“It has been a year since my husband passed away. He was called to heaven peacefully at 3:30 PM, last year on May 30th. He was 73 years and 6 months old as he was born on December 3, 1902, in the Year of the Tiger. He was fond of beef, but he suffered from diabetes in his later years, and I was also suffering from diabetes. The sole of his right foot was badly burned by charcoal from our kotatsu. The burn injury seems to be one of the causes of his weakening. On March 30th, members of Suiko-kai, an organization of former Naval officers, kindly took him to Shin-Senri Hospital by force. My husband disliked doctors very much, but he agreed to a consultation if it would be performed by the former Navy doctor, Dr. Yoshioka, the Hospital Director. His entire body became swollen, and he needed to be hospitalized. However, there were no beds available at any hospital, but I asked around and managed to check him into the nearby Tatsumi Surgical Hospital, where the director was also a former Navy doctor. From that day on, he remained at the hospital for 52 days until he died.
“In addition to taking care of my husband, I had to go back home twice a day to take care of the dog and cat. But as I had symptoms of high blood pressure and high blood sugar level myself, I consulted the doctor. If my husband’s care had lasted one more month, I might have ended up in the hospital as well.
“When my husband was hospitalized, it took three of us, my elder brother, Mataichiro Kitaoka, my younger sister, Toshiko Kusuda, and I, to force my husband into the car and to the hospital. Four or five days before he died, he stopped drinking and eating. He also lost his visual acuity because of cataracts, which he had for a long time. He was almost susceptible to bedsores and without telling the nurses, he asked me to turn his body this way or that way. On May 27th, Naval Memorial Day, Dr. Tatsumi was concerned about dehydration and encouraged my husband, who was not drinking anything, by saying, ‘Since this is Naval Memorial Day, let’s toast with beer.’ Then he had a small glass of beer.
“On the evening of the 29th, probably because of numbing of his nerves, he just said, ‘I feel relieved,’ and exhibited symptoms of dehydration. I had a hard time getting him to swallow his medicine. But the time for him to be drawn up to heaven was nearing. Mitsuo Fuchida, who was renowned for his brilliant military career—based on the coded messages, ‘Tora, Tora, Tora’ and ‘We have succeeded with our surprise attack’—ascended to heaven in peace at last at 3:30 PM of the following day, the 30th.
“While my husband was the president of Osaka Suiko-kai, about two years before his death, he handed over all his duties to the deputy president, and he refused requests for lectures. Meanwhile, he was thankful that he could attend the Pentecost special assembly at Maikata Church on May 18th, a year before he died. The next day, Mr. Ueda of Maikata Church sent him home by his car. I heartily appreciate that members of Suiko-kai have been very considerate to him. Also, the people of Sakai Church where he belonged sent their true love to him, and they were very kind to him. The Reverend Ohi often paid visits while he was in the hospital. A month before he died, our son, Yoshiya, and our daughter, Miyako, came back to Japan to visit their father. He was still eating at that time. Before she left, my daughter asked him, ‘Do you have any words to leave behind?’”
“He replied, ‘Nothing in particular. I am satisfied. But I have always caused trouble for your mother. Therefore, do whatever Mother says.’ When I heard this, I was moved to tears. My husband was writing his autobiography, but because of cataracts, he could not read the newspaper and magazine articles for his research, and I helped him by reading to him. From his earlier years, his hobbies were reading and horticulture, but I was sorry for him that he could not continue because of his eye disease. He was saying, ‘At this rate, my autobiography will take until September,’ but it ended up finally with only one-third of what he expected to write. However, I do think that he was a really happy person looking back on his life. He accomplished what he wanted to do, and finally he was valued by many people and ascended in a satisfactory manner. There were many people who, having learned about my husband’s death from the newspapers, attended the final service at our home. He was happy to have been loved by so many people. After he passed, I myself would like to keep my faith, if modestly.
“On Saint’s Day, April 10th, at Easter Prayer, they held a joint memorial service at Sakai Church. In the afternoon, I visited my husband’s soul as he lay sleeping in the church cemetery in Tondabayashi. While he was a warrior of nationalism, he was saved by Jesus Christ, and he was allowed to do missionary work throughout the world to serve under Jesus as his soldier, and I appreciate all of this. As a person, he had various defects, but, after all, he came to have faith and was drawn up to heaven, thanks to your generous support, for which I am grateful. My husband did not like either radio or TV, but now I watch TV alone. I cannot take good care of our spacious garden, but I take care of the vegetables little by little, in order to commemorate my husband who used to weed the garden and do field labor. Thanks to God.”
