U.S. Army Chief of Staff George Marshall estimated Japanese troop strength in Kyshand the RykyIslands (not including Okinawa) at half a million. In southern Kyshalone, the number of Japanese soldiers had increased from 80,000 to 206,000 men, according to a report received by MacArthur’s headquarters on July 29, “with no end in sight.”
Marshall had originally projected Japanese Army, Navy, and Air ground forces on Kyshat 350,000 by November 1, 1945, but the Japanese had attained that number more than a month before Potsdam. By August 2 the U.S. War Department’s Military Intelligence Service put Japanese manpower on Kyshat 534,000, a figure that would be revised to 549,000 and then to 600,000. In actuality, the Japanese had assigned 900,000 troops to the defense of Kyshalone. The final estimate for the combined strength of Japanese forces in the Home Islands, according to the Joint Intelligence Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was raised to 2.6 million men.
In spite of upwardly revised estimates of Japanese manpower, Marshall held to an American-led invasion force of 766,700. American casualties were estimated “at a minimum a quarter of a million,” Truman wrote, quoting Marshall. This was nearly twice the casualty figure for MacArthur’s campaigns in the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa combined. Japanese military and civilian deaths on Kyshhave since been conservatively projected at 580,000 to 630,000. But before the wording of the Potsdam Declaration was even finalized, Truman made a fateful decision.
On August 8, 1945, the cooks at Maruyama went out of the camp for provisions and returned with a copy of the Asahi Shimbun that ran a tantalizing headline: “ENEMY DROPS NEW-TYPE BOMB ON HIROSHIMA. AIR RAID CONDUCTED BY SMALL NUMBER OF B-29S. CONSIDERABLE CASUALTIES; PARTICULARS UNDER INVESTIGATION.” The subhead added: “Attached to a Parachute, Exploded in Mid-Air. A Savage New Bomb with a Disregard for Humanity.” Based on an Imperial General Headquarters communiqué, the full text of the article ran as follows:A little after 8 a.m. on the 6th, a small number of enemy B-29s penetrated Hiroshima and dropped a small number of bombs. As a result, a considerable number of buildings in the city were destroyed, while fires broke out all over the city. It appears the enemy used a new-type bomb in this attack, and it appears that this bomb was dropped with a parachute and exploded in mid-air. Investigation is under way regarding the power of the bomb, but it cannot be taken lightly.
In using this new-type bomb, the enemy has openly undertaken a scheme to kill and maim innocent people. We must not overlook the fact that impatience with the course of the war lies behind the enemy venturing to engage in this inhumane action. The enemy that has engaged in such inhumane savagery has no right to immediately resume talking about justice and humanity.
It is expected that the enemy will use similar bombs in the future, and the authorities will provide direction concerning countermeasures, but until then it is necessary to accelerate existing anti-air raid measures, namely, the rapid evacuation of cities, as well as the preparation of underground air-raid shelters and other measures. As we have seen in this latest enemy attack, although it was a raid by a small number of planes, it is dangerous to treat such an attack too lightly.
In conjunction with the first use of the new-type bomb, the enemy has engaged in all kinds of exaggerated propaganda, and it appears that Truman has already made an announcement concerning the use of a new-type bomb. We must not be distracted by this, but every one of us, each with his own strong spirit of enmity, must intensify his air-raid precautions.
The account in the English-language Mainichi Shimbun, “A National Newspaper for International Readers,” was nearly as brief as the official one:A small number of enemy B-29s penetrated into Hiroshima on August 6 shortly after 8 a.m. and dropped a number of explosive bombs, as a result of which a considerable number of houses in the city were destroyed and fire broke out in various places.
It seems that the enemy dropped new-type bombs attached to parachutes which exploded in the air. Although details are still under investigation, their explosive power cannot be made light of.
What neither newspaper stated because of a dearth of information was that 118,661 civilians had been killed in a flash, and an additional 79,130 were injured. The lack of details, coupled with a seriousness of tone on the one hand and moral castigation on the other, signified an event of extraordinary magnitude that was utterly without precedent.
The news was puzzling to the POWs in Maruyama. A small number of planes? A small number of bombs? It could mean only one thing, thought Murray, who had minored in physics and was well aware of Ernest Rutherford’s experiments in splitting the atom. Surely, he told Fred, it was an atom bomb.
Hiroshima lies 150 miles from Kōbe. Less than twenty-four hours before the bombing, theoretical physicist Mimura Yoshitaka of Hiroshima Bunri University was lecturing 600 army officers from the Hiroshima garrison.
“Could you tell us, sir, what the atomic bomb is?” asked a young lieutenant colonel. “Is there any possibility that the bomb will be developed by the end of this war?”
“Well, it’s difficult to say,” the professor replied, after explaining that Dr. Nishina Yoshio and scientists at the Tōkyō Institute of Physics and Chemistry had solved the mystery of nuclear fission. “But I can tell you this much: not before the end of this war.”
