Niitaka Yama Nobore. Son of Heaven Vs Buttsworth

[kaleun]

Disclaimers:

1) The different peoples referred to as "dogs" "Worms" and "Spineless chickens" have all my respect and appreciation, but Ito and his compatriots didn't like them very much at the time.

2)Ito also did not like Shangai very much, so any references to the world's armpit being located there should be taken in a figurative sense only.


3) My Japanese is execrable, so any Japanese speaker is welcome to point out corrections. Domo arigato gosaimasu.

4) I am not sure if Tolley was in command of PG Mindanao in August 41, but it happens to be convenient.

[kaleun]

[font="times new roman"]Showa 16, Month 8, 6 day[/font]
[font="times new roman"](That would be August 6th 1941 for you gaijin)[/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]In the early morning sun the hot air shimmered over the tarmac at Shangai. Ensign Ito Ichikawa should have been happy but wasn’t. He was young, eager, a pilot in Japan’s naval forces. Half of Japan’s young men would trade their reproductive organs to be in his place, standing here, on the tarmac at Shangai’s army air base, about to take to the skies in the sleek A4GM Claude fighters, on his first actual combat mission, and listening to their group captain brief them on the flight.[/font]
[font="times new roman"]Oita training Daitai had arrived at Shangai three days ago; the pilots were the product of the best training system in the world, now they needed real war experience, hence the Daitai had been temporarily relocated to Shangai, where they would assist in fighting the Chinese dogs.[/font]
[font="times new roman"]Ito was not happy; he was hungover,  badly. Yesterday night, he and a few of his buddies had decided to go on the Bund and celebrate their upcoming initiation as real combat pilots. The cunning Chinese must have slipped them some bad Sake.  The Dim Sum wasn’t bad though.[/font]
[font="times new roman"]Thunk! Stars flashed in front of Ito’s eyes as he sat on the floor. [/font]
[font="times new roman"]“Bakaro!” Captain Ishii yelled at him “You are supposed to die for the emperor, you spineless worm, but you are to kill some Chinese first. Pay attention or I’ll kill you personally”[/font]
[font="times new roman"]Ito stood at attention, not even daring to rub his jaw as the captain berated him, his family and ancestors and even the chicken that seemed to be the founder of his family.[/font]
[font="times new roman"]Finally, they were dismissed and marched off to their machines. As his eager young mechanic strapped him in the cockpit of his Claude, Ito realized he had no idea of what today’s mission was about. [/font]
[font="times new roman"]At a signal from the tower Ito took off in his Claude, far too near to his captain Ishii. He decided to stick to the captain’s tail like glue. The captain ascended into the sky, and Ito followed, barely daring, for a few seconds to check around and see his fellow students loosely formed behind him. [/font]
[font="times new roman"]At 3000 meters they found a flight of waiting Kates. Ito could see the gleaming bombs slung behind the torpedo bombers. The captain formed up 1500 feet above and behind the bombers and they set off towards the west. [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Ito tried to remember what he had learned at flight school.  He scanned the sky around them, but could see nothing.  He scanned the ground briefly, but could not tell where they were, or if there was any enemy around. He continued to follow his captain as close as he dared. [/font]
[font="times new roman"]On the positive side, his headache was gone.[/font]

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Sorry, I'll use a larger font next time[X(]

[kaleun]

Showa 16, month 8 day 6 continued
 
Suddenly the Kates banked to the left, and over the static of the radio, an order:
 
"Kougeki ute"
 
Attack, shoot! Ito tried to see what was happening. Below him the Kates still turning to the left were losing altitude. Black clouds, like puffballs exploded around them. AA fire.
 
On his earphones, his captain's voice "Oita Daitai, strafe the flak guns. Now!"
 
Ito followed the captain into the flak clouds. He opened his distance to Ishii's aircraft. The ground, a patchwork of brown, yellow and green now resolved into fields, and from a line of trees, the flashes of anti-aircraft fire. The flak was exploding closer to him now, he could smell the cordite. He zigzagged following his leader. The flak cannons now could be seen through his windshield. He opened fire. His small fighter shook with the recoil of his small machine guns. He could actually see the Chinese diving for cover as he zoomed in over them and gained altitude, still close to his captain. Then, it was over.
 
