King swore under his breath, while Marshall was silent. Japanese assaults on the West Coast might spell an end to the Germany First strategy. The shelling of San Francisco or Los Angeles would result in political pressure to concentrate efforts on Japan that could not be ignored. The results would be tragic. King might like the idea of Japan first, but Marshall knew that strategy could cost the United States the war.
Nimitz was satisfied that he had their undivided attention. “As you’ve informed me,” he continued, “neutral diplomats in Tokyo are picking up hints that Hawaii will be formally annexed by Japan in either July or early August. We feel that a ceremonial showing of their fleet will occur to reinforce Japan’s intentions.”
“The fucking bastards,” King said. Jamie looked at Suzy and saw her quick grin. The daughter of a sailor had heard far worse. “Their annexing Hawaii would be a taunt for us to come and get it. So what’re we gonna do to stop it?”
“At the very least,” Nimitz responded, “we have to destroy Pearl as a base. Toward that end, you know of our plans to send Colonel Doolittle on a raid to destroy the fuel depot.”
“A waste of his efforts,” King grumped. “Almost as nonsensical as his original idea to bomb Tokyo from a carrier.”
Nimitz smiled. He had been chosen by King to command in the Pacific and wasn’t affected by his boss’s surly attitude. “Agreed. Even Doolittle would rather attack juicier targets than fuel tanks. If the Jap fleet presents itself, he will attack it. If the Japs don’t come, of course, he will still hit the fuel. At the very worst, it would delay their ceremony.”
Marshall was incredulous. “But he’d attack with only a handful of converted flying boats? It would be suicide.”
“It is not intended to be suicidal. Risky, yes, but not suicidal,” Nimitz said. “There are other plans afoot to hit the Japs and to keep their planes on the ground, or”-he smiled almost impishly-”safe on their carriers. Also, now that the torpedo problem has been largely solved, we will swarm the islands with our subs once the Japs arrive.”
“And our carriers?” Marshall asked.
“One of my staff,” Nimitz said and nodded toward Jamie, who flushed as he realized why he was there, “pointed out that a light carrier escorted by destroyers looks from a distance just like a fleet carrier escorted by cruisers. We are preparing a decoy force of escort carriers and destroyers to cruise at a distance off Spain and Portugal and then turn north. Along with a few discreet leaks at cocktail parties in Madrid, we hope the information will be passed on to the Japs that we have conceded the Pacific to them while we take on the Germans. In the meantime, our fleet carriers and their escorts will rendezvous around Samoa. They will wait for the signal that the Japs are corked and then attack. If a landing is feasible, we have a division of infantry, the newly constituted 24th, ready to depart at almost a moment’s notice.”
“Jesus.” King sighed. “It would be great to pay the bastards back for what they did to us at Pearl Harbor by killing them right there at Pearl Harbor.”
Nimitz agreed. “They tricked us because we were overconfident.
We hope they are just as overconfident and can be tricked just like we were.”
Little more of substance was said before the meeting adjourned. There would be further discussions after lunch. Neither Jamie nor any of the other junior officers would attend. The afternoon would be free. He finally caught Suzy’s eye, and she nodded.
King turned toward Nimitz as they left the room. “God damn, I hope it works. Operation Cork? Not exactly heroic, but I hope history records that we shoved a cork right up their asses.”
Shortly after arriving at Jake’s base camp, Alexa informed him that she needed time alone. He didn’t ask for a reason and permitted her to go into the interior with a couple of local women as companions and protectors. While it tore at him to see her so tormented, he accepted that there were times when people had to be alone with their thoughts before they could share them.
When she returned after several days, Alexa smiled tentatively at him and suggested they go for a walk after dinner. It was still light when they got to a spot that Jake thought she would like. There was a small pond, and they could sit on a flat rock that looked down on the clear water, where fish about the size of minnows flitted in apparent joy in their search for food. The place was almost totally hidden by sheer cliffs, and, without being ordered, Sergeant Hawkins had discreetly placed guards around the tops. Jake knew this and was glad that they were out of sight.
