by Paul Hynes
Hence it would come to pass that Anami, loaded onto an Ambulance moving in a deliberately confused route west towards Tokyo, would pass directly underneath another payload. Dangling from the clouds as it was carried towards its target, it passed over the invisible white speck as it sat on the bomb bay of ‘Bock’s Car’, patiently waiting for its target to appear on the eastern horizon.
Though the events surrounding the attempted decapitation of the Japanese Government on the 20th of February have been used to demonstrate the advanced weaponry and unquestioned air superiority enjoyed by the United States at this point in the war, it can also be seen as underlining how desperate the American government had become to end the war for despite Japan’s far more hopeless situation, it was their seemingly dominant enemy who was beginning to run out of options.
The notion of dropping the Atomic Bomb on top of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo had been considered by the Manhattan Project’s ‘Target Committee’ in May 1945. The obvious argument,, that if you were to remove the Emperor and his Government then Japan, a hierarchical society that lacked a chain of succession similar to the United States, would collapse into anarchy had been put forward at the time. Nonetheless the option was seen as too risky, it was possible that they would simply be removing any civilian influence left in the Government to create a purely military one, which with the Emperor as its martyr would fight all the more fanatically. There was also the chance that even if Japanese society did fall apart in the wake of such a strike, it would only leave the US with a situation where they would be left to deal with a failed state, one likely filled with warlords and possible Communist insurgents. Tokyo was removed from the target list.
In the wake of the news of Anami’s coup, an enraged President Truman had once again considered the possibility of bombing Tokyo only for the idea to once again be shot down by cooler heads. Though a military Government had now been established without bombing Tokyo, the idea of martyring the Emperor was still far too risky to be attractive, even if invading the Home Islands now seemed unavoidable. The Manhattan Project’s targeting list had been whittled down further and further, as hundreds of thousands of Americans were killed or wounded in southern Kyushu. At a horrible cost the battle had been won but the Japanese government only seemed to grow more unflinching in their fight to the end it seemed entirely possible that even if and when Operation [i]Coronet[/i] was successful, the Japanese would continue fighting until all of Japan was occupied.
The hope that Anami and his militarists might be brought down by the more rational elements of Japanese society once it was clear that defeat was inevitable, a reality signified by the destruction of Japan’s forces on Kyushu, had also now vanished. The revelation that Anami had now survived a pacifist coup had made it clear that there would be no victory for sanity within the Japanese government. The path ahead for America was now seemingly a one way road to further destruction, with Coronet perhaps destroying the last significant Japanese forces left but not destroying the Japanese will to continue on, with civilian militia’s carrying any weapons they could find in lieu of proper armies. If such a scenario was now inevitable, it had now become clear that the potential to unravel any organisation the Japanese might have left was not a risky one at all.
Alongside the revelation of the attack upon San Francisco, the location of the Japanese government had also been revealed, and with the collective outrage of the Truman administration at this first piece of information, the slip in objective rationality necessary had been provided. It is possible that given time, calmer heads might have prevailed, however the likelihood that the Japanese government would also know that Doihara had sold them out and would soon be evacuating the area made it essential that the strike be carried out as quickly as possible. Furthermore, there would be no delay in bomb delivery as there had been in August 1945. The 509th Composite Group, alongside its humble but slowly increasing stockpile of Atomic Bombs had been relocated to Kyushu just over two hours away from Matsushiro, when the order did go through, there was little time to rescind it.
As had been a standard tactic since the loss of ‘Jabbet’, the designated Silverplate ‘Bock’s Car’ would not be flying alone but amongst two squadrons of fellow B-29’s, alongside 50 P-51 Mustang escorts. Though primarily motivated by the knowledge gained from Japanese prisoners that the sight of only one or two B-29’s would likely be perceived as an Atomic attack, this ‘camouflage’ was also designed as an answer to the theory that ‘Jabbet’ had been downed by Japanese fighters. If this had been the case, and the bountiful number of escorts did not succeed in preventing these new Japanese fighters, the dozens of potential targets would lower the odds of a successful enemy attack.
For almost two hours the small swarm encountered had encountered no disturbances as they flew over southern Honshu towards their target. From the beautiful winter sun, the cameramen and scientists on board the various B-29’s could faintly see the snow covered mountains glistening below. Had they not been blissfully unaware of the enemies capabilities, they might have known that they should have been looking upwards, as the heights of German and Japanese technology prepared to descend from the Heavens.
The air battle over Matsushiro is often pictured as a desperate, or even tragic, struggle. The battle has been portrayed in books, comics, film, and even art through Roy Liechtenstein’s controversial ‘Banzai’ which continues to take centre-stage in London’s Tate Modern gallery. Depending on their political persuasion, the individual might take the battle as the first sign of the true disintegration of the war from goal orientated combat to globalisation driven slaughter, others mark it as Japan’s last chance to save herself and others debate whether the outcome did in fact assure that.
