability to stage organized resistance against the US, which was tightening the noose on the front lines, but they still retained the ability to annihilate the native guerrillas to their rear. In reality, the Japanese Army was already a defeated entity without any order.

  During this chaotic situation, Japanese soldiers discovered the hiding place of the missionary Covell and his wife. When they searched through the couple’s possessions, they found a small radio receiver. The soldiers decided that this was a secret communications device and executed the couple for engaging in espionage. They beheaded them on the spot with a Japanese sword. It was indeed an act of atrocity.

  Before long, US forces occupied the area. The execution of the Covells came to light as local witnesses came forward. This led to war crimes trials later. Lieutenant General Masaharu Honma and General Tomoyuki Yamashita, commanders of the Philippines, were tried and executed, having been accused of dereliction of duty in overlooking and tolerating such acts of atrocity by the Japanese Army.

  Eventually, these facts were communicated to the Covells’ daughter, Margaret, who had been looking after their house while waiting anxiously in Utah for her parents’ return. Now, she was abruptly told about her parents’ death and how they were executed by Japanese soldiers on suspicion of espionage. Her eyes filled with tears of sorrow, and she felt an uncontrollable strong rage against the Japanese soldiers who executed her beloved parents.

  She also received the testimony of locals who witnessed the execution. According to the witnesses, her parents had their hands bound and were blindfolded, but they continuously offered prayers.

  Margaret tried to think about how her parents prayed in their final moments on earth. Then, it occurred to her in her heart that, as the daughter of these parents, the meaning of their prayer was forgiveness, not hatred of those Japanese who killed them. She thought that it was the will of her parents that she provide comfort to the very Japanese she should have hated.

  However, she could not go to Japan anytime soon as the war was still going on. But she learned that there was a prison camp hospital for Japanese prisoners of war in the town where she lived. She imagined what a lonesome life it would be for someone with a sick and injured body to be imprisoned in a foreign country.

  She did not, after all, have to go as far as Japan. She could put her ideas into practice at the nearby hospital. Margaret immediately went to the hospital. After she explained her story to the hospital officials, she was allowed to work there with the title of social worker. And until the prisoners were repatriated to Japan, she visited the hospital every day for six months without fail, providing her heart-felt services.

  I was immensely moved by this story. After all, we have to put an end to the bitterness of hatred. Because of this story, I stopped my research on the cruel treatment of Japanese prisoners of war on the spot.

  On the way back, I kept thinking about this incident over and over again. But what I could not imagine was what the missionary couple’s last prayer might have been. I tried, but I had to give up.

  48

  I Was a Japanese Prisoner of War

  Back then, I was frequently summoned by GHQ. There were good reasons: I had been the lead commander of the Pearl Harbor attack at the start of the war, the Staff Commander of Naval Headquarters at the end of the war, and I was still alive. It is often said that the longer you live, the more shameful the experiences you have.

  I was summoned once again. The order was communicated through the police department. In this case, it was passed from Tokyo Metropolitan Police Headquarters to Nara Prefecture Police Headquarters, then to Kashiwara City Police Headquarters where I lived.

  At Kashiwara Police Headquarters, they treated me with great caution. A policeman brought me the call order, accompanied me to Kyoto Station and made sure that I got on the train as ordered by the Occupation Forces.

  It was December 3, 1949, my 47th birthday.

  I boarded the train at Kyoto Station and got off at Shibuya Station in Tokyo. I was in the square in front of Shibuya Station trying to catch a ride on an Occupation Forces bus as I intended to ask for lodging in the officers’ quarters at Washington Heights. The square was very crowded, and in the middle of the crowd, an American was handing out booklets to the Japanese passing by. When I passed in front of him, he gave me one as well. The title on the booklet’s cover page was, I Was a Japanese Prisoner of War, and there was a photo of a US Army corporal.

  While waiting for the bus, I sat on the bench in the square to read the booklet. What attracted my interest initially was when I read that the corporal in the photo was Jacob DeShazer, the bombardier of the 16th plane of the Doolittle Bombing Squadron, which carried out the first air-raid on Tokyo. This was an incident that I continued to be interested in.

  As I continued to read, what raised my interest further was that DeShazer’s story started from Pearl Harbor. When I led our 360 planes over Pearl Harbor and radioed the message, “Tora, Tora, Tora” meaning “We have succeeded with the surprise attack,” the corporal was on cook duty at an Army air base on the West Coast. When he heard the news, he flared up in hostility. “The Japs are going to have to pay for this!” and he ended up volunteering for the Doolittle Raiders. Intrigued by the introduction, I read through the rest of the booklet.

  DeShazer was born on December 15, 1912 in Salem, Oregon. His father was a missionary, but he also had a farm. However, his father died when he was two years old. His mother remarried when he was five years old. His stepfather was named Andrus, and he was engaged in farming in a village in northern Oregon. There was a small town called Madras nearby. It had a population of fewer than 300, but the town was self-sustaining. DeShazer completed all his school courses in Madras from elementary school to high school.