Carefully and completely, Alexa told him everything that had happened to her and to Melissa. She spoke of the backbreaking work in the fields, of watching Father Monroe being tortured, and of her finally agreeing to speak treason for the Japanese. She told him in detail of her night of sex and drugs with Omori and Han, and then of Kami’s rape and suicide. “Somehow I will get over it. I’m not certain how, just yet, but I will,” she concluded.
When she was finished, he held her hand tightly. “You didn’t have to tell me this. Omori used you and raped you, and then you got away from him. You did what you had to, and I’m glad, really glad, because that means you’re here. You’re with me and you’re safe. And I’m glad you tried to save Kami. You’re not responsible for her death, Goto and Omori are.”
She smiled tentatively. “I did have to tell you. If I didn’t, you’d always wonder just what happened, and I think it would eat at you. Now you know, and you can judge for yourself whether I did the right things or not.”
“There was nothing else you could have done, Alexa. Everything was out of your control. You were his pawn. If you hadn’t done what he wanted, you’d be dead or wishing you were. Life is too precious; I’m glad you didn’t give it up.”
“I know. Did you know the women you sent with me while I was out thinking were also assaulted by the Japs?”
“No,” he said. “Frankly, I never gave it a thought.”
“We talked about it. One of them was raped only once, the other by a dozen soldiers. We told each other everything, and then we cried. It helped to realize I haven’t been alone. In fact, I may have been fortunate. I wonder if there will be any women in Hawaii who weren’t attacked by the time this all ends. If it ever ends,” she added. “The Japs use sex as a weapon, a tool, to achieve their ends. And we’re supposed to respect them?”
Alexa took a deep breath and looked up at the darkening sky. Some of the larger stars were already visible. “Just think. In six months, I’ve gone from a docile, wealthy, college graduate navy wife to a widow who’s been assaulted by a Jap officer, who’s betrayed her country, and who’s now a refugee in a guerrilla camp. What’s the saying? That which doesn’t kill me, strengthens me? I guess I must be getting terribly strong.”
She allowed him to put his arm around her shoulders, although he made no effort to draw her closer. He understood and sympathized far better than she realized. Someday, he thought, he’d tell her of the terrible and sometimes drunken assaults some men had made on him when he was a boy, in particular those weekends he’d spent in county jails for minor offenses. Growing strong enough to resist them had been a marvelous revelation.
She shuddered. “I’ll never be as strong as you are. My life was always so sheltered. Damn the Japs. Damn Omori and Goto.”
“Goto’s here on the island, Alexa. We’d heard about Kami’s death, although I didn’t connect it to you. Goto’s been banished until it blows over and is stationed in Hilo.”
“Are you going to kill him?”
The ease with which she asked the question surprised him. If her ordeal hadn’t strengthened her, it had apparently hardened her. “If the opportunity presents itself. I’m not going to risk what we have here for personal revenge.”
“And what do you have here, Jake?”
He explained about the secret base the engineers were building. “Our first priority is to stay alive and undiscovered by the Japs in Hilo, or by their planes. I’m glad they don’t seem to have too many planes to look for
us. Whether we can build an airstrip and keep it quiet or not is another point, but we’re doing our best.”
“I’ve enlisted in your army, haven’t I?”
“Yep.”
“Good. I want to do what I can to help. Will you get me a gun and teach me to shoot?”
He decided not to tell her that the military used rifles and not guns. “I will. Gladly.”
“Good,” she said and tucked her head under his chin. “Now just hold me very strongly. I need strength, Jake. I don’t have all that much myself, although I’m working on it.”
Jake did as he was told and reveled in the feel of her body next to his and the fact that she had so much implicit faith in him. She smelled clean and good, and her breath was hot on his chest.
Jake counted his blessings. Alexa was here and safe, and considered him a part of her future. Despite the pain she’d endured, he liked that. Whatever wounds she still felt, he would help her heal them.
Then a pragmatic thought intruded. By helping Alexa escape, Toyoza Kaga had totally and completely decided whether he was Japanese or American.
