by Toland, John
Okinawa: interviews with Admiral Sadatoshi Tomioka; Colonels Tsuneo Ito, Tsuneo Shimura, and Koichi Ito; Warrant Officer Kaname Imai; Dr. Shigeko Chihara; Shuzen Hokama, Hisashi Matsumura, Shikichi Miyagi, Mrs. Fumiko Nozaki and Zenso Noborikawa; “Okinawa: A Key to the Western Pacific,” by Hyman Kublin, in USNIP (December 1954); “Unexpected Meeting of Teacher and Pupil of Opposite Sides Saves 1,300 Villagers,” in the Okinawa Times (June 22, 1963); Okinawa: The Last Battle, by Roy E. Appleman, James M. Burns, Russell A. Gugeler and John Stevens; MORISON, Victory; and Okinawa: Victory in the Pacific, by Major Charles S. Nichols, Jr., USMC, and Henry I. Shaw, Jr.
Miscellaneous: interviews with Morisada Hosokawa, Marquis Kido, Hajime Suzuki, Hisatsune Sakomizu and General Yoshiharu Tomochika; letter from Mamoru Shigemitsu to Gordon W. Prange, February 5, 1950, concerning resignation of the Koiso Cabinet and the Miao Pin affair; IMTFE documents #55127 (Baron Kiichiro Hiranuma), #61636 (Yasumasa Matsudaira) and #55906 (Kuniaki Koiso); “Operation ‘Flying Elephant,” ’ by Mitsutoshi Kondo in This Is Japan (1966 edition); The Kaiten Weapon, by Yutaka Yokota (with Joseph D. Harrington); HOSOKAWA; PRINCE HIGASHIKUNI; and TOGO.
29 The Iron Typhoon
Interviews with Colonels Tsuneo Shimura, Tsuneo Ito and Koichi Ito; Warrant Officer Kaname Imai; Nobuko Yamashiro, Toshio Shida, Jinsai Higa, Eikichi Yamazato, Seigo Kawasaki, Masahide Ota, Mieko Miyahira, Shikichi Miyagi, Sachiko Kuda, Hideko Yoshimura, Chosei Osato, Seizu Uema, Tokuzo Makiminato, Chomei Nabachi, Tsuyako Iju, Shinichi Nozaki, Shuzen Hokama, Miyoko Toguchi, Yoshiko Kitashiro, Noburo Kuriyama, Yasuharu Agarie, Shigeru Kinjo, Seizen Nakasone, Yasuo Kayo, Koichi Saijo and Yasunori Aoki; The Operations of the 7th Infantry Division in Okinawa, a unit history prepared by Historical Division, U. S. War Department Special Staff; NICHOLS & SHAW; APPLEMAN; INOGUCHI; and Tragedy of Okinawa, by Seizen Nakasone.
There is a question about the time of death of Generals Ushijima and Cho. The account in Okinawa: The Last Battle, the most authoritative book on the battle, is based on information from a prisoner who heard it from other prisoners. It claims that the suicides occurred at 4 A.M., June 22. Higa, who still lives in Okinawa, testified that he gave Ushijima a haircut four hours later. Higa learned of the suicides from Kuzono’s orderly, Jotohei Kimura, who witnessed them. Higa returned to the command cave and saw the bodies “lying around like tuna fish.” There is another story that Ushijima and Cho committed suicide on a ledge outside the cave. But the bodies were found by Americans inside the cave. See photograph in picture section.
30 The Stragglers
Interviews with Kiyoshi Kamiko, Masaru Inaoka, Toshihiko Ohno, Satoru Omagari and Stewart Griffin; KAMIKO; The Emperor’s Last Soldiers, by Masashi Ito; and The Stragglers, by E. J. Kahn, Jr.
Colonel Nishi’s body was never found. Some survivors believe he was wounded in a charge on Airfield No. 2, and after telling his aide to turn him toward the Imperial Palace, shot himself in the head; others claim he died on the north beach. The Baroness Nishi prefers to believe the latter; it would be insupportable to imagine his body “run over” by innumerable American bombers.