  Both his mother and stepfather were Christian. It was customary to read the Bible and pray every morning after breakfast, and they taught him about Jesus Christ. When he was a boy, he liked to listen to stories from the Bible. Every Sunday, he used to go to the Free Methodist Church in town with his parents. He attended Sunday school and listened fervently to stories about Jesus Christ.

  However, when he advanced to high school, he had reached the age when he began to criticize the opinions of others. He unwisely believed the words of his school teacher, who said that the stories in the Bible were not true. He thought that his scientifically oriented teacher, who said that the pursuit of truth was the objective of study, knew more about the truth than his parents, who believed in Christ as the truth.

  After that, he kept his distance from anything to do with Jesus Christ. While he did not openly rebel against his parents, he started to do things that he did not want others to know about. He gradually became an out-of-control teenager, played truant from school, smoked and even brawled. His mother and stepfather prayed for him. On one occasion, someone accused him of stealing a bag, and the police picked him up for theft. He said that he was sorry for what he had done. His parents continued to pray for him, and he was cured of his thieving habits by the power of prayer.

  After graduating from high school in 1931, he worked on a farm near his home. He was paid one dollar a day along with food. At 19 years of age, he already wanted to start his own family and to be independent. He worked hard but thought that, with his limited income, his dream would never come true.

  Before long, he found a fairly good job in California. He was taking care of sheep on a ranch near the border between California and Nevada. He spent two years enjoying this healthy outdoor job, riding horses and haulin
g goods by mule.

  After two years, he had managed to save $1,000, a sizable sum in those days. He decided to return to Oregon, where he used his money to start a business raising turkeys. Unfortunately, when the turkeys grew big enough to sell, the market declined. There was nothing left of the $1,000 after expenses were paid, and he had to discontinue the business.

  Around that time, war had broken out in Europe. It was the start of World War II. Before long, the United States armed forces began recruitment activities in anticipation of entry into the war.

  Jobless and single, DeShazer responded to a recruiting ad and enlisted in the Army. It was 1940. He was assigned as an aircraft technician and relocated for training to the McCord Army Aviation Squadron, located south of Tacoma, Washington.

  On December 7, 1941, Corporal DeShazer was on cook duty, when suddenly the radio broadcast news of the disastrous surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. He was furious and, burning with anger, wanted to do something, anything, to inflict revenge on Japan.

  Sometime later, he was summoned by his commanding officer. He nervously entered the commanding officer’s room, wondering if he had made another mistake. There were already a dozen or more fellow soldiers gathered there. Then, the commanding officer asked if he was willing to volunteer for a risky mission. He asked where he had to go for the mission, but he was not given an answer. The officer only said that it was a venture that would involve risking his life. Despite that, it seemed to be an excellent opportunity to pay back that cursed Japan, and he took the plunge and volunteered.

  After that, exciting days continued for him. He parted from his friends and was sent to Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. There, he received training as a bombardier for ultra-low altitude flights. Pilots received takeoff training with the shortest running distance possible. The commander was Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, and the planes were medium-range B-25B Mitchell bombers. Lieutenant William G. Farrow was the pilot of DeShazer’s plane.

  However, everything remained shrouded in secrecy. The crews were not told where they were going. Doolittle simply said it was still confidential. Nevertheless, based on the type of training they were put through, they were able to deduce that they were likely to take off from a carrier. Their practice drills always involved quick release takeoffs on short runways, and they carried heavy dummy bombs.

  After approximately one month of training at Eglin Field, they were ordered to move to San Francisco. On April 1, 1942, the B-25s were loaded onto the USS Hornet. There were 16 planes in total. Along with the planes, approximately 160 men, including air crews and maintenance staff, boarded the ship.

  At 10:00 in the morning the following day, the Hornet sailed out of San Francisco, passing under the Golden Gate Bridge. When the ship was approximately 10 nautical miles off the coast, an announcement boomed over the loudspeaker: “Our target is Tokyo.” Doolittle’s Raiders now knew their mission—air-raid over Tokyo.

  On the evening of April 17th, there was an announcement that the launching would finally take place the next day. However, soon after daybreak, a Japanese fishing boat was sighted. The light cruiser, USS Nashville, opened fire, and the boat was sent to the bottom of the sea almost immediately.

  Because the fleet had been sighted by the patrol fishing boat, the attack plan was changed. The launch schedule was advanced by 10 hours. This meant that instead of launching from 500 nautical miles off Japan’s coastline, the planes would take off for their target from a distance of 650 nautical miles. In short order, Doolittle, in the lead plane, safely took off, followed by the second, third, fourth…up to the 15th plane. All took off beautifully. Each plane flew independently; there were no formations. Now, it was time for the 16th plane, DeShazer’s plane, to take off.

  However, as they were preparing for takeoff, an accident happened. His plane was positioned at the rear of the Hornet, and the tail section was extended over the flight deck. The pitching was much more pronounced at the rear compared to the center, and a big wave hit an instant before they began their takeoff. The shock of the sudden, strong pitching caused the plane’s rear wheels to jump up. Then, the tail, which had been hanging over the flight deck, sank. The plane looked like it was standing on hidden hind legs, and the immediate danger was that it would slip off the deck and into the sea. Sailors tied a rope to the plane’s nose, but it was cut when Lieutenant Farrow started the engine. Then, all available sailors held on to the nose in order to bring the plane down until it was finally placed back to its proper fixed point on the deck. During this incident, an unfortunate sailor lost an arm when it was cut by the propeller.

