by King, Dan
In April 1944, the Japanese continued to send men to Iwo Jima. One of them was Private Kiichi Abe, a tunnel engineer who said, "Life on Iwo Jima wasn't bad in the beginning. We had control of the air and seas so it was a pleasant, peaceful place."20
Ensign Minoru Tada
Another April arrival to the island was Ensign Minoru Tada, a naval reservist and recent graduate of Chūo University in Tōkyō. After attending a lecture by a naval recruiter at the school, he decided to become a pilot so joined the Navy's Yobigakusei program, which was similar to the American ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps). According to records from the Japanese Navy Department (Kaigunshō), on July 30, 1943, at schools all across the Empire of Japan, over 50,000 applicants took the admission examination, and only 9,800 were accepted. Minoru Tada was happy to be admitted into the program but was disappointed at not being given his first choice of aviation. On October 1, 1943, Tada, along with 1,400 other cadets, went to the Tateyama Artillery School as members of the training program's 3rd cycle.
Following their basic training, the cadets were asked to choose between seventeen different schools for their specialty training which included: navigation; sea mines; anti-submarine warfare; special naval landing force (SNLF); gunnery; shore-based artillery; anti-aircraft gunnery; electronic communications; and special-communications (intercepting and decoding enemy messages). Their test scores and evaluations played a key part in determining which special school they would be assigned.
Minoru Tada's advanced training would be in anti-aircraft gunnery training at Tateyama Artillery School. Two days prior to completing the course, the 129 members of his anti-aircraft gunnery class assembled to receive their various assignments from Lieutenant Commander Gōtarō Ogawa. The combat postings were on the front lines; Yap Island, Truk Lagoon, First Fleet, Saipan, Andaman Island (Indonesia), and others. There were two men going to an unfamiliar island called Iwo Jima; Minoru Tada (anti-aircraft), and Masaya Ide (naval landing force).
After dismissing the group, Commander Ogawa told Minoru Tada, "You are being sent to Iwo Jima because you've been sick lately."21 Tada was disappointed to learn he was going to the Ogasawara Islands, technically part of the city of Tōkyō, which were considered a backwoods posting where nothing important would happen.
On April 1, 1944, Minoru Tada graduated from the Tateyama Artillery School with the rank of ensign and given a three-day pass to visit his family. Wrapped inside a piece of white paper, he left behind at his parents' home a lock of hair and his fingernail clippings; they were to be used at his funeral in the event he never returned.
On April 16, 1944, Ensigns Minoru Tada and Masaya Ide boarded the newly-built transport Kumanosan Maru at Yokosuka Harbor and headed for Chichi Jima.[14]
Chichi Jima had calm water bays, but due to the rugged terrain the defenders could only carve out a pitifully small fighter airstrip down by the water. Its southern neighbor Iwo Jima had no calm water bays but boasted two airfields. Prior to the war, supply vessels could unload at Iwo Jima in calm weather using the wooden jetties, but aggressive American submarine patrols and carrier-based aircraft attacks made it too dangerous to tie up at Iwo Jima. As a result, supply ships first entered one of Chichi Jima's calm water ports, usually Futami Bay, to unload vehicles, troops and supplies; some of which were kept for Chichi Jima's own defensive needs. The remainder was loaded onto smaller vessels for the final 150-mile leg of the hazardous journey to Iwo Jima.
Ensigns Tada and Ide spent over a week on Chichi Jima before finally making their way to Iwo Jima at noon on April 26, 1944. They were greeted by Commander Tsunezō Wachi who drove them to the Keibitai Headquarters building and introduced the newcomers to the other officers. Ensign Masaya Ide would become the Executive Officer to a physician, naval captain Dr. Masa Inaoka. Ensign Minoru Tada would take command of an anti-aircraft battery in the southern part of the island. Dr. Inaoka sternly warned the pair of freshmen to drink only boiled water saying, "We already have too many amoebic diarrhea patients on this island, and we don't need any more."22 Commander Wachi and Dr. Inaoka treated the pair of ensigns to a belt of sake rice wine before sending them out to meet the men under the command.