After a while, Jake grinned into the night. Alexa was sound asleep and snoring slightly. Maybe the healing had begun.
Colonel Omori nodded as Toyoza Kaga entered his office and took a seat. “The people still hate us, don’t they, Kaga?”
“It will take time, Colonel. Wounds do not heal overnight. It would have been far better for Goto to have been tried, either here or in Japan. Then people would know that justice was being done and not deferred.”
Omori shook his head angrily. “Impossible.”
Kaga knew it would have been difficult to prove a crime, even under normal circumstances. Kami had committed suicide, and could not testify against Goto for the rape. And it was highly unlikely that the enlisted men who had also raped the child would ever come forward. In Kaga’s opinion, they were headed toward Japan if they were not there already.
“Then you will just have to live with the circumstances until the emotions fade.”
Omori accepted that. He had expected as much. “And your son, is he doing well?”
Kaga’s only son, Akira, had been brought by ship to Oahu. Kaga had been told that Akira’s return was a gift from the Japanese government for his presumed loyalty. His son had lost a leg in the fighting in China and was no longer of any use to the Japanese army. Kaga’s heart ached at the pain his son was feeling, but, as usual, he masked his emotions. “He is improving, thank you,” he replied.
Akira had volunteered for the Japanese army while he was a student in Tokyo, a fact that made his father loyal in the eyes of Omori. He had become an officer and been assigned to duty in China. What Omori didn’t know was that Akira had quickly become disillusioned, even horrified, by what was occurring there. On returning home, Akira had filled his father’s ears with tales of the Japanese army’s butchery. In particular, he told of the incident called the Rape of Nanking, in which tens of thousands of civilians had been raped, tortured, and murdered.
Now Kaga knew there was no honor in Japan’s enterprise or in its intentions for the people of Asia. Both Toyoza and his son had begun to meet with a small circle of friends who shared this view. A number of them were young and of military age, and several had even served in the Hawaiian National Guard. This fact had begun to give both men interesting thoughts.
Kaga feigned a proud smile. “My son has served his emperor well. Even so, I am glad he is home.”
“As am I. Perhaps your son will speak to the people of Oahu of his experiences. It might help our cause.”
My, my, Kaga thought. The man will actually help us recruit followers. Akira could meet openly with the people of Oahu and selectively with others without attracting attention.
“We will need gasoline to travel,” he said, as a merchant would. “And a vehicle. I can supply a driver.”
“No problem at all,” Omori responded loftily.
“Then I am sure we would both wish to help.”
As Kaga departed for his home and his son, he wondered how he could have been so infatuated by Japanese successes. He had served in the Japanese army against the Russians at Port Arthur in 1905. There he had seen the ruling military caste’s excesses, brutality, and contempt for life. He had been an enlisted man and treated with scorn at best by his superiors, and seen the lives of his comrades wasted in desperate assaults on Russian barbed wire. The Japanese army had succeeded, but only after crawling over the piled corpses of its soldiers.
Following the war, Kaga had deserted and, with assistance from relatives, found passage to Hawaii. How could he have been so stupid as to think only a few decades could change the minds of the masters in Tokyo? Worse, if Omori probed deep enough, he would find that Toy-oza Kaga was a felon because of his desertion.
Kaga had thought that his past was well behind him. Now he knew better.
CHAPTER 16
The congressman from Ohio was short and overweight, which partially contributed to his sweating profusely, even though it wasn’t all that warm. A Democratic representative from an ethnically Italian district in Cleveland, Dominic Cordelli had been an FDR backer since Roosevelt won his party’s candidacy for the vice presidency in 1920.
As luck would have it, FDR’s loss had also been FDR’s future gain. He was governor of New York when Herbert Hoover became reviled as the cause of the Great Depression. That the charge was unfair, and that Hoover was a decent and hardworking president, was irrelevant. Someone had to take the blame for the economic catastrophe, and it had occurred on the Republican Party’s watch, which resulted in Roosevelt’s victory in 1932.