The battle above the skies of Nagano in many ways presented the apex of Japanese technological achievements and that though Japanese developments in the defence of their skies were in a lock-step with the technological advancements of their enemies, Japan could nonetheless show herself to be a formidable opponent., made all the more dangerous by their willingness to die for the Emperor.
This rang especially true for those men on the covered airstrips several miles from the Matsushiro Imperial Headquarters, for months they had trained for the day that the Americans would come to destroy the Emperor and his Government. Though it had been hoped that should their secret come out there would be time to evacuate, they prepared themselves for combat in the knowledge that should time have ran out, that they would be the last line of defence.
It was in this knowledge that as American bombers and fighters flew over Kyushu almost completely undisturbed, the Anami government had carefully hoarded a small supply of Japan’s most advanced aircraft. The Kawasaki Ki-100, undoubtedly the finest Japanese fighter of the war, composed the vast majority of this force. Though it was slower than the more modern allied jets, it was more than a match for the P-51 Mustangs who escorted the bombers that it was designed to prey upon, with its impressive manoeuvrability giving it an edge against the American fighters, and its performance at its operational ceiling allowing it to be one of the few propeller planes in service that could be a genuine threat to the B-29 Bomber.
As Charles Sweeney flew the Silverplate bomber ever closer to Matsushiro, the force received confirmation that the Americans where headed for an area that they had no incentive to bomb otherwise, they scrambled. The 25 pilots led Lt. Col. Tadashi Ishikawa, were not the poorly trained suicide bombers that had received the minimal amount of training to become fireballs. These were men who had experience in attacking B-29’s and in claiming kills against the P-51, which the Ki-100 was thought to be able to easily outmanoeuvre. The only major skirmish at relative parity so far between the two aircraft had seen 12 Mustang’s shot down compared to two only two Japanese losses according to Japanese accounts of the battle, if this performance could be repeated then a 2:1 numerical disadvantage would be easily circumvented.
Alongside the height of Japanese advancement would come the las
t hurrah of their of Japan’s late German ally. The Mistibushi J8M, brother to the Me 163 Komet, was inferior to its German sibling, its fuel supply only allowing it a mere 4 minutes of flight. Nonetheless it had already proven itself able to score a decisive victory alone against American atomic bombers, the small number that Japanese industry could produce would make the odds of victory even greater.
It was expected that with a squadron of veterans flying the Ki-100 that they would be able to massacre the escorts and subsequently the bombers on their own without the need of the J8M’s. Nonetheless they could at least be expected to generate enough havoc to allow minimal interruption for the two passes the J8M was able to make with its limited fuel supply, before the small craft would ram themselves into the nearest bomber. The pilots of the Ki-100’s were also ready to ram American aircraft in lieu of ammunition knowing that that allowing even one American bomber through could spell the death of the Emperor, all took off without parachutes.
Despite it deserved reputation as the finest Japanese fighter of the war, the Ki-100 was not without its faults, ranking highest among these being its operation ceiling. Though theoretically able to climb to a height similar to that of the B-29, it lacked the same manoeuvrability that gave the plane its edge at a lower velocity. These were no ordinary Ki-100’s however. The Ki-100 2, including a newly introduced supercharged engine, was now deadly at far greater heights than ever before.
Nestled amongst the two squadrons of B-29 bombers that would provide physical shield around ‘Bocks Car’ were the P-51 Mustang, a fighter which the Japanese expected they would be able to best,. Though in capability this may have been true, an even greater threat to Japanese plans was lingering in the skies above the Atomic convoy. The new F-82 ‘Twin Mustang’ had been designed to escort B-29 missions between the Solomon Islands and Tokyo with its impressive range, yet the bizarre looking two bodied monoplane was also faster and far more heavily armed than its singular predecessor. It would be the aircrafts debut in large numbers, her pilots having taken crash training courses as soon as the aircraft had entered service in early January 1946. Several of these pilots had not served in the Pacific, only having had experience of the European theatre, a fact that would usually have disqualified them from a mission of such importance but in this case made them especially valuable.
The reason for this illustrates the American suspicion of Japanese involvement in the loss of the ‘Jabbet’ even before the revelations of General Doihara, for in the pairs that would fly the new aircraft, each had at least one member who had experienced combat against the jet fighters of the Luftwaffe. The collapse of the Third Reich had revealed the extent of German cooperation with the Japanese ally and it was now clear that the Japanese had been given patents to produce variants of both the Me 262 and Me 163 fighters, the latter of which possessing such speed that it could theoretically have stalked and destroyed a B-29 without any time for the bombers crew to acknowledge what was going. For this reason experience with the craft was considered vital for the Matsushiro operation, which alongside the superior speed and firepower of the F-82 giving the escorts a somewhat feasible chance of matching the German rocket fighter in case it transpired that the Japanese had indeed been able to produce it, a thought that some were sceptical of. Though only in small numbers, the Japanese pilots of the J8M Shusui prepared to prove their enemies wrong, as their brethren already in the skies began to engage.