A crusty old warrant officer drove Ensign Tada to Chidori Airfield, which was named after the chidori, a bird that appears to run drunkenly along the waters' edge as it searches for food. Chidori Airfield was also called "The Lower Airfield" by the defenders. The Americans would call it "Motoyama No. 1." Chidori Airfield had three runways. The warrant officer pointed to a grouping of damaged and bullet-ridden aircraft that were lined up to one side of runway no. 2 and said, "Ensign Tada, your anti-aircraft battery is over there, next to those wrecks." Near the aircraft wrecks were ten Type-96 25 mm twin-mount anti-aircraft machine cannons.
The man continued, "We use them as bait for the enemy strafing attacks." Ensign Tada felt that his guns were in a terrible spot, and what was even worse, was that they were sitting above ground protected by only a wall of sandbags.23 This battery of anti-aircraft guns was known as Minami Kaigan Kijūhōdai (Southern Coast Machine Cannon Battery).
Ensign Tada said he was not permitted to relocate the guns, so he ordered his men to construct pits in which to lower them. He responded to their silent expressions of disbelief with the admonition, "It will help you live longer and kill more of the enemy."24 Due to the sandy nature of the terrain, the pit walls were constructed from wooden ammo crates and 55-gallon fuel drums filled with rocks. It took three days to construct the waist-deep gun pits, but Ensign Tada knew it was the right decision.
There was yet another larger problem facing Ensign Tada, although his men had dug small air raid shelters for themselves, they were still living above ground in wooden barracks and old civilian homes. He put in a written request for cement and rebar to build solid bunkers, but the limited supplies were being used to build defensive positions for other units. The idea hit Ensign Tada to re-purpose some of the wrecked bombers and transport aircraft by burying them halfway in the sand and covering them with large stones held in place with concrete.[15] After getting permission from the Nanpō Shotō Naval Air Group Liaison officer, Ensign Tada set his men to work breaking up the first of many aircraft. Several days later, Commander Wachi came by riding on his horse to conduct a routine inspection. The normally stern Commander Wachi chuckled in approval of Tada's resourcefulness saying, "Good job.These aircraft are serving the country twice."
Ensign Tada was later tasked with helping unload a shipment of Type-3 14 cm (5.5 inch) naval rifles that were destined for the area around Mount Suribachi. The naval rifles had been removed from old WW1-era cruisers and bore the manufacture date of 1914. "What are we supposed to do with these old relics?" Tada asked rhetorically. It took a great amount of effort to place the guns near Mount Suribachi where they would have their concrete casemates built around them.
In his memoirs, Commander Wachi noted that the reinforcements arriving from Japan were primarily draftees, teenage volunteers, or aging re-treads that were past their prime. Most of the battalions were so-called "Independent" units, which was a euphemism for "slapped together." These independent units were formed from a core of experienced soldiers, but the bulk of the men were older reservists, draftees and "90-Day Wonder" college student officers like Ensign Minoru Tada.
In order to boost morale, Wachi ordered a military parade to commemorate the Emperor's birthday on April 29, 1944. Wachi's men stopped working on the defenses to form up for a horseback review by Commander Wachi with all the pomp and circumstance they could muster.
On May 27, to commemorate "Navy Day" Wachi ordered Ensign Tada and other battery commanders to conduct a test firing of all anti-aircraft guns at 3:00 a.m.
The Gods of War
On May 22, 1944, Japanese Imperial General Headquarters (IGHQ) re-organized the 109th Division under the leadership of General Tadamichi Kuribayashi. The General and his adjutant First Lieutena
nt Masayoshi Fujita arrived on Iwo Jima on June 8, 1944. Kuribayashi took control of the island and folded Colonel Atsuchi into his command staff. Tunnel engineer Kiichi Abe said that Kuribayashi stepped up the pace of construction to seven days a week in around-the-clock shifts. Abe claimed the unhappy tunnel engineers were exhausted by Kuribayashi's frantic work pace.25
In the beginning, Kuribayashi stayed at the Ishina family's Taiheikan Inn. According to Shōzō Ishina, Kuribayashi and his adjutant Lieutenant Fujita spent the daylight hours out inspecting the troops, and then returned for dinner. This is confirmed by the memoirs of Ensign Minoru Tada, Major Horie Yoshitaka and 1st Lt Yasuhiko Murai that all state Kuribayashi and most of the personnel were living above ground in civilian buildings in the summer of 1944.
One day, Shōzō's mother asked Lieutenant Fujita if her son could watch the planes coming in to land. A day or two later, Fuijta drove the family to Chidori Airfield where young Shōzō was thrilled to see aircraft landing up close.
