The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 (Modern Library War)

by Toland, John

  In his final testament Tojo called on the Americans not to alienate the feelings of the Japanese or infect them with Communism. Japan had been the sole bulwark in Asia against Communism, and now Manchuria was becoming a base for the communization of the continent. The Americans had also divided Korea, which he prophesied would lead to great trouble in the future.

  He apologized for the atrocities committed by the Japanese military and urged the American military to show compassion and repentance toward the civilians of Japan, who had suffered so grievously from indiscriminate air attacks and the two atomic bombs. He predicted that a third world war was bound to break out because of the conflicting interests of the United States and the Soviet Union, and since the battlefields would be Japan, China and Korea, it was the responsibility of the Americans to protect a helpless Japan.

  The testament closed with two poems:

  Although I now depart,

  I shall return to this land,

  as I have yet to repay

  my debt to my country.

  It is time for farewell

  I shall wait beneath the moss,

  until the flowers are fragrant again

  in the islands of Yamato [Japan].

  He walked up the thirteen steps to the gallows with dignity. Just after midnight on December 22, the trap was sprung.

  † Konoye’s eldest son, Fumitaka (called “Butch” at Princeton), had been captured by the Russians in Manchuria. He died in a prison camp not far from Moscow.

  TO ORIE AND TOKIJI MATSUMURA

  AND PAUL R. REYNOLDS

  Acknowledgments

  This book could not have been written without the co-operation of hundreds of people in Asia, Europe and the United States, particularly those who permitted themselves to be interviewed. Libraries contributed immeasurably to the book: the National Archives and Records Service, Alexandria, Virginia (Wilbur Nigh and Lois Aldridge); the National Archives (John E. Taylor); the Library of Congress; the main branch of the New York Public Library; the Danbury (Connecticut) Public Library; the Diet Library in Tokyo; the Library of the U. S. Embassy Annex in Tokyo (Mrs. Yuji Yamamoto); the Houghton Library, Harvard University (Marte Shaw and W. H. Bond); the Yale University Library (Judith A. Schiff); and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (Elizabeth Drewry, William Stewart, Jerome Deyo, Robert Parks, Mrs. Anne Morris and Joseph Marshall).

  Numerous agencies, organizations and individuals made substantial contributions to this book:

  The United States: Lieutenant Colonel Gerald M. Holland, Lieutenant Commander Herbert C. Prendergast and Anna Urband of the Magazine and Book Branch, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense; Betty Sprigg, Audio-Visual Division, Directorate for Defense Information; Roland F. Gill, Historical Reference Section Headquarters, Marine Corps; Brigadier General Hal C. Pattison, Judge Israel Wice, Charles B. MacDonald, Charles Romanus, Detmar H. Finke and Hannah Zeidlik of the Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army; the Departments of Navy and Air Force; Arthur G. Kogan, Historical Division of the Department of State; six fellow authors: Michael Erlanger, Walter Lord, Martin Blumenson, Ladislas Farago, Tom Mahoney and Tom Coffey; my two typists, Isabelle Bates and Helen Toland; my special research assistant, Dale P. Harper; Myron Land and Robert Meskill of Look magazine; Colonel Ray M. O’Day, Chit & Chat; Professor John McV. Haight, Jr., Lehigh University; James O. Wade, World Publishing Company; Japan National Tourist Organization, New York City; William Henry Chamberlin; Pearl Buck; John J. McCloy; Mark Wohlfeld; Major Robert C. Mikesh; Virgil O. McCollum; Jean Colbert, WTIC, Hartford, Connecticut; Marty Allen; Captain Joseph W. Enright; Dr. Roy L. Bodine, Jr.; and Jean Ennis, Cynthia Humber, Elizabeth Kapuster, Sono Rosenberg, Anthony Wimpfheimer, Donald Klopfer and Bennett Cerf of Random House, Inc.

  Germany: The late Gero von S. Gaevernitz; and Karola Gillich, my German representative.

  Guadalcanal: Brian D. Hackman, J. C. Glover and Dominic Otuana of the Geological Survey Department, British Solomon Islands.

  Philippines: Aurelio Repato; C. Bohannon; J. A. Villamor; Eduardo Montilla; and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Carlos Romulo.