In Tōkyō, Foreign Minister Tōgō Shigenori advised Hirohito that the Potsdam Declaration should be accepted as soon as possible on the dubious grounds that it would not compromise His Majesty’s sovereignty. The emperor instructed Tōgō to inform Prime Minister Suzuki that the war should be terminated without delay. Japan could not risk another tragedy such as Hiroshima. But an emergency meeting of the Supreme War Leadership Council was mysteriously postponed because one of its members had to attend to “more pressing business.”
Back in Washington, Truman warned that “a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on earth,” would ensue if Japan did not accept the Allied terms of surrender. MacArthur, who like Nimitz learned of the atom bomb only shortly before it was deployed, felt that it was “completely unnecessary from a military point of view” to effect a Japanese surrender.
That same day in Moscow Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov divulged to Japanese ambassador Satō Naotake that “the Soviet Government declares that from tomorrow, that is from August 9, the Soviet Union will consider herself in a state of war against Japan.”
On August 9, three months after Germany’s surrender, the USSR invaded Manchuria. Later that morning an emergency meeting of the Supreme War Leadership Council was convened. At 1102, while the meeting was in session, the B-29 known as Bock’s Car unleashed a plutonium bomb 1,540 feet over Nagasaki.
William L. Laurence of The New York Times accompanied the mission. “Does one feel any pity or compassion for the poor devils about to die?” he asked. “Not when one thinks of Pearl Harbor and of the Death March on Bataan.” As a result, 73,884 people perished and 74,909 were injured.
Laurence watched an entire city vanish beneath a pillar of fire that in a matter of seconds rose 60,000 feet in the air. Yet his words reflected the national sentiment as articulated by President Truman:Having found the bomb, we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans.
Prime Minister Suzuki, Foreign Minister Tōgō, and Navy Minister Admiral Yonai argued in favor of accepting the Potsdam Declaration on condition that the imperial house and throne be preserved. Army Minister General Anami and the chiefs of staff of the army and navy, General Umezu and Admiral Toyoda, refused to make any further concessions. The conference was deadlocked. Just before midnight a full-dress meeting was held before the emperor in a bomb shelter beneath the Imperial Palace. Finally, at 0200 on August 10, Suzuki ro
se and said softly:Gentlemen, we have spent hours in deliberation without coming to a decision and yet agreement is not in sight. You are fully aware that we cannot afford to waste even a minute at this juncture. I propose, therefore, to seek the imperial guidance and substitute it for the decision of this conference.
Then the forty-five-year-old emperor made his “sacred decision,” or seidan. “That it is unbearable for me to see my loyal troops disarmed goes without saying,” Hirohito acknowledged. “But the time has come to bear the unbearable.” Japan would surrender “with the understanding that the said declaration does not comprise any demand which prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as a Sovereign Ruler.”
Washington replied through a San Francisco broadcast that reached Tōkyō around 0400 on August 12. The formal American response arrived in Tōkyō from Secretary of State James Byrnes via the Swiss government on the morning of August 13. The ruling authority of the emperor and of the government of Japan was to be “subject to the Supreme Commander of Allied Powers who will take such steps as he deems proper to effectuate the surrender terms.” The emperor would be required to order the Japanese Army, Navy, and Air Force “to cease active operations” and lay down their arms. In addition,Immediately upon the surrender the Japanese Government shall transport prisoners of war and civilian internees to places of safety, as directed, where they can quickly be placed aboard Allied transports.
The ultimate form of government of Japan shall, in accordance with the Potsdam Declaration, be established by the freely expressed will of the Japanese people.
Washington’s response did not explicitly accept Tōkyō conditions. In the meantime Truman ordered the continuation of the bombing of Japan. Amagasaki, near Ōsaka and Kōbe, was targeted on August 10-11. Tsuchizaki, 95 percent of which had been destroyed, was scheduled for August 14-15. Between August 11 and August 14, B-29 attacks caused another 1,250 deaths and 1,300 injuries. Tōkyō would be the next target, Truman hinted to the Duke of Windsor on August 14, with a third plutonium-type bomb if Japan did not unconditionally agree to the Allies’ terms. The American reply had to be accepted immediately, Hirohito told Tōgō, a demand he reiterated at a joint imperial conference of the cabinet ministers and the Supreme War Leadership Council on the morning of August 14:If we do not terminate the war at this juncture, our unique national structure will be destroyed and our nation will suffer extermination. If we save anything, be it ever so little, we could yet hope to rebuild the nation in the future. I urge upon you, therefore, to accept the reply at once and save the nation, alleviating their untold sufferings.
“The Emperor was in tears when he pronounced his verdict,” said Kase Toshikazu of the Japanese Foreign Office. Hirohito made no mention of the “untold sufferings” of Allied prisoners of war in Japan.
At noon on August 15, 1945, the guards at Maruyama were huddled over a radio. The sight struck Fred Berley as distinctly odd. They were listening to a high, reedy voice they had never heard before, the sacred Voice of the Crane. In a six-minute recorded broadcast, the emperor, in formal court language, read the Imperial Rescript Ending the War:After pondering deeply the general trends of the world and the actual conditions obtaining in our Empire today we have decided to effect a settlement of the present situation by resorting to an extraordinary measure.