One of the planes witnessed by the youngster might have been one that was carrying Chief Petty Officer Haruo Yoshino (later Ensign). CPO Yoshino was the plane captain and navigator of a Type-97 torpedo bomber. At the end of April 1944, his crew was dispatched from Tateyama Naval Air Group to Iwo Jima to conduct convoy escort and submarine patrol duties. Yoshino was a well-seasoned veteran of many campaigns; Pearl Harbor, Midway, and Santa Cruz. During the Pearl Harbor attack, Haruo Yoshino flew from the deck of the carrier Kaga to strike the battleship USS Oklahoma. During the battle of Midway, Yoshino was one of the seven search planes sent out to find the US carriers. He survived the sinking of the Kaga, and later fought from the carrier Shōkaku in the battle of Santa Cruz. Due to the shortage of available carriers, Haruo Yoshino was transferred to the land-based Tateyama Naval Air Group.
On Iwo Jima, Yoshino lived in a tent at the mouth of a cave close to Chidori Airfield. He and his crew would be driven to their plane each morning to fly patrols in a cat-and-mouse game with American submarines. The subs only surfaced at night, but since Yoshino's plane was not equipped with radar he could only operate during the day. Lookouts stationed across the island would send reports of nighttime submarine sightings to Captain Samaji Inoue's Nanpō Naval Air Group. "We got reports with detailed information on the location of enemy-subs and launched before dawn, but could never catch one on the surface," said Yoshino.26
On June 15, 1944, the US Marine 2nd and 4th Divisions landed on the island of Saipan. At this same time on Iwo Jima, Ensign Minoru Tada and his battery of anti-aircraft guns were banging away at American carrier planes from Task Groups 58.1 and 58.4, which were sent to neutralize the airfields on Chichi Jima and Iwo Jima. In addition to the strafing Hellcats, the Helldivers and Avengers dropped 500-pound bombs, fragmentation and cluster bombs.
Ensign Tada wrote that in the middle of the attack, the gunnery officer for gun No. 1, was screaming and bashing his gunner's helmets with his pointer stick, "Idiots! Keep firing!" The left and right trackers of the No. 1 gun had taken their feet off the pedals, and tossed their hands in the air shouting "Banzai! Banzai!" Ensign Tada looked up to see a burning Hellcat zooming overhead at the height of 150 feet. It splashed into the sea off the western beach.
Although the Japanese AA gunners managed to knock down a few American planes, the Japanese took it on the chin with the loss of twenty-eight aircraft. The American naval carrier pilots had a rough time as well with twenty-one combined losses over Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima (collectively referred to as "Bonin Islands").27 Ensign Tada claimed that in that single day, his AA unit expended 4,270 rounds of ammunition, which was several times more than what was allotted per day. At that rate, he was worried that if the Americans didn't come soon there would be no ammunition remaining with which to repel the expected invasion.
Ensign Tada didn't know that Iwo Jima's AA gunners had caused damage to all of VT-32's TBF Avengers from the carrier USS Langley. Lieutenant David Marks was flying one of the single-engine bombers that day. He dropped his payload diagonally across the northern end of Motoyama Airfield. Although they were all able to make it back to the carrier, some of the planes carried dead and wounded crewmen. This attack signaled the start of 249 days of aerial and naval bombardment that lead up to the February 19th invasion.28
Haruo Yoshino and his crew were recalled briefly to Tateyama. He returned to Iwo Jima for anti-submarine duty in late July bringing with him several large sake bottles filled with fresh water, and dozens of cartons of cigarettes for the aircraft maintenance crews.
On June 18th, planes began to arrive from the amalgamated Hachiman Kūshū Butai (Hachiman Air Raid Unit). Ensign Minoru Tada claimed that the unit had 112 aircraft, primarily Zeros, but also Tenzan B6N "Jill" torpedo-bombers and Suisei D4Y "Judy" dive-bombers from the following naval air groups: 252nd (Isamu Miyazaki, Kazuo Tsunoda); 301st (Iyōzō Fujita, Kunio Iwashita); Yokosuka (Ryōji Ohara, Tadashi Nakajima, Saburō Sakai); and Betty Bombers from the 752nd.29
Adorning the edge of the airfield were two long white banners whipping in the wind that announced their arrival; one bore a patriotic phrase made famous by the samurai Masashige Kusunoki, "Hirihō Kenten,"[16] and the other bore the name of the samurai god of war, "Hachiman Daibōsatsu." Ensign Tada said that the Bettys and Jills from the 752nd Naval Air Group were the first to arrive on June 18th. The following day began what would be known as "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" in the Mariana Islands.