  Okinawa: Dr. Samuel Mukaida, Samuel H. Kitamura and Joseph S. Evans, Jr., of Public Affairs Department, U. S. Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands; and Eikichi Yamazato.

  Thailand: Sol Sanders, the U. S. News and World Report.

  Iwo Jima: A. B. Truax, the U. S. Coast Guard; and U. S. Air Force.

  Republic of China: James Wei, director of the Government Information Office.

  Guam: Rear Admiral Horace V. Bird.

  Hawaii: Colonel James Sunderman and Major Mart Smith, U. S. Air Force; and Captain W. J. Holmes.

  Saipan: Tony Benavente; and the civilian pilot who flew me throughout the Marianas.

  Tinian: Henry Fleming.

  Malaya: Abdul Majid bin Ithman.

  New Guinea: John Robertson.

  Japan

  Tokyo: Prince Takahito Mikasa; Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer, John Emmerson and George Saito of the U. S. Embassy; Colonels Susumu Nishiura and Hiroshi Fukushige; Lieutenant Colonels Yutaka Fujita and Masao Inaba; Commander Kengo Tominaga, Kazue Ohtani, Kenji Koyama and Captain Masanori Odagiri of the Japan Self-Defense Force War History Office; Rear Admiral Sadatoshi Tomioka, Historical Research Institute; Robert Trumbull, the New York Times; Denroku Sakai, the Asahi Shimbun; Tatsuo Shibata, editor-in-chief of the Mainichi Daily News; Shinji Hasegawa, director of the Japan Times; Kyo Naruse, president of Hara Shobo; Lewis Bush and Hiroshi Niino, NHK; John Rich, NBC; Ernest Richter, managing editor, Pacific Stars and Stripes; Dr. Kazutaka Watanabe, New Family Center; Taro Fukuda, Japan Public Relations, Inc.; Tomohiko Ushiba, former private secretary to Prince Konoye; Mrs. Fumimaro Konoye, widow of Prince Konoye; Toshio Katsube, Tokyo Fuji Co.; Kazuaki Arichi of the Foreign Ministry; Captain Sadae Ikeda, who arranged interviews with survivors of Musashi; Yoshimichi Itagawa, who arranged interviews with veterans in Hokkaido; Koichi Narita, who, together with Kiyoshi Kamiko, arranged trip to Leyte; Commander Suguru Suzuki; Mrs. Junko Kawabe, widow of General Masakazu Kawabe; Mrs. Yoshii Kuribayashi, widow of General Tadamichi Kuribayashi; Mrs. Haruko Ichimaru, eldest daughter of the late Admiral Toshinosuke Ichimaru; Mrs. Yoshie Onishi, widow of Admiral Takijiro Onishi; Yoshio Kodama; Captain Atsushi Oi of the Air-Sea Technical Research Association; Mrs. Sadako Fushimi, widow of Prince Hiroyoshi Fushimi; Mrs. Toyoko Dantani, widow of Sergeant Minoru Dantani (Iwo Jima); Petty Officer Iwao Matsumoto and Sergeant Shinya Ryumae, veterans of Iwo Jima; Lieutenant Colonel Shigeharu Asaeda; Major Iwao Takahashi, son-in-law of the late General Sosaku Suzuki; Mrs. Chitose Tsuji, widow of Colonel Masanobu Tsuji; Seizo Yamanaka, Mannesmann Aktiengesellschaft liaison office in Japan; Yoichi Nagata; Den Oshima; Motoji Tokushima; Keizaburo Matsumoto; Beiji Yamamoto; Mrs. Kimiko Matsumura; Toshio Haneda; Mrs. Keiko Ohtake; and the following translators: Kanji Motai, Tsuneo Oki, Toshio Nagasaki, Kiichiro Kumano and Toshihiko Kasahara.

  Oiso: Marquis Koichi Kido, who arranged interviews with a number of officials in the Imperial Household Ministry and made numerous suggestions.

  Hiroshima: Shogo Nagaoka, co-ordinator and guide; Mrs. Barbara Reynolds, Hiroshima Friendship Center; Mayor Shinzo Hamai; Masao Niide, chief of the Foreign Affairs Section, City Hall; Seigo Wada, Municipal Government, who arranged a number of interviews.