31 In Quest of Peace
Interviews with Admirals Sadatoshi Tomioka and Sokichi Takagi, Ambassador Naotake Sato, Gero von S. Gaevernitz, Allen Dulles, Paul Blum, Yoshiro Fujimura, Shintaro Ryu, General Makato Onodera, Kojiro Kitamura, Jiro Homma, Hajime Suzuki, Hisatsune Sakomizu, Marquis Kido and Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida; “Unmaterialized Peace Movement in Sweden Now Exceedingly Regretted,” unpublished article by General Makoto Onodera; “The Japanese Peace Effort in Sweden,” unpublished article by General Onodera; “The Mysterious Dr. Hack,” by Gero von S. Gaevernitz, in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (August 31, 1965); IMTFE documents #61477 (Suemasa Okamoto), #64118 (Yoshiro Fujimura), #54483 (Shigenori Togo), #61978 (Vice Admiral Zenshiro Hoshina), and #61338 (General Masao Yoshizumi); The Per Jacobsson Mediation, edited by Erin E. Jucker-Fleetwood; Japanese-U.S.S.R. Diplomatic Negotiations, compiled by Research Department, Japanese Foreign Ministry; Journey to the Missouri, by Toshikazu Kase; The Yoshida Memoirs, by Shigeru Yoshida; MORISON, Victory; LEMAY (with KANTOR); and Russia at War, by Alexander Werth.
The following books were used in Chapters 31 through 36: Japan’s Decision to Surrender, by Robert J. C. Butow; Behind Japan’s Surrender, by Lester Brooks; The Fall of Japan, by William Craig; HOSOKAWA; CRAVEN & CATE, Matterhorn to Nagasaki; SAKOMIZU; SUZUKI BIOGRAPHY; Historical Records on the Surrender, 2 vols., compiled by the Japanese Foreign Ministry; and Notes on the Termination of the War, by Kainan Shimomura.
According to the History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, there had been peace-feelers before Hirota approached Malik. “First of all, two private persons approached the Russians on behalf of the Japanese Government—Mr. Mijakawa, the Japanese Consul General in Harbin, and Mr. Tanakamuru, a fishing magnate.
“On March 4 [1945], the same Tanakamuru called on Mr. J. Malik, the Soviet Ambassador in Tokyo, saying that neither Japan nor the United States could start speaking of peace. A ‘divine outside force’ was necessary to bring about a peace settlement, and the Soviet Union could play that role.
“After the formation of the Suzuki Government, these peace-feelers became even more explicit. Foreign Minister Togo asked Mr. Malik on April 20 to arrange for him a meeting with Mr. Molotov.”
In 1953 Allen Dulles told Fujimura that if the Japanese had accepted the Fujimura-Dulles proposal, the “present tragedy in Korea” could have been avoided. “The history of the world,” he said, “would have been different.”
32 “That Was Not Any Decision That You Had to Worry About”
Interviews with President Harry S. Truman, Ambassador Charles Bohlen, Eugene Dooman, John J. McCloy, Prime Minister Clement Attlee, Allen Dulles, Ladislas Farago, Ambassador Naotake Sato, Marquis Kido, Hajime Suzuki and Saiji Hasegawa; “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” by Henry L. Stimson, in Harper’s (February 1947); correspondence with John J. McCloy, Major Robert Lewis and Colonel Thomas W. Ferebee; GREW, Turbulent Era; HEINRICHS; BIRSE; The Strange Alliance, by John R. Deane; TOLAND, Last 100 Days; My Eighty Years Reminiscences, by Naotake Sato; JUCKER-FLEETWOOD; Year of Decisions, by Harry S. Truman; Speaking Frankly and All in One Lifetime, by James F. Byrnes; The [James] Forrestal Diaries, edited by Walter Millis; LEAHY; OCMH, Command Decisions: Japan Subdued, and Between War and Peace, by Herbert Feis; STIMSON & BUNDY; THE STIMSON DIARY; Burn after Reading, by Ladislas Farago; The New World, by Richard G. Hewlett and Oscar E. Anderson, Jr.; Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam, by Gar Alperovitz; Day of Trinity, by Lansing Lamont; Atomic Quest, by Arthur Holly Compton; Abandon Ship!, by Richard F. Newcomb; Dawn over Zero, by William L. Laurence; WERTH; Experience of War, by Kenneth S. Davis; CHURCHILL, Vol. VI, Triumph and Tragedy; LORD MORAN; Twilight of Empire: Memoirs of Prime Minister Clement Attlee, as set down by Frances Williams; As It Happened, by Clement R. Attlee; Memoirs, by George F. Kennan; and GRAND STRATEGY, Vol. VI, by John Ehrman. IMTFE document #503 (Shigenori Togo) was used for Chapters 32 to 36.
