Conduct Under Fire

by John A. Glusman

  355 The American doctors: Calvin Robert Graef with Harry T. Brundidge, “We Prayed to Die,” Cosmopolitan 118, no. 4 (April 1945), p. 177.

  355 “If only we could”: Graef testimony, p. 4.

  355 1,378 sorties: Samuel Eliot Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, vol. 12, Leyte: June 1944-January 1945 (Edison, N.J.: Castle Books, 2001), p. 91.

  355 dispatched two wolf packs: Blair, Silent Victory, p. 746.

  355 Brodsky, who had: Brodsky statement.

  355 Hundreds of others: “U.S. Told 1,800 Americans Died in Japanese Prison Ship Sinking,” New York Times, February 17, 1945.

  355 On October 13: Wilber, Last Voyage, p. 191.

  356 “which had run off ”: Donald Ernest Meyer, affidavit, “In the Matter of the Atrocities Committed in Connection with the Sinking of the Japanese Prisoner of War Ship, Arisan Maru in the Bashi Channel, by an American Submarine on 24 October 1944,” May 20, 1946, p. 2.

  356 Major Robert B. Lothrop: Richard Huston, Casualty Data Officer, USA CILHI, to Mrs. Joanne Loomis Crandall, September 18, 2000. Courtesy Mrs. Joanne Loomis Crandall.

  356 Within the first forty-eight: Glenn Oliver, unpublished memoir, p. 163. Courtesy Mrs. Glenn Oliver.

  356 The first three: Graef, “We Prayed to Die,” p. 177.

  356 “there were dead all over”: Chuck Haga, “Survivor’s Tale,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, October 23, 1994.

  356 Calvin Graef had: Graef, “We Prayed to Die,” p. 177.

  356 Half canteen cups: Roberta Graef, author interview, January 22, 2002; sworn statement of Donald Ernest Meyer, May 23, 1946, Exhibit B in GHQ Investigation Division Reports No. 479, “Arisan Maru,” RG 331, Box 1780, Folder 4, NARA.

  356 Occasionally rotten vegetables: Graef testimony, p. 5.

  356 By contrast, the crew of: interrogation of Nishikawa Keizo in GHQ Investigation Division Reports No. 479, “Arisan Maru,” RG 331, Box 1780, Folder 4, NARA.

  356 The hatches were: Wilber, Last Voyage, p. 190.

  357 MATA-30: ibid., p. 195.

  357 The Arisan Maru and: Michno, Hellships , p. 250.

  357 Around October 23: Wilber, Last Voyage, pp. 198-99.

  357 At noon the Japanese: Donald Ernest Meyer, affidavit, “In the Matter of the Atrocities Committed in Connection with the Sinking of the Japanese Prisoner of War Ship Arisan Maru in the Bashi Channel, by an American Submarine on 24 October 1944,” May 22, 1946, p. 2, RG 153, Box 1431, NARA.

  357 There were no markings: Graef testimony.

  357 “a security matter”: Wilber, Last Voyage, p. 196.

  357 Wolf packs carried: Blair, Silent Victory, p. 509.

  357 Their skippers received: ibid., p. 542.

  357 The KokuryMaru: Suzuki Shō, interview by Ishii Shinpei, March 19, 2002, trans. for the author by John Junkerman.

  358 three American wolf packs: Michno, Hellships, p. 250.

  358 A total of 41,228 tons: Tonnage calculated from Roscoe, United States Submarine Operations, p. 524; “Japanese Naval and Merchant Vessels Sunk During World War II by United States Submarines,” pp. 527ff; “kills” taken from Michno, Hellships, pp. 250-51.

  358 The wind was blowing: Toshio Funatsu, testimony GHQ/Arisan Maru.

  359 A few of the men: Graef testimony.

  359 Graef glanced over: Graef, “We Prayed to Die,” p. 178.

  359 “C’mon, navy!”: ibid.

  359 A chaplain gave: Philip Brodsky, interview by George Burlage, December 13, 1989, p. 22, #815, UNTOHC.

  359 One of the 5-inch guns: Graef testimony.

  359 a terrific concussion: Perpetuation of Testimony of Philip Brodsky, WCO/JAG, September 5, 1946, p. 2, RG 153, Box 1431, NARA.