  Nagasaki: Shogo Nagaoka, co-ordinator and guide; Deputy Mayor Kaoru Naruse; Mayor Tsutomu Tagawa, Toshiyuki Hayama and Sunao Tanaka, who arranged a number of interviews.

  Osaka: Gen Nishino, the Mainichi.

  Kyoto: Dr. Yoichi Misaki, who arranged interviews with survivors of the 16th Division and Koichiro Hatanaka.

  Matsuyama: Toyoshige Miyoshi.

  Hokkaido: Daisuke Kuriga, who arranged research interviews.

  Kure: Shinji Chiba, who arranged trips to Kure, Etajima, Iwakuni and Hashirajima; and Captain Arashi Kamimura, commander, Educational Troops, Maritime Defense Agency, Kure.

  Etajima: Admiral Toshihiko Tomita, Superinten
dent of Naval Academy; and Seizo Okamura, curator of Naval Academy Gallery.

  Iwakuni: Colonel Hideo Nakamura, commanding officer, Iwakuni Air Base, Japan Self-Defense Force; Lieutenant William M. Bokholt, Marine Corps Air Station; Hajime Takahashi, harbor master, Iwakuni; Mrs. Yoshiko Kugiya, proprietress of Kugiman Inn.

  Hashirajima: Hisaro Fujimoto; Tsutae Fujiyama; and Isamu Horimoto.

  Yokosuka: Vice Admiral Nobuo Fukuchi, commandant, Memorial Battleship Mikasa; Rear Admiral Frank L. Johnson, Captain Tom Dwyer and Douglas Wada, U. S. Naval Forces in Japan. Mr. Wada arranged a number of special interviews and acted as interpreter.

  Finally I would like to thank six people who contributed most outstandingly to the book: my chief assistant and interpreter, my wife Toshiko; my two representatives in Japan, Tokiji Matsumura and Major Yoshitaka Horie; my copyeditor, Mrs. Barbara Willson, not only for correcting mistakes but for suggesting innumerable improvements in style and content; my agent, Paul Revere Reynolds, who gave me the idea for this project and was a constant source of encouragement throughout the five years it took to complete it; and my editor, Robert Loomis, who labored so diligently with me for more than sixteen months on the final draft that the finished manuscript could properly be called a collaboration.

  Notes

  The main sources for each chapter are listed below with explanatory details. The books which proved of overall value, and which will not be referred to again, are: Record of Sea Battles: Diary of the Late Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki, compiled by Rear Admirals Kanji Ogawa and Toshiyuki Yokoi; Outbreak and Termination of the War, by Sadatoshi Tomioka; Japan and Her Destiny, by Mamoru Shigemitsu; Roosevelt and Hopkins, by Robert E. Sherwood; A Collection of War Memoirs and Notes, compiled by the Japanese Foreign Ministry; The Combined Fleet: Memoirs of Former Chief of Staff Kusaka, by Admiral Ryunosuke Kusaka; Secret Diary of Imperial Headquarters, by Colonel Sako Tanemura; The Complete History of the Greater Asia War, by Colonel Takushiro Hattori; Greater East Asia War Memoirs, by General Kenryo Sato; Japanalia: A Concise Cyclopedia, by Lewis Bush; Things Japanese, by Mock Joya; The Sugiyama Notes, compiled by the Army General Staff; and The Diary of Koichi Kido. The last book is the unexpurgated edition of the diary and runs from January 1, 1930, through December 15, 1945; it was published in 1966 along with Relevant Documents of Koichi Kido. An English translation of the diary is being prepared by Robert J. C. Butow and will be invaluable to historians and students of the Pacific war. The version of The Kido Diary used at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (hereafter referred to as IMTFE) was not only incomplete but inaccurately translated.

