Blossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze (67 page)

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[1]
Official Website of the USS St Lo (formerly Midway) CVE63/VC65
http://www.stlomidway6365.org/

[2]
McKenna, Francis J., “Report of action against Japanese enemy, October 25, 1944”, (posted on www.stlomidway6365.org). During the Battle of the Philippine Sea, a Japanese pilot, Naval Aviator Sakio Komatsu, pulled off an unusual “torpedo interception” of his own after discovering a wake speeding toward his ship, the carrier Taiho, shortly after take-off. In Komatsu’s case, however, instead of strafing the torpedo with machine gun fire, he opted to crash his plane into it, exploding both the offending item of American ordnance and himself in the process. The reader is free – and encouraged – to contemplate the different cultural values at work behind his and Lt. Waldrop’s acts of selfless heroism. 

[3]
U.S. ships in combat areas were always on General Quarters at dawn and dusk, the most likely times for enemy air attack because of the favorable cloaking characteristics of low-light conditions at these times of day. See Lott (1964).

[4]
E.H. Crawforth, personal correspondence

[5]
www.stlomidway6365.org

[6]
E.H. Crawforth, personal communication

[7]
Contrary to common Western belief, there are no actual physical remains – cremated or not – interred at Yasukuni. The shrine is in function a memorial and an institutionalized political statement, not a cemetery.

[8]
A common Japanese term for “foreigner” often interpreted as pejorative by receivers of the moniker.

[9]
Taylor (1954) p.254

[10]
See Oide (1984) for detailed descriptions of Ōnishi’s human frailties regarding personal recreation.

[11]
See Peattie (2001) for details of Ōnishi’s role in the development of Japanese naval air power.

[12]
This was a national identity concept institutionaliz
ed in Meiji Era political dogma and proselytized to subsequent generations of Japanese until the end of World War II through Ministry of Education policies. Although the phrase can be found in eighteenth century Japanese
kokugaku
nationalistic poetry, its modern permutation was influenced in form and function by nineteenth century German Romanticism, encapsulating a theory that innate archetypal qualities in the character of the Japanese afforded the race unique spiritual attributes beyond those of other walks of life. It was easily extrapolated in a “manifest destiny” vein for the legitimization of expansionist policies in Asia.

[13]
See Jukes (2002) for an excellent analysis of this battle.

[14]
The Army formed its own tokkō air unit independently of the Navy (but no doubt motivated by a sense of competition with same as rumors began flying) when the Banda Unit, flying twin-engined Ki-48 bombers rigged with 800kg bombs, was formed at the Hokota Flight Training Center in Ibaragi Prefecture on October 20. See Warner (1982), p.115n.

[15]
See Tillman (1979) and Hammel (1992) for American perspective accounts of the “Turkey Shoot.”

[16]
Buruma and Margalit (2004) give a cogent and very post-9/11 relevant explanation of this mindset.

[17]
See Agawa (1979), p.229 for a candid
look at Ōnishi’s true take on the prewar strategic picture. Interestingly enough, he was initiallyopposed to the Pearl Harbor raid, correctly assessing the galvanizing effect it would have on American public opinion regarding the war effort.

[18]
Dower (1986
), Lafeber (1997).

[19]
Warner (1982), Maga (2002), Mikano (1998).

[20]
Morimoto (1992) p.23

[21]
Morison (1958), p.106

[22]
Morison (1958) gives the figure of 322,265 tons for the month of October 1944. (Leyte, p.405)

[23]
Inoguchi (1958), p.5

[24]
Inoguchi’s older brother Toshihira was commander of the superbattleship
Musashi
, at this point steaming toward the Philippines from Lingga Roads with Kurita’s main force. He would go down with his ship five days later in the Sibuyan Sea in the opening phase of the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

