Raging Sea, Searing Sky

by Christopher Nicole

  Best of all, from Lew’s point of view, were her twelve fourteen-inch guns, each capable of hurling a shell weighing fifteen hundred pounds for upwards of ten nautical miles. Supporting the main armament were twelve five-inch, and there were several batteries of antiaircraft guns. When he remembered that the last gun he had attempted to fire in anger had been the four-inch on Carlton this was a different world. Not that he anticipated having to fire these in anger. But it was a dream to have them under his control.

  He was naturally a little apprehensive about the reception he was going to get, but Captain Conroy and his officers had obviously decided that his domestic misfortunes were a personal matter, and were just happy to have with them an officer with both a distinguished name and a distinguished record. ‘I served under your father,’ Conroy told him when they had introduced themselves. ‘It was a great privilege. But I’ve never served with a Medal of Honour holder. It’s a pleasure to have you aboard, mister.’

  Commander Schultz, the executive officer, was no less friendly, and the other lieutenant-commanders, Surgeon Guilfoyle and Engineer Ryan, followed their superiors’ example. Lew reckoned it was going to be a happy cruise...once he had got over the misery of steaming out past Cape Henry and leaving Brenda behind, without having been able to touch her again. For they had seen each other often enough during the fitting out of the ship. Danny Walsh had been appointed to the Norfolk Shipyard itself, as he had always been interested in ship design and construction and had made something of a specialised study of it. So he was about all the same, and there were socials at the Officers’ Club at which Brenda attended — a Brenda who refused to be more than formally polite to him. He was never invited to their home, but he guessed this was as much a result of Danny’s obvious dislike for entertaining as for Brenda’s determination not to renew their affair. Well, he wanted to be determined about that, too, and had taken every furlough he could to get up to Long Island and spend a weekend with May and the kids.

  As he had suspected, Clive just fell in love with the farm, even if he now had to attend the village school; that his Pop had been there before him made that a pleasure too, while Joan was equally delighted with her aunts and cousins to fuss over her. Even May was much better than he could have hoped. She had taken Jimmy Grayson’s note to the family doctor, but old Hiram Hooley, who had actually brought Lew himself into the world, had different ideas to these new-fangled medicine men, as he called them, and entirely agreed that while May had to control her drinking dramatically, for the sake of both the child and herself, she could not be cut off without a drop, and prescribed a rapidly diminishing consumption, while the mere fact that she was pregnant made her an altogether less restless, happier woman. She was, in every way, born to be a mother, because she was essentially a happy, outgoing person. Lew knew her vices were merely a result of that fulsome personality, and as always, he found it quite impossible to maintain any anger with her. But the fact that as her body swelled it was impossible to have sex with her did not make his predicament any the easier, knowing that he was returning to encounter Brenda, slender and immaculate...and untouchable. Thus if it was a real pang when the ship was ready to sail only a fortnight before May was due to deliver, it was still an enormous relief to watch the low Maryland coastline dropping out of sight behind him, and see only the Atlantic swell ahead.

  Their itinerary took them first of all across the Atlantic to Portsmouth, when he was able to visit Lord Gerrard and tell him he was about to become a great uncle for a third time, which pleased the old gentleman no end, and thence to Marseilles. In Marseilles news arrived that he had become the father of a brother for Clive whom May proposed to call Walter. He rushed off telegrams of congratulations and love while the ship went on to Naples, and thence through the Suez Canal to Bombay, Singapore and Sydney. Progress was leisurely, with lengthy stops in each port, and everywhere the warship drew huge crowds for ‘open’ days, as the eager visitors, many of them children, peered at the huge guns and gaped at the engine room and the forward mess decks, while their mothers exclaimed about how comfortable the officers’ cabins were.

  There was fairly regular mail, as well, from Father — over the moon about again being a grandfather, and to think that his son’s marriage seemed to have sorted itself out — and Uncle Bill and Aunt Clara, and of course from May herself. That she was having a difficult time now that she was again able to get around and was thus able to be bored could not be doubted but she remained determinedly cheerful, and his heart went out to her. A truly loving wife whom he had betrayed. It had been easy to make excuses at the time. In the privacy of his cabin at sea, far removed from social necessities and indeed emotional ones either, he knew now just how wrong he had been, to her and to his children...and to Brenda, and could only resolve that he would make it up to them all on his return.