  As a result of this accident, there was a big hole—about a foot in diameter— in the front windshield of the plane. The hole was to the right of the gun rack of DeShazer’s seat. This added further delay to the 16th and final plane’s launching. Commander Halsey had been running the Hornet at full speed towards Japan for over an hour. They had been detected by the Japanese side already, so they could be subjected to attack by Japanese planes at any time. Halsey needed to turn the fleet back as soon as possible.

  From the bridge, Halsey issued an order. He told the crews that if further delays were required, they were to cease launching procedures for the 16th plane and push it into the sea. The flight deck needed to be cleared to make it available for the Hornet’s normal contingent of fighter planes that were parked in the hangar.

  It was clear that there was no time to fix the hole in the windshield. In order to avoid losing his plane, Lieutenant Farrow decided to take off as it was. Over the plane’s intercom, DeShazer reported the damage to Farrow.

  Farrow sent co-pilot Lieutenant Robert L. Hite to check on the situation. Both Hite and DeShazer tried every possible emergency measure they could think of. For instance, they used a jacket to plug the hole, but it was blown away by the wind. Even under the best conditions, the big concern was fuel. This was a one-way bombing mission. So with this big hole in the windshield, the B-25B’s streamline shape, designed to conserve fuel, was of no use. DeShazer now got the meaning of what Farrow had said sometime ago: “Can you row a boat?” DeShazer thought that, “At this rate, I’ll probably end up rowing a life boat in the middle of the ocean. But at least we can drop bombs on Japan. Whatever happens, happens.”

  It was 9:30 in the morning when their damaged plane took off from the Hornet. By 1:00 PM, Japan came into sight. Their target was Nagoya. Farrow was flying at a low altitude of 500 feet. As the plane approached a mountain, it was almost touching the trees below. People on the ground waved, mistaking it for a Japanese plane.

  Farrow shouted, “Ready to drop bombs at 500 feet.” Bombardier DeShazer released the heavy bombs on oil tanks and scattered his incendiary bombs on factories. He was elated; he had his revenge for Pearl Harbor.

  When they finished their bombing run, the plane flew out to Ise Bay, maintaining their earlier low altitude. There were many fishing boats, and all the fishermen were waving at them. They also mistook them for a Japanese plane. In order to make them aware it was not a Japanese plane, DeShazer fired his machine-gun at the fishing boats.

  After they left Japan, they were supposed to head for the Chinese mainland and land at Lingshui Air Field, the base for Chiang Kai-shek’s Air Force. They reached China’s coastline at night, but because of bad weather, they did not know where they were. Then, the flight navigator, Lieutenant George Barr, said, “We are approaching Lingshui, anytime now.” Farrow called the base over the radio, but there was no reply. The fog retreated a bit, and they could see the lights from the town below, but the air field was nowhere in sight. The plane had been in the air for 14 hours already. Their fuel tank was completely empty. Finally, Farrow cried, “Everybody, parachutes on. Jump out of the plane.”

  It was 11:40 at night. The plane was flying at an altitude of 3,000 feet. First, Barr jumped off, followed by DeShazer. Their parachutes opened immediately, but it was completely dark, and it was impossible to see the ground. DeShazer recalled that he felt an i
ndescribable loneliness, floating in the middle of complete darkness.

  Before long, he hit the ground very hard, but it was a safe landing. It turned out that he had landed in a cemetery. On the round-shaped hill, there were several dirt burial mounds, and the hill was surrounded by rice fields.

  DeShazer fired his pistol at the sky above. There was no reason to, but he just wanted to calm himself down. Then, he started to walk. Before long, he found a small shrine by the side of a stream, and there were iron vessels for offering incense. DeShazer pushed them aside to make a crawlspace, and he dozed until daybreak.

  After the sun came up, he began walking but in no particular direction. He came across a telephone cable and, by following the cable, he found a road. He walked along the road and eventually came to a small village. He wanted to make sure that it was not occupied by Japanese troops. He entered a house alongside the road. He found two young soldiers inside. DeShazer could not tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese, so he asked in broken English, using hand gestures. DeShazer pointed his finger at his chest, saying, “America,” and, pointing at the soldiers, asked, “Chinese?” The answer was, “Chinese,” and one of the soldiers offered him a cigar. DeShazer felt totally relieved.

  After a short while, DeShazer decided to leave the house. When he looked up, there were about 10 soldiers with bayoneted rifles standing at the entrance. DeShazer was surprised and put his hand on the pistol at his waist. He asked with a loud voice, “Chinese? Japanese?” He was ready to shoot them if they were Japanese. But the answer was again, “Chinese.” Then, they held out their hands in a gesture of welcome, took DeShazer’s hand, patted his shoulder and started to walk outside. However, as soon as they got to the road, they pointed their rifles at his back, and soon he was surrounded. Their leader walked up to him and took his pistol. They were all Japanese soldiers. This is how DeShazer became a Japanese prisoner of war.