[25]
Formally speaking, this was Operation Sho #1; four potential Sho “decisive surface battle” scenarios had been planned months earlier in the wake of the fall of Saipan, dealing with contingencies for Allied invasion moves against the Philippines,
Taiwan, the Ryūkyūs (Okinawa, etc.) or the Home Islands (Kyūshū, Honshū, etc.) themselves, respectively. In striking at the Philippines, the Americans put Sho #1 into motion. Halsey’s massive air raids with Task Force 38 against Taiwan a week earlier had very nearly caused the Combined Fleet to be fully committed to a Sho #2 deployment in Taiwan, but this was averted at the last moment when Halsey’s force left the area to move on to bigger and better things, a development that gave the Japanese the mistaken impression that they had just successfully turned back a massive American invasion force. This error gave rise to widespread – and extremely short-lived – celebrations throughout the Empire, including bases in the Philippines. In fact, Ōnishi had arrived at 1AF HQ in Manila just as the heady bubble was being burst by reports of a gargantuan American armada spotted at the mouth of Leyte Gulf.

[26]
Morimoto (1992), p.25

[27]
Crossed signals (and impatient personalities) had caused Yamamoto to miss his scheduled meeting with Ōnishi. At this moment, he was nursing a sprained ankle in a hospital in the suburbs of Manila after crash-landing his liaison plan
e (a borrowed A6M5 Zero) in a rice paddy. Cause of the crash was engine failure, most likely attributable to “Marianas Gas”.

[28]
En route to the Philippines for Operation Sho,
Atago
had the misfortune of crossing the path of the USS
Darter
, an American submarine patrolling the Palawan Passage with its partner the USS
Dace
. After making the command decision not to go down with his ship, Admiral Kurita had to endure the ignominy of having to swim to be rescued by one of his own picket destroyers. The admiral’s flag moved to
Yamato
, where it remained for the rest of the Battle of Leyte Gulf.See “USS Darter” http://www.csp.navy.mil/ww2boats/darter.htm

[29]
At this point, Fukudome was still not convinced of the wisdom of tokkō tactics. Ōnishi would eventually win him
around by the morning of the 26th, but this was too late to change Japanese fortunes at Leyte Gulf.

[30]
The last surviving carrier from the Pearl Harbor raid; her sister
Shokaku
was sunk by the U.S. submarine
Cavalla
at the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The other four Pearl Harbor veterans –
Akagi
,
Kaga
,
Soryū
and
Hiryū
– had all been sunk within hours of each other at Midway on June 4, 1942. See “First Patrol” http://www.cavalla.org/firstpat.html

[31]
The Seventh Fleet shore bombardment battle line consisted of six World War One-era battleships,
California
,
Tennessee
,
West Virginia
,
Pennsylvania
,
Maryland
and
Mississippi
, all but the last of which were severely damaged in the Pearl Harbor raid, subsequently repaired/refitted and returned to duty.
California
and
West Virginia
were actually sunk at their moorings in the raid, salvaged and, along with
Tennessee
, so extensively refitted as to almost qualify as completely new ships. The new Mark 8 gunnery radar fitted to the latter three vessels was to play an enormous role in the night engagement in Surigao Strait six days later. 

[32]
See Turnbull (1996) and Friday (2004) for authoritative treatises on samurai tactical thought and Japanese fusilology.

[33]
Kofukuda (1985) outlines the technical and philosophical evolution of Japanese fighter aircraft from early designs through the superlative Zero and finally late war types.

[34]
Even though probably concocted on the spot, the phrase Ōnishi actually used,
tosotsu no gedō
, has the Zen-like ring of a time-honored Buddhist parable. It is untranslatable into an English phrase as concise, eloquent and devastatingly direct as the original Japanese.

[35]
See Hoyt (1983), pp10-12. See also Masuya (2000), pp.280-281.

[36]
See Bix (2000), p.187.

[37]
Compulsory education from the Meiji Era until the end of World War II consisted of a six-year primary school program. Six-year middle school programs offered the equivalent of a modern era high school education for white-collar job hopefuls and/or college prospects.

[38]
See Reischauer (1970), Beasley (1990) and Buruma (2003) for a societal scale analysis of this process. Ravina (2004) studies its effect on legendary samurai Takamori Saigō, on whose life the film
The Last Samurai
was loosely based. See also Shinozawa (1999) for a contemporary Japanese celebration of this “nation-building” populist social engineering.