  359 A torpedo from: Avery E. Wilber, statement, December 5, 1944, RG 407, Box 146, NARA.

  359 The bow stayed level: Graef, Meyer, Cichy, and Wilber joint statement, p. 2.

  359 The stern, which: Tadashi interview.

  359 The U.S. Navy Security Station: RG 38, Box 1152, NARA.

  359 Heavy oil, clothing: Blair, Silent Victory, p. 770.

  359 “Tried to contact”: Snook, SS 279, 7th Patrol Report, and Seadragon, SS 194 , 11th Patrol Report, Submarine Force Library, Groton, Conn., courtesy Gregory F. Michno.

  359 Ed Blakely and: Michno, Hellships, pp. 253-54.

  359 First Lieutenant Funatsu Toshio: Graef testimony, p. 6.

  359 Then the Japanese cut: Graef, Meyer, Cichy, and Wilber joint statement, p. 2.

  359 “Remember just one thing”: Graef, “We Prayed to Die,” p. 178.

  360 An army chaplain: ibid.; see Wilber, Last Voyage, p. 208 and Roper, Brother of Paul, pp. 203-5.

  360 They could hear the: Oliver memoir.

  360 The Japanese took with: Tadashi interview.

  360 “We took care of them”: Graef testimony, p.6.

  360 The waves were: Robert S. Overbeck, statement, December 6, 1944, p. 4.

  360 At the sight: Brodsky interview, p. 23.

  360 They ransacked the: Brodsky testimony, p. 3.

  360 Overbeck crawled up: The Washington Post, “Maryland Survivor Says 1800 Lost.”

  360 His left arm was: Overbeck deposition.

  360 Calvin Graef had: Graef testimony, p. 7.

  360 When Don Meyer saw: Donald Ernest Meyer, testimony GHQ/Arisan Maru.

  360 Several Japanese seaplanes: Wilber, Last Voyage, p. 209.

  361 Once her boilers: Graef testimony, p. 7.

  361 at 1940: Wilber, Last Voyage, p. 204.

  361 Her position was: Shinshichiro Komamiya, Senji Yuso Sendan Shi (Wartime Transportation Convoys History), part 1, trans. William G. Somerville (Tōkyō : Shuppan Kyodosha, 1987).

  361 The nearest land: Avery E. Wilber, statement, December 5, 1944, p. 1.

  361 “Am discontinuing sweep”: I am grateful to Rear Admiral Donald M. Showers, U.S. Navy (Ret.), for attributing sources to these messages, February 22, 2003.

  361 “ARIYAMA MARU”: “ARIYAMA” should have read “ARISAN.” In all likelihood there was a mistake in decoding by the American crypt-analyst, or the code group that spelled “SAN” was garbled during transmission by the Japanese.

  361 “it was dark”: Fukuyama Tsuyoshi, testimony in GHQ/Arisan Maru.

  361 He had ordered: Ueyanagi Isamu, testimony in GHQ/Arisan Maru.

  361 The Take took on: Kimata Jiro, Zanson Suru Teikoku, p. 369.

  361 Shiga Hiroshi: Shiga Hiroshi, Saigo no nebi bru (1980), chap. 10.

  361 Overbeck saw a: Graef, Meyer, Cichy, and Wilber, joint statement, p. 2.

  361 He lifted the lid: Perpetuation of Testimony of Avery E. Wilber, WCO/JAG, May 2, 1946, RG 153, Box 1431, NARA.

  361 Sergeant Avery E. Wilber: Wilber statement; Wilber, Last Voyage, p. 211.

  361 Then at around 0900: Graef testimony, p. 8.

  362 Wilber sat in the: Wilber, Last Voyage, p. 213.

  362 In the meantime: ibid.

  362 During the next: Meyer affidavit, p. 4.

  362 The weather was: Gene Weeks, “Five Came Back,” Hence (July-August-September 1946), William H. Owne Papers, MHI.

  362 The POWs were: Calvin R. Graef, statement, December 5, 1944, p. 5.

  362 The POWs wanted: Cichy statement.

  362 “We go china”: Wilber, Last Voyage, p. 215.

