Chapter 30
“It seems this man has no qualms about pursuing our war aims,” said Yamamoto to his Chief of Staff. “The Captain talks of peace, but his subordinate wants to eliminate our foes before they can rise to oppose us. How to solve this riddle? What should I do here, with these men and their ship?”
“Arrest them both,” said Ugaki. “Seize this ship with Naval Marines while we have them under Yamato’s guns, and conduct a thorough investigation. I assure you, we will get to the bottom of all this after that.”
“That would be a most unwise course,” said Harada.
“Agreed,” Fukada echoed, once again in harmony with his senior officer, at least on this point. “As we have demonstrated, this ship is valuable. I would venture to say that with Takami added to your existing fleet, we can seek and fight that decisive battle with our enemies that will assure a final victory. My Captain believes in the hope of a negotiated peace, but I must agree with Admiral Ugaki. It is already too late to expect our enemies will agree to a negotiated settlement favoring Japan. But after one more great victory, we might dictate terms, and not by marching to Washington. If we eliminate the remaining American naval power, then we can force them out of their principal base in Hawaii; force them to retreat all the way to their west coast. After that, we can see that no shipyard along that coast ever builds a single warship. Rest assured.”
“Lieutenant Commander—”
“You said we could speak our minds, Captain. This is mine. This is what I believe we must now do. We can eliminate MacArthur, destroy the American fleet, interdict their west coast ports, and force them to terms. We could even destroy the Panama Canal, and force them to sail all the way around Drake’s Passage at the southern end of South America if they want to send ships here from the Atlantic.”
Ugaki smiled. “I begin to like this man,” he said as he took another sip of saké. “Perhaps I will not kill him after all.”
“For that I would be most grateful,” said Fukada. “As for this Russian ship up north, you claim it is using missile technology. Takami has recorded data on all the weapons the Russians might be using. We can confirm our suspicion about this ship once and for all. Let us join any force you now contemplate sending north, and even the odds.”
“Lieutenant!” Now Harada allowed himself a flash of anger, and he deliberately left off the rest of Fukada’s title with that exclamation. “Our agreement here was to see if we could persuade these men to seek peace terms to end this war, not to begin planning out campaigns so we could continue it.”
“I understand that was your intention sir, and I agreed to come along as it was necessary for me to do so in order to present my own thoughts on the matter. As I have said, I disagree with the idea that we can now seek terms with the United States. I said as much earlier when the issue first came up. Yet I do agree that we can force the Americans to negotiate, and we can then dictate terms to our liking.”
“Interesting,” said Ugaki. “Now the two of them disagree. I must say, this is a masterful performance if these two came here to deceive us. But even if they have brought us this impossible story, they have also brought us this ship. They are all wearing uniforms. They fly our naval ensign. They claim to be officers in the service of our nation. If that is so, then they must first concede something here and now, and bow to our wishes in this matter. We will decide what happens here, so their opinion, and their disagreement, means nothing.”
“Just a moment,” said Harada. “Do not be so quick to relieve me of command here. I am Captain of this ship, and nothing will happen with it that I do not endorse.”
“More effrontery,” said Ugaki. “Well, Captain, even if your rank insignia is somewhat strange to me, you should well know that Admirals give orders in this war. Captains merely carry them out. We have extended you wide latitude here, much more than I would have ever permitted. Admiral Yamamoto has been more than gracious in sitting here through all this nonsense. Your story was as good as the saké you serve up, and it goes to my head the same way. What do you say, Admiral? What should be done with these men and their ship?”
Yamamoto looked at his Chief of Staff, a man he had not yet warmed to, and one he never requested in this post. Ugaki was an old school officer, with the mentality of a samurai. He looked fondly over his shoulder to the days of past glory, and in some ways he believed that an honorable death in this war was now his only option, and was willing to take the nation with him to the same oblivion he sometimes sought out with too much saké.
Yet Yamamoto had spent time in the United States. He was well aware of its industrial capacity, which is why he openly stated that while he thought he might achieve swift victories at the outset, he had no confidence that the final outcome of the war would favor Japan. So very much had been said here by these men that was most troubling.
That business concerning Ugaki’s diary was very interesting, he thought. I wonder…. He looked the men over, seeing them both looking to him now as the final arbiter of this little disagreement. In fact, they came to him for that very reason, both in league at the outset, now one an angel, the other a devil, perched on his shoulders and each one whispering advice. What to do here with this most unusual situation? He decided.
“Captain Harada,” he said quietly. “Thank you for your demonstration, and this dinner. I would like it if you would now show me to this library you say you have aboard your ship. I would like to see some of the material you say you have there.”
Harada had not expected that, and certainly Admiral Ugaki did not think that Yamamoto would give the story these men spun out even that much credence. Then again, perhaps he was now simply asking them to make good on their boastful pronouncements, so he said nothing in protest.
“I would be happy to escort you to the ship’s library sir,” said Harada.
“Good. Admiral Ugaki. Would you be so kind as to wait here with the Lieutenant Commander? If this kabuki theater has a script, I will now read it. If not, I will return shortly and give you all my decision.”