We have ordered our Government to communicate to the Governments of the United States, Great Britain, China, and the Soviet Union that our Empire accepts the provisions of their joint declaration.
The speech presented Hirohito as a pacifist and antimilitarist and adumbrated a new role for him in postwar Japan. Japan’s aggression against America and Britain, the emperor explained, was never meant “to infringe upon the sovereignty of other nations or to embark upon territorial aggrandizement.” On the contrary, it was intended “to ensure Japan’s self-preservation and the stabilization of East Asia.” But despite nearly four years of “gallant fighting . . . the war situation,” he said with stunning understatement, “has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage, while the general trends of the world have all turned against her interest.” In the first official acknowledgment of the atomic bomb’s destructive power, he admitted that those trends included the enemy’s deployment of “a new and most cruel bomb” resulting in the loss of “many innocent civilian lives.”
Hirohito expressed neither regret to the peoples that Japan had vanquished nor remorse to his conquerors, only appreciation to his East Asian allies; that is, to his collaborators in Malaya, Indochina, and the Dutch East Indies. Nearly three million Japanese lay dead as a result of the war. While the emperor conceded that continued fighting would result in Japan’s complete destruction, the nation’s choice to cease hostilities, he suggested, was a noble sacrifice that would prevent “the total extinction of human civilization.”
We are keenly aware of the inmost feelings of all you, our subjects. However, it is according to the dictates of time and fate that we have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable. Having been able to save and maintain the structure of the Imperial State, we are always with you, our good and loyal subjects, relying upon your sincerity and integrity.
Beware most strictly of any outbursts of emotion that may engender needless complications, and of any fraternal contention and strife that may create confusion, lead you astray and cause you to lose the confidence of the world.
Let the entire nation continue as one family from generation to generation, ever firm in its faith in the imperishableness of its divine land, and mindful of its heavy burden of responsibilities, the long road before it. . . .
All you, our subjects, we command you to act in accordance with our wishes.
The words “surrender” and “defeat” were never even mentioned.
Hirohito’s words were heard by millions throughout Japan. Men and women openly wept. They knelt and bowed in the direction of the Imperial Palace to apologize for losing the war. Others were left scratching their heads. Radio announcer Wada Shinken reread the rescript in ordinary language. What did it mean? Wada made it clear when he remarked: “We ourselves invited a situation in which we had no choice but to lay down our arms. . . . Since the situation has developed this way, the nation will unite and, believing in the indestructibility of the divine land, put all of its energies into rebuilding for the future.” Few realized that in the predawn darkness there had been an army plot to seize Hirohito and free him from the hands of the defeatists; that the commanding general of his personal guard division had been assassinated; or that troops had surrounded the Imperial Palace in an attempt to impound his recorded message and enable him to prosecute the war.
The POWs at Maruyama had no idea why the camp guards had been listening so intently to the radio. Fred merely saw an opportunity to steal an ear of corn from the garden directly in front of where the guards were sitting. He shared it with John and Murray, and they ate the corn, cob and all.
Ōhashi seemed to have disappeared. When he called the POW doctors into his office, they knew something unusual had happened. Ordinarily Ōhashi wore an undershirt and house slippers. Today he was dressed in full military regalia. He sat behind his desk, his pallor wan, his demeanor dejected. In halting English he said, “For you—I have good news.” He trembled as he held a piece of paper. “The war is now past!”
Page put a hand to his forehead and staggered back. By God, it was true.
But the very phrasing of Ōhashi’s announcement suggested that the news was anything but good for the Japanese doctor.
Ōhashi proceeded to call a camp assembly and address the POWs at large. They were tense with anticipation. Could it be what they had hoped?
Ōhashi was brief and to the point. “The war is now over!” he said in heavily accented English. “There are three reasons. The emperor has ordered all countries to cease fighting.”
The POWs chuckled at that one.
“Th
e Americans have invented some kind of atomic bomb.”
There were murmurs of acknowledgment.
“And,” he concluded, “we have no more navy!”
The POWs roared with laughter. They whooped with joy, waved their arms, and slapped one another on the back. The Americans broke into “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the English and Australians joined in with “God Save the Queen,” and the Dutch followed with “Wilhelmus.” The waiting and yearning, the scheming and dreaming, the abuse and neglect were finally over.
The Britishers quickly raised over the camp a Union Jack that they had stitched together from remnants of clothing. Down at Wakinohama flags from four nationalities—American, British, Dutch, and Chinese—flew overhead, to the annoyance of the Japanese. Old grudges were forgotten, old debts forgiven as the men anticipated their homecomings, made plans that they knew, this time, they could realize: the first home-cooked meal they’d eat, the first girl they’d call, the first movie they’d see.
And when the excitement died down, when their voices were hoarse from shouting, and when the thrill of the moment had tempered into reflection, they thought of their buddies left behind in the Philippines. Like George. But they’d be seeing him soon enough, right? It was only a rumor they’d heard about him, and by now they’d heard so many that they didn’t believe any. They’d have that blowout in San Francisco after all, and at Murray’s expense!
Conduct Under Fire Page 57