  362 The Chinese made: Meyer affidavit, p. 5.

  362 They slept on deck: Graef statement, p. 6.

  362 On the afternoon of: Graef testimony, p. 8.

  362 They had landed: Michno, Hellships, p. 256.

  362 A security detail: Graef testimony, p. 7

  363 When they arrived in Kunming: www.cia.gov/cia/publications/oss/art09.htm.

  363 General Chennault: Wilber, Last Voyage, p. 222.

  363 From Kunming they: Graef testimony. Overbeck gives December 1, 1944, as the date of arrival in Washington, D.C.

  363 It didn’t seem possible: Graef statement.

  363 The ship was listing: Lawton, Some Survived, p. 117.
r />   363 The aft deck of: Oliver memoir, p. 164.

  363 “quite a few men”: ibid. 363 Among them were: Donald Meyer quoted in Tracy Seipel, “Echoes of World War II,” Denver Post, October 23, 1994.

  363 Brodsky was an: Brodsky testimony, p. 3.

  364 There were thirty or forty: Lawton, Some Survived, p. 119.

  364 a Japanese cruiser was heading: “Japanese Ship Torpedoed, Brodsky Fished from Sea,” Polyscope 2, no. 20 (Woodrow Wilson General Hospital, Staunton, Va.) (November 16, 1945), p. 1.

  364 “come on over”: Brodsky testimony, p. 4.

  364 they wouldn’t kill: Philip Brodsky, author interview, November 24, 2001, Cherry Hill, N.J.

  365 They’d had no food: Sally MacDonald, “He Survived,” Seattle Times, October 24, 1994, sec. F, p. 1.

  365 When they finally: Lawton, Some Survived, p. 128.

  365 Around 0700 the: Wilber, Last Voyage, p. 220.

  365 He tore off: statement of Boatswain Martin Binder, July 31, 1946, Liaison and Research Branch, American Prisoner of War Information Bureau.

  366 The sickest men: Lawton, Some Survived, p. 135.

  366 Brodsky ended up: Brodsky testimony, pp. 4-6.

  366 Binder had the: Binder statement, p. 3.

  366 Glenn Oliver was: Oliver memoir.

  366 One Japanese soldier: “Translated Extracts from Japanese Records,” vol. 2, “General Notes,” para. 4, Exhibit H, GHQ/Arisan Maru.

  367 “Human bombs,”: Mainichi Newspapers, Fifty Years of Light and Dark, p. 127.

  367 Special Attack Forces: See Ohnuki-Tierney, Kamikaze, pp. 159-60; Fifty Years of Light and Dark, pp. 127-28.

  367 “Nothing can be a greater”: Fifty Years of Light and Dark, p. 128.

  367 But victory eluded: “Battle for Leyte Gulf,” p. 11.

  367 “U.S. DEFEATS”: New York Times, October 26, 1944, p. 1.

  367 That same month: Statistical Summary: Attrition War Against Japanese Merchant Marine, from U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, “The War Against Japanese Transportation,” reprinted in Roscoe, Submarine Operations, p. 524.

  367 In the seven weeks: Compiled from Michno, Hellships, p. 316.

  367 By late December: Keegan, Encyclopedia , p. 154.

  367 The Americans had: U.S. Strategic Survey (Pacific), Naval Analysis Division, The Campaign of the Pacific War (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1946), p. 289.

  Chapter 22: Fire from the Sky

  368 They were young: St. Clair McKelway, “A Reporter with the B-29s,” Part 1, New Yorker, June 9, 1945, p. 56.

  368 Based in Saipan: Martin Caidin, A Torch to the Enemy: The Story of the Devastating Fire Raid Against Tokyo—March 10,

  1945 (New York: Ballantine Books, 1960), pp. 45ff.

  368 “I hated the Japanese”: Jules Stillman, author interview, May 16, 2003, Charlotte, N.C.

  369 “Here’s to you”: John Davidson, Jr., author interview, May 17, 2003, Charlotte, N.C.