Late in July 1945 the Zacharias office in Washington proposed a bold plan to send General Oshima, who had recently been captured in southern Germany, to Tokyo on a secret mission of peace. The party—to be led by a hero of adventure movies, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.—would proceed to Japan by submarine. Forrestal and Admiral King approved the mission but were overridden by others close to Truman.
33 Hiroshima
Interviews with Kyoko Sato, Michiko Yamaoka, Hiroaki Daido, Mrs. Fukiko Iura, Mayor Shinzo Hamai, Dr. Fumio Shigeto, Sadako Tsutsumachi, Shiroku Tanabe, Tomie Fujii, Hisaji Dai, Ryuji Hamai, Tadahiko Kitayama, Mrs. Matsuyo Hayashi, Ryo Fukumaru, Yoshinori Ataka, Tokuo Ootowa, Chiyo Takamori, Mrs. Yasuko Nukushina, Dr. Yoshimasa Matsuzaka, Shogo Nagaoka, Kunio Ono, Gonichi Kimura, Captain Hideo Sematoo, Mrs. Yoshiko Tomita, Father Hugo Lassalle (Makibi Enomiya), Miyoko Matsubara, Shigeru Shimoyama, Tsuneo Mataba and Dr. Bernard Waldman; correspondence with Major Robert Lewis and Colonel Thomas W. Ferebee; “Dr. T
eller Urges More A-Explosive Use,” by Roger Birdsell, in the South Bend Tribune (February 7, 1967); “Story of the Atomic Bomb,” unpublished article by Dr. Ryokichi Sagane; “Delayed Effects Occurring within the First Decade after Exposure of Young Individuals to the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb” (Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission pamphlet), by Robert W. Miller, M.D.; “Determination of the Burst Point and Hypocenter of the Atomic Bomb in Hiroshima” (ABCC), by Edward T. Arakawa and Shogo Nagaoka; Hiroshima, by John Hersey; Hiroshima Pilot, by William Bradford Huie; TRUMAN; and THE STIMSON DIARY.
The following pamphlets and books were used for Chapters 33 and 34: “Residual Radiation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki” (ABCC), by Edward T. Arakawa; “Actual Facts of the A-Bomb Disaster” (ABCC), by Drs. Naomi Shohno, Yukio Fujimoto and Fukashi Nakamura; “Human Radiation Effects” (ABCC), by Drs. Kenneth G. Johnson and Antonio Cicco; “Geological Study of Damages Caused by Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki” (ABCC), by T. Watanabe, S. Nagaoka, and others; No High Ground, by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II; Friends of the Hibakusha, edited by Virginia Naeve; LAURENCE; Death in Life, by Robert Jay Lifton; and FEIS, Japan Subdued.
34 … and Nagasaki
Interviews with Shogo Nagaoka, H. Yukimune, Professor Seiji Imabori, Dr. Tatsuichiro Akizuki, Etsuko Obata, Hachiro Kosasa, Dr. Ryokichi Sagane, Kaoru Naruse, Kamekichi Sugimoto, Hitoshi Tokai, Kazuko Tokai, Shigeyoshi Morimoto, Toshiyuki Hayama, Senji Yamaguchi, Hajime Iwanaga, Mayor Tsutomu Tagawa, Taeko Fukakori, Midori Nishida, Hajime Suzuki, Marquis Kido, Ambassador Naotake Sato, Hisatsune Sakomizu, Tomio Yamamoto, Saiji Hasegawa and Admiral Sadatoshi Tomioka; “Notes on the Nagasaki Atom Bomb,” unpublished article by Yoshiko Araki; “Unforgettable Evacuation,” unpublished article by Yoshiko Kato; “Record of Operations against Soviet Russia,” Japanese Monograph #155 (OCMH); correspondence with Dr. Julien M. Goodman; and Nagasaki, The Forgotten Bomb, by Frank W. Chinnock, the only full-length account of the Nagasaki bombing.
Shogo Nagaoka, with nine children and little money, dedicated his life to the study of the atomic bombings. He was forced to sell most of the family possessions, including his wife’s kimonos. It was he who set up the museum in Hiroshima’s Park of Peace and was its first curator.