With respect to the autobiography, Haruko mentions in her memorial that Fuchida ended up writing one-third of what he intended, and what remains was completed by 1968. He had already completed most of the records before and after the war. He was still planning to write more as he put the title, “Taishin,” [“Dawn is Near”] to the unfinished seventh chapter. This title itself is suggestive, but his autobiography was discontinued, half-completed because he turned his attention to Enigma of Pearl Harbor and the film, Tora, Tora, Tora. There is no way to know how much more he was going to write. Nevertheless, I am overwhelmed by the enormous amount of work he completed.
For this book, I focused on those incidents in which Fuchida himself was directly involved and experienced personally. Almost 70% of his total memoirs have been incorporated. It was mentioned that Haruko helped Fuchida, suffering from poor vision, by reading relevant newspaper and magazine articles to him, but I was amazed by the meticulous research and accuracy of the historical descriptions and the factual situations.
For the completion of this book, I owe very much to: Mr. Yoshiya Fuchida, who visited me twice with his wife, Marie Fuchida, to offer his cooperation in providing his father’s materials. I would like to express my most sincere appreciation for all their support that was indispensable for the realization of this book.
APPENDIX
Notes on Discrepancies
1. US Navy records indicate that the Vestal was hit by 2 bombs.
2. Thirty knots was the maximum speed for Kongo-class battleships.
3. There were 360 planes in the attack force. However, after aborts, the actual total was 350—183 in the first wave and 167 in the second.
4. The concept was originally introduced by Captain Francis Low.
5. The occupation of Midway was planned before the Doolittle Raid, but the raid accelerated implementation of the IJN’s plan.
6. US Navy records indicate that Tomonaga likely crashed in the ocean and did not strike the Yorktown. In Japan, many records still indicate that Tomonaga died while crashing his plane into the Yorktown.
7. On the morning of October 20, 1944, when Ozawa’s Task Force left the Inland Sea, his four carriers—Zuikaku, Zuiho, Chitose and Chiyoda—had a total of 116 planes. However, by October 24th, only 50 planes were launched according to historian Minoru Nomura and 56 according to Toshikazu Ohmae. To date, no record explains how the original number of planes was reduced from 116 to 50 or 56 over the four days of fighting. The pilots were told that instead of returning to the carriers after their attacks, they should fly to the Philippines or Taiwan to land. On the morning of October 25th, Admiral Ozawa was so sure that his four carriers would be sunk that he ordered all remaining planes to be launched out to air bases in the Philippines. It is probably these last remaining—“about 20”—planes to which Fuchida refers.
8. These events took place on August 14 and 15, 1945 and are referred to as the Kyujo Incident.
9. Fuchida wrote 3,000 lives lost. The records indicate 2,403 deaths.
10. Fuchida mistakenly called Albuquerque the capital of New Mexico.
Editor’s and
Translators’ Backgrounds
Seiichi Nakata
Mr. Nakata, who uncovered and edited Mitsuo Fuchida’s memoirs, is one of Japan’s leading writers on Japan’s contemporary history. Born in Kumamoto Prefecture, he graduated from the Faculty of Law, Kyushu University in 1966 and joined NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). He has received numerous prestigious awards for his TV documentary productions and books. In 2010, he received the Kodansha Nonfiction Award for Tracy, an analysis of the WWII Japanese prisoners of war detained and interrogated without the use of torture at Camp Tracy, California
Douglas T. Shinsato
Mr. Shinsato is a Japanese-American who spent a major part of his business career in Japan. He has an MBA from the University of Southern California and a JD from Stanford Law School. He was a Senior Partner at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, based in Tokyo. Tohmatsu & Co. was co-founded by Vice Admiral Nobuzo Tohmatsu and his student at Japan’s Naval Academy, Iwao Tomita, who became an important force in Japanese and international business. Mr. Shinsato now resides in Hawaii.
Tadanori Urabe
Mr. Urabe has spent over a half century researching many aspects of the history of the Imperial Japanese Navy. He has also exhibited his paintings and miniature hand-crafted models of IJN ships. He attended the MBA program at Stanford University. He was Senior Vice President of Daiwa Securities America, President of Daiwa Securities Spain, and General Manager of Daiwa’s Financial Advisory Department. He worked extensively on four continents and is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
For That One Day: The Memoirs of Mitsuo Fuchida, Commander of the Attack on Pearl Harbor Page 32