According to Ensign Minoru Tada, bad weather in Japan meant that the Zeros from the 252nd Naval Air Group didn't arrive until June 21st. On June 24th, overwhelming US naval air forces devastated Iwo Jima's "flying navy."
Ensign Tada was directing his anti-aircraft guns that day when he saw a bomb falling straight at him. He was momentarily knocked unconscious and woke up to the sound of a voice calling his name from far away. He was half-buried in a pile of rocks and rubble, and bleeding from several shrapnel wounds. Tada saw a large piece of shrapnel sticking out of his boot, and then passed out. His men took him to the navy field hospital in the north near Admiral Ichimaru's command bunker. Due to the surge of wounded men, Ensign Tada was placed in a tent outside where he was examined by a naval lieutenant named Dr. Toshio Yoshino who said, "Don't worry, its not fatal. But I am sending you back home." Ensign Tada told the doctor that he wished to stay on the island, but the doctor ignored him and moved to the next patient.
The following day, a messenger from Commander Tsunezō Wachi arrived to inform Ensign Tada that he would be medically evacuated. Tada was happy to be going home but felt that he would be a called a coward for leaving. He wrote a note and stuck it in his pocket that read, "Report: I wish to remain on the island with the Keibitai unit. I have no dependents whose future I would worry about. (signed) Ensign Minoru Tada."30
Several days later, Ensign Tada heard the sound of hoof beats. Commander Wachi had ridden his horse to the navy field hospital to check on several of his junior officers. Commander Wachi said to Tada, "A submarine will be here in a couple of days to take out the wounded. I am sending you back so you can recuperate." Ensign Tada reached into his breast pocket and handed his note to Wachi who examined it, nodded, folded the note and said, "Understood."
On July 13, 1944, Commander Wachi arrived on his horse again to deliver an order to Ensign Tada, "You are hereby ordered to board the Tonegawa Maru tomorrow morning. You will report to Yokosuka Naval Hospital immediately. You will remain under my command in the Keibitai, so must return as soon as you are able." Ensign Tada felt that the words, "remain under my command" helped him save face. He was still assigned to Iwo Jima so he wasn't running away.
The following day, the Tonegawa Maru and her cargo of wounded men were flushed from Iwo Jima by air raid sirens and red warning flares from the control tower. They barely beat the arrival of B-24 bombers from Saipan. Ensign Minoru Tada said that he was taken to Chichi Jima, transferred to the destroyer Hatsuharu and then ta
ken to Yokosuka on July 19th. He would not return to Iwo Jima until long after the war.
The large-scale aerial battles and naval barrage of July 3 – 4 were the final nails in the coffin for the naval air arm on Iwo Jima. The author met with several Japanese aviators to hear about their experiences on Iwo Jima including Saburō Sakai, Isamu Miyazaki, and Haruo Yoshino. They were united in their statements that their losses were due to four primary factors: imbalance in numbers of aircraft; rugged Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters piloted by aggressive pilots; lack of replacements; and naval barrages that targeted the airfields.
"In the skies over Iwo Jima, every day there was more of them and fewer of us," said Isamu Miyazaki.
Saburō Sakai told the author during a 1994 home interview that he admired how the Americans constantly improved their aircraft and pilot training, and learned from their mistakes. Sakai said he knew the war was lost when Saipan fell, but there was no option but to fly and try to stay alive. It wasn't about how many planes he shot down, but about keeping his wingmen alive.
Due to the combined effects of aerial and naval bombardments, the Hachiman Butai Unit was left with no serviceable planes so the pilots and aircrews were evacuated to mainland Japan via transport planes and re-organized under the Third Air Fleet. Imperial General Headquarters then re-classified Iwo Jima as a frontline air base to be used as a refueling and staging area for reconnaissance missions and anti-shipping attacks under the command of Rear-Admiral Rinosuke Ichimaru. The Admiral would have his headquarters on Iwo Jima and have control over several naval air groups that were stationed in mainland Japan: 752nd (Bettys from Kisarazu); 252nd (Zeros and Jills from Tateyama); 301st (Zeros from Tateyama); 801st (Flying Boat "Emilys" from Yokohama); and 1023rd ("Tabbys" from Kisarazu).