35 “To Bear the Unbearable”
Interviews with Professor Kiyoshi Hiraizumi; Prince Mikasa; Marquis Kido; Admiral Sadatoshi Tomioka; General Masahiko Takeshita; Colonels Saburo Hayashi, Masao Inaba and Okikatsu Arao; Fumihiko Togo; Hajime Suzuki; and Saiji Hasegawa; IMTFE documents #57670 (Admiral Soemu Toyoda), #60745 (Yasumasa Matsudaira), #61883 (General Yatsuji Nagai), #61636 (Yasumasa Matsudaira), #62049 (“The Unpublished Record on Termination of the War, Kept by the Japanese Navy General Staff”), #61481 (Shunichi Matsumoto), #61475 (Marquis Kido), #53437 (Admiral Zenshiro Hoshina), #59496 (Colonel Makoto Tsukamoto), #55127 (Kiichiro Hiranuma); “The Reason Why the Affair Happened,” unpublished article by Colonel Masataka Ida; The Takeshita Diary (unpublished), by Masahiko Takeshita; KING & WHITEHILL; THE FORRESTAL DIARIES; BYRNES, One Lifetime and Speaking Frankly; TRUMAN; THE GREW DIARY; THE STIMSON DIARY; Treatise on the Termination of the Pacific War, compiled by the Japan Diplomatic Association; general editor, T. Ueda.
36 The Palace Revolt
Interviews with Marquis Kido; Professor Kiyoshi Hiraizumi; General Tatsuhiko Takashima; and Colonels Masahiko Takeshita, Saburo Hayashi, Masao Inaba, Okikatsu Arao and Masataka Ida; Hajime Suzuki; Morio Tateno; Daitaro Arakawa; and Chamberlains Yoshihiro Tokugawa and Yasuhide Toda; IMTFE documents #61978 (Admiral Zenshiro Hoshina), #56367 and #50025A (Masahiko Takeshita), #61338 (General Masao Yoshizumi); “Notes,” a report by General Tatsuhiko Takashima; “Anami,” an unpublished article by Colonel Masataka Ida; “Army Minister General Korechika Anami,” a speech delivered at the Defense Training School on November 11, 1964, by General Masahiko Takeshita; Hara-kiri, by Jack Seward; documents from the NHK File on the Palace revolt; and KIRBY, The War against Japan, Vol. V.
37 The Voice of the Crane
Interviews with Generals Bonner Fellers, Yatsuji Nagai, Masahiko Takeshita and Ichiji Sugita; Admirals Horace V. Bird, Sadatoshi Tomioka and Ryunosuke Kusaka; Colonels Tsuneo Shimura and Masataka Ida; Baron Ian Mutsu; Ambassador Harumi Takeuchi; Roy Otake; Takeshi Ono; Robert Trumbull; Yoshio Kodama; Marquis Kido; IMTFE document #50025A (Masahiko Takeshita); IDA, “Anami”; “Welcome U. S. Army Signed U. S. Navy,” by Hal Drake, in Pacific Stars and Stripes; “The End of World War II,” unpublished article by Rear Admiral Horace V. Bird; an article on Tokyo Rose by Harry T. Brundige, in American Mercury (January 1954); “An Account of the Honorable Deaths of the Righteous Army for the Cause of Reverence for the Emperor and Expulsion of Foreigners: Twelve Patriots and Patriotesses of Atago Hill,” article by Katsuichi Ohba; “Going down to Manila,” article by Katsuo Okazaki; “The Emperor’s Courier,” unpublished article by Robert C. Mikesh; Four Years in Hell, by Tomomi Yamamoto; MACARTHUR; EICHELBERGER; I Was an American Spy, by Sidney Forrester Mashbir; WHITE & JACOBY; documents from the NHK File; PRINCE HIGASHIKUNI; INOGUCHI; TRUMAN; FEIS, China Tangle; VAN SLYKE; KASE; MORISON, Victory; and KATO.