* * *
When the Captain left with Yamamoto, Fukada decided to sit and drink with Admiral Ugaki. “I hope you will forgive what you now say were wasteful words shared here with you tonight,” he said. “Perhaps I will never convince you otherwise, but we mean no disrespect, and we seek the best interests of our nation. Unfortunately, I believe the Captain and I will have different views, as you have seen, on how to best pursue those interests.
“You have a samurai’s soul,” said Ugaki, feeling his liquor just a bit more now. “Well, you are sitting in front of one now. My family has a long history, and I have striven to live up to it. The lower ranks call me the man with the golden mask, because I am firm and unyielding, and my face is set and determined. Yet when your Captain spoke of my diary, I did not know what to think. I did name it as he said, Senso Roku, the Seaweed of War, and if you are truly a naval officer, and not Kempeitai, then you know well the anthem we often sing about corpses in the water.”
Fukada nodded, then spoke quietly.
“Across the sea, corpses in the water;
Across the mountain, corpses in the field.
I shall die only for the Emperor,
I shall never look back.”
“Exactly!” said Ugaki, raising his saké glass to Fukada’s with a clink. “My… A few moments ago I was contemplating cutting off your head. Now here I sit commiserating with you and sharing saké!”
“I am glad for that,” said Fukada. “for I wear the same mask as you do, Admiral. You have heard my opinion as to what I believe we should do. Even if you do not believe what we have told you, you must certainly believe what we have shown you. Actions speak louder than words. You once asked me to write my death poem when I told you I was prepared to take my life to further the aims we now pursue. Here it is…
Had I not known that I was dead already
I would have feared your sword when it flashed to take my life.
Yet we ar
e nothing more than cherry blossoms
Falling on the wind…”
“Ah,” said Ugaki. “I like that. ‘Let us meet again at Yasukuni, blooming on the same treetop!’” Now Ugaki was quoting another famous Japanese song that was played near the shrine of Yasukuni during the Grand Festival, which commemorated the fallen soldiers that gave their lives in defense of the nation, and dated to the reign of the Emperor Meiji. The souls of all the fallen were said to be enshrined there, like cherry blossoms on the wind.
“I know the place,” said Fukada. “While it also enshrines the hope of peace, I am a realist. I know that it will take many more cherry blossoms falling on the wind to realize our aims in this war. Our Captain was bold enough to say that you would be one of them, and I must now tell you that yours was a most honorable death. Yes, it would be my honor to fall with you, and bloom again with you on the same tree.”
Ugaki had once been called the last samurai for the way he chose to end his life, personally flying the final kamikaze mission of the war after the Emperor ordered Japan to surrender. Fukada knew this, and he could also see that the saké Ugaki was known to have often enjoyed had tempered the sharp edge of his sword. He was quietly using this knowledge to curry favor here with this influential man, hoping he could convince him that they were of the same ilk and mind, two cherry blossoms on the same wind, and destined to bloom again on the same tree.
“Do you honestly still hold to that silly tale you spun out here?”
“What does it matter?” said Fukada. “Takami is real, that much I know without question.” He tapped his foot on the hard deck beneath them. “The missiles under our forward deck are real, and you have seen what we can do with them. You may find our behavior here unpardonable, but I beg you, before you take our heads, let us use them for a while so we can fight for Japan! With this ship, we can do exactly what I claimed a moment ago. We can certainly find the American carriers with our advanced radars, and then our planes can strike and destroy them, and without fear of reprisal. Takami can destroy any American counterstrike aimed at our fleet. Victory will be assured. Then, once we have sunk the last of their fleet carriers, we will reign supreme in the Pacific, just as I described.”
“They may be very cagey,” said Ugaki.
“Yes, but if we strike at a place that is vital to them, they will have to respond. This, I believe, is in Admiral Yamamoto’s mind. We also have the element of surprise, because they will not expect that we have such technology.”
“But they saw those rockets take down two of their bombers.”
“That was regrettable,” said Fukada. “It was why I spoke up and advised the Captain to destroy the remaining bombers. It was also unwise for us to boldly shoot down that target drone right here over the bay, but at that time we had no other option. We had to shock you with our capabilities to at least gain this audience.”
“But with such a strange story? Come now, how was this ship really built? Who was behind it?”
“Mitsubishi industries,” said Fukada with a wink. He was telling the truth, but making it seem that the company of this day was responsible.
“Then what was this business about MacArthur escaping from the Philippines? Don’t tell me you are reading tea leaves and foretelling the future. I did not ask to visit your library, because I am quite satisfied to live in this world as it is.”
“As am I,” said Fukada, with a strange inner feeling. He was not a married man, and had dedicated most of his young adult life to the service, coming up through the ranks to his present post, and hoping for a captaincy soon, his own ship. Now, however, he was dreaming of something more.