The squadron of Ki-100’s were also relying on their enemies underestimation, their line of attack was not the classic head on charge that Japanese fighters were often forced into at high altitudes, their newly enabled powers of manoeuvre instead allowing them to turn rapidly, surprising the gunners of the bomber stream, enabling them to let off several rockets before any return fire could be given from the bombers. Two B-29’s were gravely damaged in this first wave of attack, the first, [i]Joe for President[/i] exploded in mid-air, the wreckage falling from the sky along with its compatriot. The final landing of the badly battered [i]Dominican Dominator[/i] has only added to the mythical nature of the battle. Was Captain Abraham Rivers deliberately aiming at the school that would prove to be his final landing place? Did he believe he was aiming at a military target? Was he even conscious as the burning B-29 crashed down to Earth? In the burning wreckage any definitive answer was buried.
After their initial pass, the Japanese fighters broke up, though this would usually give the American pilots the advantage, the squadron leader was confident in his crafts superior speed to once again trick the Americans into underestimating him, as the P-51’s moved to pursue them they were able to outrun and either turn over on top of the opposing crafts or lead themselves back into the bomber milieu. In pursuing both of these tactics pilot Buraian Humaira would ensure his ace status in Japanese aviation history after destroying three individual Mustangs.
The pilots chosen to defend the bomber craft had been selected for their adaptability however and with the F-82 above them they had a fighter which could turn the surprise around on the Ki-100’s. As the twin mustangs joined the battle the Japanese fighters were preparing to make a third pass yet with the faster American planes in pursuit five would never get the chance to see their enemies send a further Superfortress down in a fiery death spiral. The double bodied fighters were able to fire dozens of rockets without any seeming ability to run out of ammunition, leaving limited options for the Japanese to evade pursuit as they flew amongst the closely packed herd now attempting to immerse the Charles Sweeney’s Silverplate without giving any indication that they were doing so. The chaos the Japanese fighters had hoped to cause was reigning, but outnumbered and outgunned, it was clear that time was running out.
From the ground eight J8M Shūsui’s rocketed into the air two at a time, also wary of the few minutes they would have to ensure the survival of their Emperor. The speed in which the craft fired into the air virtually winded the operator with a rate of climb so fast that the dogfight above became one below before the pilots were barely able to notice. In the stratosphere the stars likely would sparkled as they had for Tetsuzō Iwamoto yet below them there several more glittering objects, these ones within their reach. Like the slash of the sword that gave the rocket craft its name they opened fire in the few seconds they had to target the bomber stream before turning upwards once again for the second cut. The fighters had only been designed for two attack passes and though the second of would destroy two further B-29’s, it remained likely that if one of the American craft was carrying an Atomic Bomb then it would still be in the air, the third pass would thus be a ramming attack that would ensure the odds would be lowered, enabling their colleagues to finish the job.
On observing the ongoing attack the twin mustangs had heightened to meet the banking rocket fighters and unlike any Allied craft who had met them before, they managed to keep up with the craft to some degree of success, exploiting on crafts momentary pause before its final dive, pilots Ben Griffin and Barry Pickton were able to be jointly first in destroying one of the J8M’s whilst in flight. Three other J8M pilots were forced into evading the craft for several vital seconds, running out of time to be able to properly target themselves, they were destroyed as they began to glide for lack of fuel. Of the four which made the final ramming attack only three were successful, destroying further bombers, with the last missing his two second window and being destroyed as he glided back to the ground. Though in a normal raid this might have been considered a successful loss rate for the German wonder weapons, it had failed to provide the decisive blow that the Japanese military too often relied upon.
All hope now relied on the remaining Ki-100’s but their situation was now increasingly desperate as they began to realise they were fighting for their lives against heavier armed and fast opponents. Nonetheless it had been made clear that retreat was not an option, and now they also chose to ram their enemies in lieu of destroying them by conventional means, yet unable to evade the numerous Americans only a few, four in all, were succes
sful, the rest being destroyed before the they hit their target, failing to do enough damage with the impact, or in the case of Humaira, forced into a crash landing, the only one left alive to tell the tale.
The battle was over. Despite the heroism of the individual Japanese pilots, there was now nothing and no-one left to fight the stream that advanced ever close to the Underground Imperial Headqaurters. The skies over their homeland remained American.
In early 1941, the Emperor of Japan had been every semblance of the living God he was purported to be. From the plain hall of white he sat on his throne, passive and divine in his ancient dress, his subjects bowed to him as they had his predecessors When Rome was little more than a collection of farmhouses and stables on a few empty hills. He bowed only to his ancestor, the Sun Goddess herself, as he dwelled on plains of mere mortal thought.
Even then the truth had been very different. The columns of troops, tanks and cavalry that had marched past him in honour of his divinity where nominally under his command yet true control of the domestic and foreign affairs of Japan remained in control of the officers who claimed to be subordinate to him, the Emperor was in fact entirely constitutional, his divine will a rubber stamp for the military junta that governed Japan.