"Well done Ito" His earphones crackled with the voice of the captain. Then again, "Oita Daitai, form on me, let's go home"
 
He again acquired his position behind capt. Ishii and the fighters formed up to return to Shangai. The Kates were also returning, some of them trailing smoke, but all seemed to be there.
 
Ito made a perfect landing on the Shangai airstrip. Saito his mechanic was waiting for him when he parked on dispersal.
 
"Tadashii" Ito said, perfect.
 
Saito bowed briefly before releasing Ito's harness and assisting him out of the cockpit.
 
Capt Ishii motioned to Ito to approach him.
 
"Ito, you are a moron. Worse, you are a drunk moron!"
 
"Hai" Ito bowed his head.
 
"You tried to cut the tail off my plane"
 
"Hai" Cringing he bowed again.
 
"But at least you were able to follow me, and you did shoot in the right direction"
 
"Arigato" Another bow.
 
"I shall not have to behead you today. It's a pity. Maybe tomorrow" Capt Ishii screamed in Ito's ear.
 
"Hai"
 
"Confined to quarters! Ishii growled. Rice and water until further orders! Dismissed"
 
Ito thought he got off lightly.
 
 
 

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error

[kaleun]

Showa 16th Month 9 day 15.
(September 15th 1941)
Finally it was here; today was their last patrol; tomorrow the training daitai would return to Nagasaki, they would all transition to the new Zero fighter and to real carriers. The small carrier Shoho was at Nagasaki waiting for them with a few Zeroes for training.
Ito could not wait to say Sayonara to Shangai. As far as he could tell there was nothing redeeming about the city. It did provide an opportunity for him to practice his English. He met this young commander, Kemp Tolley, who was on the gunboat Wake, traipsing up and down the Yang-Tze. He enjoyed playing poker with him but the relations between their two countries were so tense now that it wasn’t seemly for the two officers to socialize.
The patrols in, despite being war patrols were not too difficult. They had only lost three planes so far, and two those were operational losses, planes that crashed on landing. One was due to enemy action, the landing gear and a wing, riddled by AA holes collapsed on landing, but all the pilots survived. The American Volunteer Group was active further south, so they never had to face the flying tiger, the P40B.
Today should be an easy flight. A short trip north, at 5000 meters, fly circles for a while, keeping a lookout for Chinese aircraft, and then return to Shangai for dinner at the Bund.
Ito jumped into his cockpit eagerly. He had strafed enemy positions; they usually stopped firing and jumped for cover once they figured his peanut guns were firing at them. He had dropped bombs on suspected enemy locations; but he had never been in a dogfight. It was just as well, he thought his machine guns would be particularly effective on an angry dragonfly; he wasn’t sure if they would actually work on an irate goose, a duck might be scared of them, just might.
Saburo Watanabe, his buddy at the academy would be flying with him today. The captain Ishii now trusted the young ensigns to fly some missions unaccompanied by adults. Smiling, the two young men gunned their Nakajima engines and the two little fighters took flight and, climbing, turned north.
At 3000 meters, the two little planes crossed a thin overcast, but soon they were at their assigned altitude, over their patrol area. For two hours they settled in the patrol routine, one plane leading and the second one keeping a lookout for any enemy planes that could try to ambush them.
Ito was the wingman when he saw Saburo rock his wings. His friend pointed down and to the right and, sure enough, two or three thousand meters below them, there were two of those ugly Chinese biplane fighters, oblivious to their presence.
Saburo rocked his wings again and dived on the obsolete fighters. Ito stayed on his friend’s wing, until he split to take the fighter on the left. Saburo chased the one on the right.
Ito achieved an ideal attack position, behind and above his enemy; he approached until he was as close as he dared. The Chinese pilot continued to fly straight and level, as if this was peacetime. He would not make that mistake twice. Ito pressed on the trigger button and his guns opened fire on the hapless Chinese plane. Too late the Chinese pilot realized his mistake; He jinked his aircraft violently,trying to shake Ito from his tail. His engine already smoking, the aircraft turning black from leaking oil. Ito stayed on the biplane, intermittently spraying him with tracers until the old airplane caught fire, raised its nose, in a final act of defiance, and went into a final, fiery spin.
Elated, Ito looked for his friend. It took him a while to locate him. Horrified, he saw that the biplane was on Saburo’s tail, spraying him with fire from his twin machine guns; the little white fighter already smoking. Ito pushed the throttle to the stops, going to rescue his friend. He almost made it. Seconds before he opened fire, Saburo’s Claude flipped on its back and exploded. Ito opened fire on the biplane; he was close enough to see his tracer hitting the enemy cockpit, and the Chinese pilot’s body shaking from the impact of his gun’s rounds. The old biplane went into a long curve and crashed into the ground.