In 1932, Dominic Cordelli had been swept to office on his president’s coattails and, like Roosevelt, never left. He had supported FDR on every issue, including Roosevelt’s ill-advised attempt to stack an uncooperative Supreme Court with more malleable members.
Cordelli did not have difficulty getting brief meetings with Roosevelt, and the representative, both wise and cunning, did not abuse the privilege. He had to wait only a couple of days before seeing the president, while other petitioners waited a lifetime.
Admiral William Leahy, the president’s chief of staff and soon to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs, had arranged the meeting and was with FDR, who quickly noticed Cordelli’s agitation. “Dominic, my friend, be seated and tell me what’s on your mind,” Roosevelt said.
Cordelli wiped his sweaty brow with a handkerchief that had been clean earlier in the day. “Mr. President, I need a favor. No, not a favor. Perhaps information and assurances would be more like it.”
Roosevelt shrugged and smiled disarmingly. “Ask.”
“I have a niece, a Mrs. Alexa Sanderson. Her husband was killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor.”
“Dreadful,” Roosevelt said with genuine sympathy. Then he turned impish. “Sanderson doesn’t sound terribly Italian, though.”
“She’s not. She’s a WASP from Virginia and related on my wife’s side. The problem is that the niece is still in Hawaii. The FBI has been out to see us because she’s making radio broadcasts and signing documents that could be considered treasonous. I want you to know that my niece would never do such a thing except under extreme duress. The FBI may be thinking of prosecuting her for something she was forced to do or say with a gun pointed at her head.”
Roosevelt stole a glance at Leahy, who had been briefed when Cordelli had asked for the meeting. This had enabled Leahy to do a little research.
“Have you heard the speeches?” the admiral asked.
“Yes. The FBI was kind enough to play a couple for me. The language is convoluted and awkward. It isn’t hers. She’s highly educated and simply doesn’t speak that way.” Cordelli managed a wan grin. “Hell, it sounded worse than some of my constituents. No, sir, she’s reading from a prepared script, and I’m convinced she’s being forced to do it.”
Roosevelt smiled. “If that is the case, she cannot be charged with any crime.” He looked at a note that Le
ahy had handed him just before the congressman’s arrival. The president leaned forward and looked intently at Cordelli. “Can you keep a secret?”
“Of course,” Cordelli said.
Roosevelt spoke in a conspiratorial whisper. “It does not surprise you that we are in contact with certain elements in occupied lands, does it?”
“Not at all.”
“Good. Well, what I am going to say must not leave this room, is that understood?”
“Of course,” Cordelli responded eagerly. Both men knew he would tell his wife.
“Your niece is among several who have been forced by the Japs to send messages like that. We know they have been forced to do it.”
“Poor Alexa.” Cordelli sighed. “My wife is upset enough as it is without her thinking of Lexy being mistreated.”
“Without going into detail,” Leahy continued for Roosevelt, “I can assure you that your niece is no longer under Japanese control. She has been moved by our people to a different location in the islands, and there will be no further broadcasts of that sort by her, although, of course, some old ones might be replayed. She is not out of danger, but she is much freer than she had been.”
Cordelli exhaled in a whoosh of relief. “Thank you.”
They shook hands, and the congressman departed.
“You know what I wish?” Roosevelt mused.
Leahy smiled. “I have no idea, sir.”
“Just once, I wish that the FBI would learn a little about tact and discretion. Why should the President of the United States be so involved in so minor a problem?”
Leahy smiled. He knew better. Roosevelt was exuberant at being able to give his friend Cordelli some good news. That simple act had lifted some of the stress from FDR’s shoulders. That he had been able to be angry at the FBI was an added bonus. Admiral King and General Marshall had been right. The way to keep FDR alive and well was to keep him happy. Helping Congressman Cordelli was the perfect tonic. As to Roosevelt’s lament about the problem being too small for him, Leahy knew that was so much hogwash. The president had enjoyed the whole thing immensely.
1942 Page 25