  But in Sydney there was a letter from Brenda.

  I had not meant to write to you ever again but I did not wish you to hear the news from another source and perhaps misunderstand the situation. I have left Danny, and am suing for a divorce.

  I wish you to understand, my dearest Lew, that this places absolutely no obligations on you whatsoever. Indeed, it has nothing to do with you. His treatment of me has merely become intolerable, and I am perhaps fortunate in that I have never become a mother, so that I can end my marriage with none of the traumas that are so often a deterrent. I am at present living with my mother in St Louis — my father has been returned to a sea posting — and I do not suppose that you will find yourself in that vicinity in the very near future; to tell you the truth I have never lived so far from the sea myself, even if the lake does provide a reasonable facsimile. But it has been a very cold winter, although now it promises to be an equally warm summer. May I offer the hope that May is now well on the mend and congratulate you on your new son.

  Perhaps we shall never meet again. If we do not, then I wish you to know that I shall always treasure that magic hour which made me so very happy.

  He folded the letter away into his drawer, and lay back with his hands beneath his head. To answer it would be catastrophic. Not to answer it would be catastrophic. And he had another four months at sea. Four months in which he had been intending to do nothing but look forward to holding May and little Wally in his arms, but which now left him suddenly breathless, and bewildered.

  But there was nothing he could do, and there was Japan to look forward to.

  *

  USS Vermont arrived at Tokyo at the beginning of August, 1923, for a month’s visit. Orders from Washington were to be as nice as possible to the Japanese, because relations between the two countries had definitely turned very sour after the conclusion of the Naval Conference — the Japanese having no doubt at all that it had been the Americans who had forced the British to abrogate the treaty of alliance which had obtained since 1902 — and the implementation of the new immigration laws, followed as they had been by the new tariff. The ship’s arrival was actually muted by the news, from home, of the death of President Harding the day before they had entered Tokyo Wan. Her ensign was at half mast, her colours cased, and her guns draped with black for the next week, while all social activities were cancelled. But this actually made the Japanese more sympathetic than they might otherwise have been, and Washington sent orders to remain an extra week in order to fulfill all the engagements intended. These were onerous, as there were parties on board, and open days, and a great deal of entertaining of the ship’s officers in particular by Japanese society, while the lower deck found the back streets of Tokyo an unending delight.

  For Lew, the greatest pleasure was a reunion with Hashimoto, now a full commander, serving with the Naval Staff. He too seemed overjoyed at meeting his old friend again — they had said only the briefest of farewells following May’s collapse at the dance, and insisted on taking Lew home to meet his family, who actually lived in Tokyo. For Lew this was a special privilege and he was very concerned about his lack of knowledge of Japanese et
iquette, but Hashimoto laughingly told him not to worry about it — his family were westernised.

  They were indeed the most delightful group: Hashimoto’s father and mother, so quiet and dignified, and treated with such perfect respect by their children; his younger brother, still a cadet at the Japanese Naval Academy, more insular than his brother but eager to learn about the outside world; Hashimoto’s elder sister, married to a Tokyo businessman, a quietly attractive person like her parents, and her daughter, a dark eyed little beauty of four years old, who, in contrast to her adult relatives, was a bundle of unrestrained mirth and energy, who soon enjoyed climbing over them, to a Japanese, enormous American naval officer. They were such a contrast to his own confusing domestic relations, Lew thought, a consideration enhanced when he received a letter from May announcing that she had decided to leave Long Island and had taken the children to a New York apartment. No reason was given, and he hastily dashed off a letter asking what had happened. He wrote to Uncle Bill and Father at the same time, for Father had now retired and returned to the farm. It was of course a possibility that Father’s return had been the cause; he and May could have had a quarrel. But if May wasn’t drinking...he didn’t know what to make about it, and added to his brooding on what he should do about Brenda, gave him a lot to think about.