  369 “Goddam Americans”: Caidin, Torch to Enemy, p. 20.

  369 In February 1944: Dear and Foot, Oxford Companion, p. 718.

  369 On June 15, 1944: Caidin, Torch to Enemy, p. 32.

  369 Those raids continued: Dear and Foot, Oxford Companion, p. 1076.

  369 The assault on Saipan: Keegan, Encylopedia , pp. 216-17.

  369 In the first forty-eight: Dear and Foot, Oxford Companion, p. 974.

  370 “Come out and surrender!”: quoted in Caidin, Torch to Enemy, p. 41.

  370 On June 24: “The Tragedy of Banzai Cliff,” Osaka International Peace Center, Ōsaka, Japan.

  370 On July 6: Keegan, Encyclopedia, p. 217.

  370 “take seven lives”: Caidin, Torch to Enemy, p. 44.

  370 Forced to retreat: Previous estimates have been as high as 4,000. Historian Richard B. Frank, in Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire (New York: Random House, 1999), states “the actual number of suicides probably did not much exceed one thousand” (p. 30).

  370 Suicide Cliff: Keegan, Encyclopedia, p. 217.

  370 “It was obvious”: quoted in Overy, Why the Allies, p. 301.

  370 Navy Seabees (Construction Battalion): Daws, Prisoners, p. 278.

  370 In August: Craven and Cate, Army Air Forces, p. 517.

  370 The aviation engineers: Caidin, Torch to Enemy, p. 48.

  370 On November 24: “Brief History of 497th Bombardment Group, 1943-46,” AFHRC, 1957, p. 8.

  370 More than 100: Craven and Cate, Army Air Forces, p. 558.

  370 “Piss-Call Charlie”: John Ciardi, Saipan: The War Diary of John Ciardi (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1988), p. 23.

  371 Eight to ten: Robert E. Copeland, Diary, November 27, 1944, entry, sallyann2/copeland1.html.

  371 Then one plane: See U.S. War Department, Handbook on Japanese Military Forces, pp. 53-75.

  371 “Words can’t describe”: Ed Lawson (né Levin), author interview, May 17, 2003, Charlotte, N.C.

  371 There were no foxholes: Chester Marshall, Lindsey Silvester, and Scotty Stallings, eds., The Global Twentieth (Memphis, Tenn.: Global Press, 1988), p. 3:251.

  371 three B-29s had gone: McKelway, “Reporter with B-29s.”

  371 “They shot hell”: Copeland, Diary, November 27, 1944, entry.

  371 Iwo Jima: Prentiss Burkett, The Unofficial History of the 499th Bomb Group (VH) (Temple City, Calif.: Historical Aviation Album, 1981), p. 13.

  371 Radio transmitters could: Caidin, Torch to Enemy, p. 108.

  371 “SuperDumbos”: Chester Marshall, Final Assault on the Rising Sun (London: Airlife, 1995), pp. 75-78.

  371 But fear shadowed you: “H. L. Peterson, 1st Sqdn., 9th Bomb Group, ‘The Kobe Premonition,’ ” in Marshall, Silvester, and Stallings, Global Twentieth, pp. 4:222-23.

  371 Hard not to be: ibid.

  372 Hard not to feel: Robert E. Copeland to Norma Copeland, n.d., courtesy William Copeland.

  372 “We functioned”: Ciardi, Saipan, p. 23.

  372 Ed Keyser: James B. Grim, in Marshall, Silvester, and Stallings, Global Twentieth, p. 2:111.

  372 From the Chamorro natives: Davidson interview.

  372 A new chemical: Heaton, Coates, and Hoff, Preventive Medicine, pp. 6:8-9.

  373 Ed Keyser kept: Ed Keyser, Diary, courtesy Ed Keyser.

  373 The planes were beautiful: Caidin, Torch to Enemy, p. 31.

  373 They came equipped: Chester Marshall, B-29 Superfortress (Osceola, Wisc.: Motorbooks, 1993), p. 19; Caidin, Torch to Enemy, p. 29.

  373 As alluring as they: Caidin, Torch to Enemy, p. 104.

  373 Isley Field on Saipan: ibid., pp. 106-7.

  373 “You dreaded the takeoff ”: Walt Sherrell, author interview, May 17, 2003, Charlotte, N.C.