  1 Gekokujo

  The events leading up to the 2/26 Incident are based on interviews with Naoki Hoshino, Yoshio Kodama, Generals Teiichi Suzuki, Kenryo Sato, Sadao Araki and Akio Doi, and the following books: Defiance in Manchuria, by Sadako N. Ogata; After Imperialism and Across the Pacific, by Akira Iriye; From the Marco Polo Bridge to Pearl Harbor, by David J. Lu; Japan in China, by T. A. Bisson; I Was Defeated, by Yoshio Kodama; Government by Assassination, by Hugh Byas; Japan over Asia, by William Henry Chamberlin; and The Double Patriots, by Richard Storry.

  The 2/26 Incident: interviews with Hisatsune Sakomizu, Marquis Koichi Kido, Generals Tadashi Katakura,* Sadao Araki, Kenryo Sato and Shozaburo Sato; correspondence with William Henry Chamberlin; “Witness to the 2/26 Assassination,” by Y. Arima in the Weekly Shincho magazine; The Prime Minister’s Official Residence under Machine-Gun Fire, by Hisatsune Sakomizu; The Biography of Kantaro Suzuki; BYAS; STORRY; CHAMBERLIN; The Last Genro, by Bunji Omura; The 2/26 Incident, by Masaye Takahashi; and a secret report, “An Account of Major Katakura’s Accident in the 2/26 Incident,” by General Tadashi Katakura.

  Information on the Emperor comes from interviews with his youngest brother (Prince Mikasa); Marquis Kido; Junji Togashi; Chamberlains Sukemasa Irie, Yoshihiro Tokugawa and Yasuhide Toda; and Osanaga Kanroji, one of His Majesty’s instructors and currently High Priest of the Meiji Shrine.

  Material on Sorge is based on an interview with Tomohiko Ushiba; Shanghai Conspiracy, by Charles A. Willoughby; and The Case of Richard Sorge, by F. W. Deakin and G. R. Storry.

  2 To the Marco Polo Bridge

  Interviews with Arashi Kamimura, Yukio Nakamura, Generals Sadao Araki, Akio Doi, Kenryo Sato, Teiichi Suzuki, Ho Ying-chin and Takeo Imai; articles in the April 15, 1952, issue of The Reporter by Charles Wertenbaker and in the May 1963 issue of the Journal of Asian Studies by James B. Crowley; IMTFE, Dissenting Judgement (Justice R. A. Pal); OGATA; Red Star over China, by Edgar Snow; CHAMBERLIN; Soviet Russia in China, by Chiang Kai-shek; The Birth of Communist China, by C. P. Fitzgerald; Chou En-lai, by Hsu Kai-yu; The Chinese Communist Movement: A Report of the U. S. War Department, July 1945, edited by Lyman P. Van Slyke; KODAMA; Lost Peace in China, by George Moorad; BISSON; Japan’s Quest for Autonomy, by James B. Crowley; and A Short History of the U.S.S.R., Part II, compiled by the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R., Institute of History.

  Eight books were used throughout Chapters 2 to 7: With Japan’s Leaders, by Frederick Moore; American Ambassador, by Waldo H. Heinrichs, Jr.; The Road to Pearl Harbor, by Herbert Feis; LU; Turbulent Era and Ten Years in Japan, by Joseph C. Grew; and Tojo and the Coming of the War, by Robert J. C. Butow, an accurate and objective study of the events leading to Pearl Harbor based primarily on Japanese sources.

  Both Chinese Communist and Kuomintang sources put the date of the signing of the Communist-Kuomintang agreement at July 15, 1937, but the Central Chinese Communist Party of Inner Mongolia announced several years ago that the original document had been found in Mongolia and was dated July 5.

  3 “Then the War Will Be a Desperate One”

  Early relations between Japan and the United States: cited material; and America Encounters Japan: From Perry to MacArthur, by William L. Neumann.

  Differences between East and West: unpublished articles by Dr. Kazutaka Watanabe.

  Matsuoka: interviews with Kenichiro Matsuoka, Kiwamu Ogiwara, Toshikazu Kase, Shunzo Kobayashi and General Yatsuji Nagai; Yosuke Matsuoka, by T. Furukaki; Deceived History: An Inside Account of Matsuoka and the Tripartite Pact, by Dr. Yoshie Saito.

  Iwakuro mission: interviews with Major General Hideo Iwakuro; “Fight for Peace,” by General Iwakuro, in the August 1966 issue of Bungei-Shunju; “Taking Part in the Japan-U. S. Negotiations,” a pamphlet by General Iwakuro; and The Broken Seal, by Ladislas Farago.