  As Hashimoto could see although he never sought to discover the reason for his friend’s pensive moods. Hashimoto himself was the same relaxed, confident, ambitious and thoughtful man Lew had known as a boy. He took Lew down to Yokohama to see the Amagi, which was one of the two battlecruisers designed to equal Hood in size and strength, but since cancelled by Japan’s adherence to the Washington Naval Treaty. There the great ship stood on the stocks to Lew’s eyes a sadly derelict sight, but Hashimoto was quietly amused. ‘There is an English saying, is there not, old friend,’ he said, ‘that it is an ill wind which blows no good, to someone. I will confess that my colleagues, and myself were disappointed to the edge of bitterness by the acceptance by our superiors of the limitations set in Washington, when we thought of these fine ships having to be scrapped. But you see, Amagi is not going to be scrapped. She is going to be converted to an aircraft carrier. Work has already started, on her interior. And work will soon begin on her sister, Akagi, down at the Kure Yard. Now, as the Treaty did not limit aircraft carriers in any way, they will be formidable ships. They will carry some seventy-five aircraft each. That is a tremendous force, and a good third of them will be fighters for the defence of herself and any battleships with which she may be in company. That is how we see the warfare of the future. Have you read Douhet’s book yet?’

  ‘Yes,’ Lew said.

  ‘It is interesting, is it not? Soon you will have Lexington and Saratoga in commission, we will have Akagi and Amagi. The British will have to think about that, eh? The shape of things to come, would you not agree? I will bet that when you joined the Navy you never thought you might one day be commanding a floating airfield.’

  *

  But Hashimoto was not all work and no play. In addition to his golf, which he continued to take seriously, he introduced Lew to several geisha houses. Here was an experience quite beyond Lew’s ken, as it was prostitution elevated into the sphere of the arts. When he remembered the smoky bar in Portsmouth, the bargaining for pennies and the coarse vulgarity of the crowded bedroom to which Lucy and Wanda had taken him, and compared it with the elegant house in which he now found himself, the exquisitely kimonoed and made-up and mannered girls who served Hashimoto and himself tea and danced for them, sat with them to talk with them, and eventually, shyly, allowed themselves to be seduced, he was horrified that the western world had in its mistaken prurience let itself be divested of the salons of the grand courtesans in favour of unlimited squalor. Not, he supposed, that the lower deck could afford a geisha house, nor would they perhaps have been welcome, for Hashimoto insisted that the girls entertained only those whom appealed to them, at least in the ultimate. Lew, with his size and his foreign ways certainly did appeal to them, and if he had never doubted May made love more enthusiastically than any woman in the world, what was he to make of being gently bathed by two smiling young ladies, who then permitted him to bathe them before joining him on the tatami mats for an exercise in love-making such as he had never suspected to exist. ‘This is really the most delightful country,’ Lew remarked, as he and Hashimoto walked the quarterdeck of Vermont. Captain Conroy had devised a rota system which passed the daily command of the ship from the commander to the lieutenant-commander to the first lieutenant in rotation, thus enabling the two off duty officers to be ashore for the social functions. Today the other two and the captain were at a function at the American Embassy in Tokyo itself, and so Lew had the very pleasant feeling of being in sole charge of the great ship, even if she was of course at anchor. But as they were leaving in two days’ time and this would be his last command, as it were, he had invited Hashimoto to join him for lunch. It was now a quarter to twelve, on a very hot, close September day, the first of the month, in fact; the waters of Tokyo Wan were like glass.

  ‘It is a fine country,’ Hashimoto agreed, seriously. ‘But there are tensions here, which perhaps you have not noticed.’

  ‘I can see that your people have to work very hard for a living,’ Lew agreed.