  373 plane seemed to be lost: William C. Campbell, Journal of My Military Life, B-29 Aircraft Commander, 497th Group, 73rd Bomb Wing (privately printed), p. 35.

  373 The engines overheated: ibid., p. 20.

  374 “We were on a bomb run”: Ronald Routhier, author interview, May 17, 2003, Charlotte, N.C.

  374 Whenever Jules Stillman: Stillman interview.

  374 Nearly a dozen raids: U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, “The Effects of Air Attack on Japanese Urban Economy: Summary Report,” Urban Areas Division, March 1947, App. A, p. 44, MR #A1157, AFHRC.

  374 B-29s were literally: “Japs Slander Our Planes,” 20th Bomber Command Special Reports, June 16, 1945, XX Bomber Command archive, MR # A7811, AFHRC.

  374 On January 21, 1945: “War News Summarized,” New York Times, April 22, 1943, p. 1.

  374 relieved General Hansell: Alan D. Coox, “Strategic Bombing in the Pacific,” in R. Cargill Hall, ed., Case Studies in Strategic Bombardment (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, Government Printing Office, 1998), p. 311.

  374 Major General Curtis LeMay: Craven and Cate, Army Air Forces, p. 560.

  374 Gruff, daunting, and demanding: St. Clair McKelway, “A Reporter with the B- 29s,” Part 3, New Yorker, June 30, 1945, p. 26.<
br />
  374 LeMay had been: Sven Lindqvist, A History of Bombing (New York: New Press, 2001), p. 107.

  374-75 Doolittle, who commanded: Perret, Winged Victory, p. 369.

  375 “that those who have loosed”: Quoted in W. B. Sebald, On the Natural History of Destruction, trans. Anthea Bell (New York: Random House, 2003), p. 19.

  375 But Dresden also contained: Frederick Taylor, Dresden: Tuesday, February 13, 1945 (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), pp. 148-49, 414-15.

  375 An estimated 25,000 to 40,000: ibid., p. 401.

  375 Two-thirds of Japanese industry: Peter Wyden, Day One: Before Hiroshima and After (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984), p. 134.

  375 Industrial targets were: Craven and Cate, Army Air Forces, p. 610.

  375 Seventeen hundred tons of incendiaries: ibid.

  375 The bombs themselves: Coox, “Strategic Bombing,” p. 316.

  375 When the bomb recipe: Lindqvist, History of Bombing, p. 107.

  376 “The primary purpose”: “Effects of Incendiary Attacks,” Air Intelligence Report 1, no. 4 (March 29, 1945), p. 1352, MR #C0036, AFHRC.

  376 A Pentagon report: E. Bartlett Kerr, Flames over Tokyo: The U.S. Army Air Forces’ Incendiary Campaign Against Japan, 1944-1945 (New York: Donald I. Fine, 1991), p. 77.

  376 On February 4, 1945: Craven and Cate, Army Air Forces, pp. 569-70.

  376 Brigadier General Lauris Norstad: Kerr, Flames over Tokyo, p. 134.

  376 “The expression ‘sure victory’ ”: Havens, Valley of Darkness, p. 161.

  377 “This outfit has been”: McKelway, “Reporter with B-29s,” Part 3, p. 27.

  377 LeMay switched tactics: Prentiss Burkett, The Unofficial History of the 499th Bomb Group (VH) (Temple City, Calif.: Historical Aviation Album, 1981), p. 14.

  377 strip the planes: Coox, “Strategic Bombing,” p. 317.

  377 The B-17 had: McKelway, “Reporter with B-29s,” Part 3, p. 33

  377 “Boys,” the word: ibid., p. 27.

  377 Weather conditions were: XXI Bomber Command Operations, March 22, 1945, p. 1317, MR #71810, AFHRC.

  377 “These missions had”: Caidin, Torch to Enemy, pp. 76, 78.

  377 On March 9, 1945: Wyden, Day One, p. 183.

  377 Planes from the 314th: Craven and Cate, Army Air Forces, p. 615.