  Negotiations between Japan and the United States (which extend to Chapters 4, 5 and 7): interviews with Eugene Dooman; Generals Hiroshi Oshima, Kenryo Sato and Teiichi Suzuki; Michitaka Konoye; Tomohiko Ushiba; Zenjun Hirose; Colonel Susumu Nishiura; Naoki Hoshino; and Marquis Kido; “Germany and Pearl Harbor,” by Hans Louis Trefousse, in the Far Eastern Quarterly; Fumimaro Konoye, by Teiji Yabe; the Konoye Family Book (privately printed); My Efforts Towards Peace, by Fumimaro Konoye; Memoirs of the Greater East Asia War, by Kumaichi Yamamoto; The War Diary of a Member of the Royal Family, by Prince Higashikuni; The Axis Alliance and Japanese-American Relations, 1941, by Paul W. Schroeder; The Diary of Joseph C. Grew and the Grew Papers (courtesy of the Houghton Library, Harvard University); The Diary of Henry L. Stimson and the Stimson Papers (courtesy of the Yale University Library); Peace and War: United States Foreign Policy 1931–1941, compiled by U. S. Department of State; The Undeclared War, by William L. Langer and S. Everett Gleason; Foreign Relations of the United States (hereafter referred to as FRUS) 1940, Vol. IV, The Far East; FRUS, 1941, Vol. IV, The Far East; FRUS, Japan 1931–1941, Vols. I and II; The Memoirs of Cordell Hull, Vol. II; On Active Service in Peace and War, by Henry L. Stimson and McGeorge Bundy; The Cause of Japan, by Shigenori Togo; President Roosevelt and the Coming of War, by Charles A. Beard; Back Door to War, by Charles Callan Tansill; NEUMANN; From the Diaries of Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Vol. II, Years of Urgency 1938–1941, by John Morton Blum; Japanese People and Politics, by Chitoshi Yanaga; Prelude to Downfall: Hitler and the United States 1939–1941, by Saul Fried
lander; and IMTFE … JUSTICE R. A. PAL.

  The dialogue in the liaison and imperial conferences was reconstructed from recollections of those attending and on detailed official notes found in the War History Office Archives of the Japan Defense Agency by a group of scholars headed by Dr. Jun Tsunoda of the National Diet Library. These notes were published as a supplementary volume to the Asahi Shimbun’s seven-volume work The Road to the Pacific War. The records of sixty-two of these conferences, held between March and December in 1941, were translated into English by Nobutaka Ike, professor of political science at Stanford University, and published under the title Japan’s Decision for War.

  4 “Go Back to Blank Paper”

  See Notes for Chapter 3. Material also based on interviews with Eugene Dooman; Tomohiko Ushiba; Okinori Kaya; Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura; Marquis Kido; Naoki Hoshino; Generals Hideo Iwakuro, Kenryo Sato and Teiichi Suzuki; Shigeharu Matsumoto; Yoshio Kodama; Mrs. Hideki Tojo; and Prince Konoye’s mistress; the Papers of President Roosevelt, at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park; “The Hull-Nomura Conversations: A Fundamental Misconception,” by Robert J. C. Butow, in the American Historical Review (July 1960); KODAMA; Kishi and Japan, by Dan Kurzman; and Tokyo Record, by Otto D. Tolischus.

  The cable from Ambassador Grew to Secretary of State Hull on September 29, 1941, is a paraphrase by the State Department of the original text.

  5 The Fatal Note

  See Notes for Chapter 3. There were also interviews with Marquis Kido; Tomohiko Ushiba; Naoki Hoshino; Okinori Kaya; Mrs. Saburo Kurusu; Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura; Generals Kenryo Sato, Hiroshi Oshima and Teiichi Suzuki; and Ambassador Haruhiko Nishi, who brought to my attention the errors made in the American translations of Japanese diplomatic messages. The footnote “ǁ This entry was later used by revisionist historians …” is based on “How Stimson Meant to ‘Maneuver’ the Japanese,” by Richard N. Current, in the Mississippi Historical Review (June 1953).