  ‘Oh, indeed. We have few natural resources of our own. And too many mouths to feed. This is an increasing problem. But it has always been a problem in Japan, which is how the great feudal lords of our history found so many men willing to follow them, to follow any lord who could feed and clothe them and provide them with the wherewithal of life. Thus were the samurai born, the warrior servants of the great lords. Do you realise it is only fifty-six years, let us say two generations, since the daimyo and their samurai were overthrown? Forty-six, indeed, since the last samurai revolt. That is the immediacy of our history.’

  Lew made no comment; he had an idea he was about to hear something which could be of extreme importance — Hashimoto was in a most reflective mood.

  ‘There are thus many men in Japan who remember the old ways, and who remember too, that when times were hard, the daimyo cared for their own. But there are no modern daimyo, you will say. This does not prevent men from yearning for the past. Our people need strong guidance, to retrain their aggressive instincts, fed both by past triumphs and present hunger, and during the Meiji reign they had it, from the great Emperor Mutsuhito. Mind you, to a certain extent he catered for those instincts; he led us into two foreign wars, and triumphed in each, and this kept the people happy. Now...you will have heard perhaps that the Tenno Emperor is unwell?’

  ‘Some,’ Lew said. He had heard that the Tenno Emperor was an imbecile.

  ‘Thus we are again in the hands of a regency,’ Hashimoto said. ‘But the Crown Prince Hirohito is only a boy, and must rely on the advice of those around him. Do you know, Lew, there has always been great rivalry between the army and the navy, here in Japan. It arose from many things. Our navy, as you know, was taught its modern trade by the British; our army by the Germans. And Great Britain and Germany have always been rivals. But there are other factors as well. Our naval officers have necessarily sailed the seas of the world, and if we are proud to have gained victories such as Tshushima, we have also had the opportunity to understand the great strengths of the rest of the world, of your own country perhaps most of all. Our army officers have not been so fortunate. They see only the narrow confines of our own empire, and of Korea and Manchuria and north China where we have in the past gained such great victories. Thus, perhaps, they dream more than do we sailors...and their dreams are sufficiently attractive to draw the attention of our people.’ He glanced at Lew. ‘I should not be speaking like this to an officer from another country,’ he said, ‘but I think it is something that you should understand. The navy’s prestige was always higher than that of the army, because it was understood that it was our destruction of the Russian fleet at Tshushima which truly won that war...but our people
have taken the Washington Naval Conference as a defeat, the first defeat ever suffered by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and a defeat suffered by words rather than shells. They find this difficult to understand, and profoundly disturbing. So now their thoughts and their hearts turn in the direction of the army leaders, men who say openly that if our people cannot be fed, and if the countries of the West, and principally the United States, wish to close their doors not only to our people but to our goods, then we should seek our salvation as we have done in the past, wherever our arms can glean it.’

  They had stopped walking, and were looking at each other. ‘I do not say this will happen, Lew,’ Hashimoto went on. ‘There are still powerful restraining forces in my country. But it is essential that we of the navy regain our former prestige, and quickly. Perhaps your government should know this thing, Lew.’

  ‘I think they should,’ Lew agreed. ‘I think they...’

  He found himself lying on the deck.

  *

  Lew’s first reaction was that Vermont had been torpedoed; he remembered exactly the same thing happening to him on board Lusitania. But that was quite impossible. And as he looked up at the tall masts of the ship, moving to and fro in an arc as she rocked, he felt even stranger. The bay had been absolutely calm a moment ago.

  Then he heard an immense groaning noise, as if a giant had awakened with backache.

  He sat up, stared at Hashimoto, who had also been knocked down by the sudden violent movement of the ship, as had almost every sailor on deck, while judging by the shouts from forward as men raced up the companion-ways on to the deck, the tremor had been felt right through the huge vessel.

  The tremor! Lew reached his feet and dashed to the rail, to gaze in consternation at the sea. Not five minutes ago the bay had been like a mirror. Now, although no wind had risen, the surface seethed as if boiling, and the other moored ships were rolling as violently as Vermont. But that was nothing to what he saw when he looked down the bay towards Yokohama and the seaward exit; there he watched a wall of water, some thirty feet high, he estimated, and of incalculable depths, moving towards him at incredible speed, destroying everything in its path.