[kaleun]

Back in the airbase, Ito got credit for both enemy planes, but the victory tasted like ashes. For the first time he realized that the war was a serious business, not a game.
That was not to be the only bad news.
A week later at Nagasaki, he received orders for a physical exam. Ito was first shocked, then scared. Unknown to his friends, he had cheated on the physical when he first joined the Navy. Ito had had a fever as a child, and as a result he had a heart murmur; it did not bother him, but it would have kept him out of the army. Fortunately, on the same day of his physical, another boy from his street was with him; the boy, a Christian did not want to serve in the armed forces. It was a simple matter for Ito to switch his papers with the boy’s. The boy was rejected as an invalid and Ito got in.
He had a few days of leave before he had to show up at the Kiido Butai, to join his Zero squadron. He would not be flying out of the big carriers yet, instead he would remain on land, training. He would be a replacement for any pilot injured or killed. Now all that future would be in jeopardy.
He went home on leave. His father could read him like a book.
“Ito: What is wrong?”
“Otosan, it is horrible. I shall be kicked out of the Navy” and he told him everything.
“All is not lost son” His father answered with a smile.
“How is that possible?”

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Apologies for the font size problems.[8|]

[kaleun]

Showa 16 month 10, day 1
 
The rain had finally stopped when at 6 PM Ito and his father walked over to the house of the Admiral. A maid let them in and took them over to the back garden.
It was easy to convince Ito's mother to talk to her cousin, the Admiral's wife. It was an honour for a son to fight and die for an emperor; an occassion of joy and honor to the families; but of course, in private, mothers and fathers all over Nihon grieved for their dead children, far from the public places, where the Kempetai would not see. The China incident had been going on for a long time, and no end was in sight. Nihon would continue to bleed for a long time. If she could get her son a place by the Admiral, away from combat, well, What was the harm in that?
 
The admiral sat, clad in his grey house robe, in front of his Koi pond. The surface of the pond was still in the twilight. They approached the admiral, who continued to contemplate the pond, bowed and sat in silence. The admiral knew they were there since his maid let them in, he would address them when he was ready.
 
Ito and his father observed the admiral; he sat on the floor, oblivious to the moist cold air, and occassionally threw a pebble into the pond, observing the ripples. Finally he turned to them:
 
"Konban wa" He smiled "So you are Sakura's nephew"
 
Ito bowed.
 
"I was impressed by your essay on the great white fleet, on your first year in the Academy" Ito bowed again "Only you realised the intention of Theodore Roosevelt in sending it"
 
"I did not know you read it"
 
"Your teacher showed it to me. That was good luck for you, because I can now help you with your little problem. You speak English; don't you?"
 
"Hai"
 
"I will ask Chuichi to transfer you to my service. I can use you; the empire cannot afford to loose trained men, Ides nee?"
 
Ito and his father bowed low.
 
"Domo arigato gosaimasu"
 
One week later, Ito was ordered to report to the Admiral’s office in Hiroshima  or duty as an aide to Adm Isoroku Yamamoto.