Admiral Tomioka was so impressed by MacArthur’s speech at the surrender ceremonies that his resolve to commit hara-kiri weakened. Moreover, one of his former teachers urged him to live so he could write an objective history of the war; no one else, he said, was as qualified. With the help of Admiral Yonai, Tomioka collected important documents—including the original rescripts of the Emperor—which had been ordered destroyed, and hid them. He wanted to preserve them as proof “that the millions who had died had done so for the Emperor; otherwise their souls would never be comforted.” Since then he has devoted his life to the history of the Pacific war and is currently head of the Historical Research Institute in Tokyo. The Emperor’s rescripts and many other high-echelon documents are still in his library.
Epilogue
Interviews with Michitaka Konoye, Marquis Kido, Mrs. Hideki Tojo and General Bonner Fellers; Tojo story by George E. Jones, in the New York Times (September 12, 1945); “Tragedy in Vietnam,” by Frederick L. Schuman in The Berkshire Review (Spring 1968); BUTOW, Tojo; EICHELBERGER; YOUNG; The Politics of War, by Gabriel Kolko; and FEIS, Contest.
* Throughout the Notes, the highest military rank attained will be given; Major Katakura, for example, became a general. Enlisted ranks are omitted.
Sources
A. Interviews
(Rank at time of action)
Lieutenant Heijiro Abe, Pearl Harbor and Midway (2 interviews)
Valeriano Abello, Leyte
Yasuharu Agarie, Okinawa
Dr. Tatsuichiro Akizuki, Nagasaki
Zoilo Andrade, Leyte
Ensign Yasunori Aoki, kamikaze flier (3 interviews)
Antonio Aquino, Bataan
Daitaro Arakawa, NHK
General Sadao Araki*
Colonel Okikatsu Arao, Palace revolt
Major Shigeharu Asaeda, Tsuji’s assistant (4 interviews)
Lieutenant (j.g.) Wahei Asami, Musashi
Yoshinori Ataka, Hiroshima
Prime Minister Clement Attlee*
Tony Benavente, Saipan
Admiral Thomas Binford, Battle of Java Sea
Commander Horace V. Bird, Missouri
Admiral C. C. Bloch, Pearl Harbor
General Clifford Bluemel, Bataan
Paul C. Blum, peace move in Switzerland
Major Roy L. Bodine, Jr., prisoner of war
C. T. R. Bohannan, Philippines
Charles Bohlen, Yalta and Potsdam (2 interviews)
Ordnanceman 3rd Class Donald Briggs, Pearl Harbor
Corporal Durward Brooks, Clark Field
Lewis Bush, British prisoner of war
Captain Richard Carmichael, Pearl Harbor
Corporal Roy Castleberry, Bataan
Chen Cheng,* Minister of War, Nationalist China
Shinji Chiba, navigation instructor
Dr. Shigeko Chihara, Okinawa
Colonel Jim Cushing,† Cebu
Hisaji Dai, Hiroshima
Hiroaki Daido, Hiroshima
Sergeant Dwayne Davis, Clark Field
Major James P. S. Devereux, Wake Island
General Akio Doi, Soviet expert (3 interviews)
Eugene Hoffman Dooman, adviser to Ambassador Grew†
Allen Dulles†
Hideo Edo, Mitsui Real Estate Co., Ltd. (2 interviews)
Private George E. Elliott, Jr., Pearl Harbor
John Kenneth Emmerson, consular staff in Yenan
Mrs. Tsuyako Eshima, Nagasaki
Ramon Esperas, Leyte
Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher
Hisaro Fujimoto, Hashirajima
Commander Yoshiro Fujimura, peace move in Switzerland (2 interviews)
Colonel Nobuo Fujisawa, aviation maintenance officer
Lieutenant Yoshimi Fujiwara, Iwo Jima
Tsutae Fujiyama, Hashirajima
Taeko Fukabori, Nagasaki (Mrs. Furukawa)
Captain Nobuo Fukuchi, Personnel Bureau, Navy Ministry
Admiral Shigeru Fukudome
Commander Shizuo Fukui, naval construction expert
George A. Furness, IMTFE counsel
First Sergeant Noboru Furukawa, Leyte (2 interviews)
Gero von S. Gaevernitz,† peace move in Switzerland
Jesse Gaines, Pearl Harbor
Lieutenant Wilmer Earl Gallaher, Midway
Commander Minoru Genda, Pearl Harbor and Midway (2 interviews)
Stuart Griffin, Iwo Jima
J. C. Glover, Guadalcanal
Vicente Guerrero, Saipan