“Mark my words,” he said with a hush, as if confiding secret present day intelligence to Ugaki, and not now making fanciful boasts. “MacArthur will attempt to escape from Homma’s trap in the Philippines. He has plans to do exactly what I have said, and that was another reason I wanted to shoot down those remaining three contacts. They were most likely B-17s, yet I spoke with our Lieutenant Hideo Honjo, who conducted that engagement in the command center we showed you. He tells me those last three contacts diverted their course before we fired on the others, so they already had some pre-arranged plan. Our radar’s tracked them bearing north along the coast of Mindanao, before turning west again. They can have no other destination in mind but Del Monte airfield. I urge you to take it, and then let us see if this MacArthur will enjoy the accommodations we provide for him in an interrogation room before he presumes to become the Military Governor of Japan.”
He smiled, and got the same reaction from Ugaki, his golden mask melted away by the free flowing saké. It was the only time Ugaki ever allowed himself to drop his carefully guarded persona, the austere aspect he projected now softening considerably.
“What was all that nonsense about losing our own fleet carriers?”
“That was what the Captain fears if we are not careful. Of course, you and I know that may not happen at all, particularly not with Takami sailing with the Kido Butai! But tell me, Admiral, what was it that happened up north with Mutsu and Chikuma?”
“Both ships struck by naval rockets,” said Ugaki. “Just as Admiral Yamamoto said. Mutsu was old, and ready for the scrap yards. In fact, we have been entertaining plans to convert that ship to a hybrid battlecarrier. There is no point in trying to salvage it as a battleship. If any guns remain functional, we should move them to the forward turrets, and then sweep away all the damaged superstructure and throw up an armored flight deck.”
“And Hiryu was also sunk the same way, by naval rockets?”
“We had some idea where the enemy was,” said Ugaki, his loose lips freely disclosing this otherwise classified information now. “Nagumo was preparing to launch, and when Hiryu was struck, the resulting secondary explosions and fire simply gutted the ship.”
“Takami can prevent that from happening again,” said Fukada. “Our missiles are good enough to even stop other naval rockets.”
“Oh? Our gunners certainly could not stop them. Nagumo thought they were piloted. They bore in on the targets unfailingly, but were simply too fast for our flak guns.”
“We can stop them,” said Fukada. “That is unless the Captain loses his nerve with all this talk of peace negotiations.” There, he stuck his pin in this voodoo doll, knowing that Harada could be the one major obstacle to what he was proposing to Ugaki now. “Tell me, what did this man Karpov demand before the outbreak of the war?”
“Oh, nothing much,” said Ugaki with just an edge of sarcasm. “All he wanted was Urajio back, and all of our Siberian provinces with it, including Karafuto.”
“Karafuto? You mean Sakhalin Island?”
“Yes, what else?”
“And what was that first place you mentioned?”
“Urajio, the old Russian port at Vladivostok. Can you imagine the impudence of that man? We have held that territory since 1908!”
Fukada resisted the urge to say anything more here, but he was truly surprised to hear this, a confirmation of his own hunch on the matter. Clearly the history was already skewed, but he could not imagine how that could have happened, unless it was all the doings of that Russian ship. Yes, that had to be the answer. He had attributed the other oddities they had uncovered in the radio news broadcasts to the presence of Karpov here, things that may have been changed by his deliberate intervention. Yet 1908 was a long time ago, and what was Ugaki saying to him now? He probed a bit further.
“So they want Urajio back?”
“That and all of Amur province with it, and all the other territories we took from them long ago. Well let me say that it will take more than this back stabbing attack on Kazantochi. He has done one thing with his brash declaration of war. He’s finally got our attention. Thus far, the setback on Kazantochi is not generally known outside top military circles, but now the Army has been ordered to plan an operation in the north. Tojo has even sent our Tiger of Malaya up there to coordinate everything.”
“Tiger? A
h, you mean General Yamashita?”
“Who else? He will get three or four divisions together from the Kwantung Army and put the Siberian incident to rest. Of that I have no doubt, but this Russian ship, Siberian ship, who knows what it may be. That is our concern. Can this ship of yours really shoot down those naval rockets, or was that another wild story?”
“No sir, it was the truth. We can track them as they fire, and then shoot them down. That is exactly what Takami was designed for—fleet defense.”
“Well, Lieutenant Commander, you may soon get your chance to prove this claim, that is, if Yamamoto doesn’t lose his nerve first.” He gave Fukada a conspiratorial wink, then shook his head. “After a few glasses of saké, you are much more tolerable, and a man begins to believe anything he chooses. Very well, I will not cut your head off today, but mind your manners tomorrow when I awake with the headache that will surely follow from my indulgence this night.”
Part XI
Supercharge
“You can be sure of succeeding in your attacks if you only attack places which are undefended. You can ensure the safety of your defense if you only hold positions that cannot be attacked, therefore, knowing where and when to attack, and where to defend, is essential.”
― Sun Tsu
Chapter 31
Admiral Ugaki and Lieutenant Commander Fukada had come to an understanding, though it was one that was going to pose a problem for Yamamoto in the weeks and months ahead. Their rambling conversation had turned to the future course of the war, and the millstone that the invasion of China had placed around the necks of Japanese leaders.
“If I told you China would one day rise to be one of the world’s great powers, what would you think?” said Fukada.
Turning Point (Kirov Series Book 22) Page 27