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Showa 16 Month 10 Day 19

Ito showed up for work as always at 6:00. Upon arrival, as was often the case, a senior officer would give him a case with messages to fly, weather permitting, to Adm Chuichi Nagumo. Adm Nagumo was stationed with the Kido Butai, currently training in Kagoshima city, Kyushu. By 7:00 Ito was strapped into a Claude fighter and would take off to find Kaga, off Kagoshima. In the afternoon he would fly back with another case of messages. These messages were considered too sensitive to transmit by radio; the purple code was unbreakable, but it made no sense to take unneccessary risks. At times, Adm. Yamamoto would give him a verbal message for Nagumo. It usually concerned torpedo problems.

Today when he was ready to return to Hiroshima, Nagumo approached him.

"Tell Admiral Yamamoto that the new torpedoes work" he ordered him.

"Hai"

Whatever the problem with the torpedoes, it seemed to have been solved thought Ito as his little fighter took off from Kaga's deck.

As the days got shorter, and October turned into November, Kido Butai departed Kagoshima, for an unknown destination. Under strict radio silence, it made it's way into the foggy sea. Ito knew where the fleet was since he continued his almost daily flights which, he felt, were now more dangerous than combat, with the weather usually stormy, and the radio silence. Sometimes he wished he was back in Shangai, at least he would be warm, which was not the case in his little open cockpit plane in the northern winter.

On Showa 16 Month 12 Day 6 Ito reported to the office. He was shown into Yamamoto's office. The Admiral was sitting at his desk, silent. A senior officer gave Ito a paper, a message flimsy.

"Take this to the radio room, to be trasmitted inmediately, in the open, to all forces"

"Hai"

[kaleun]

Ito gave the sargent on duty the flimsy:
"Transmit to all forces; in the clear"
 
The sargent read the flimsy:
 
"Climb Mt. Niitala. To all forces, in the clear. Hai"

[kaleun]

Showa 16 Month 12 Day 9

Ito could not believe it. Nihon was now at war with the USA, Britain, Holland and an undetermined number of other countries. As the news of the Pearl Harbor attack came in, there was cheering in Yamamoto's office. Only the admiral remained, inmobile, silent, staring at the map. Ito also stood, silent, staring at the Admiral. Both had spent time in the US, the admiral at Harvard and as a naval attache; the ensign with his family, when his father's business took him to the States to buy scrap steel and other metals. They both knew the vast industrial potential of that nation. Ito wondered at the audacity of his nation.

As reports came in, Ito could not help but be surprised. How could the Americans have been caught napping so badly: From the skies above Pearl Harbor, strike commander Mitsuo Fuchida kept a steady stream of reports:

Battleship Pennsylvania hit by 11 bombs, on fire
Maryland 21 bombs and one torpedo, on fire heavy damage
West Virginia 11 bombs and 2 torpedoes on fire
Nevada ten bombs
Tennessee, eleven bombs and two torpedoes, on fire, heavy damage
California twelve bombs
Arizona ten bombs and two torpedoes, on fire, heavy damage
Oklahoma, twelve bombs, one torpedo.

Other ships were hit, there and at other places. Maybe the army brass was right; maybe the European's hour was over, and it was the hour of Asia, and hence of the Yamato people.

The next day Ito travelled to Tokyo with the admiral carrying a map case with him. This time they flew in style in one of the regular army transports. As soon as they got off the airplane a large car picked them up and drove them into the city. Ito recognized Edo castle from pictures as the car drove in. He followed his admiral carrying the map case, until they were admitted into a wood panelled room. Three men sat at a table; when he recognized Tenno Heika he almost dropped the map case, and had a hard time controlling himself as he choked on his own spit. The emperor himself. Ito, like most Japanese, had never even heard his voice, and only occasssionally would The Son of Heaven appear in a picture on the Asahi Shinbum or on a newsreel. The emperor's brother Nobuhito Takamatsu was also present. The third man, prime minister Hideki Tojo was well known to everyone in Japan from the newsreels and papers.

The emperor motioned to the Admiral who approached the table. Ito followed him, not knowing what else to do. The Admiral informed the Emperor about the results of the attack on Pearl Harbor on the seventh.

"Were there any hospital ships at the harbor? Were they hit?" The son of heaven asked.

"No your majesty" Yamamoto answered.

"On the attack on Clark field, were there any civilian areas bombed?" The emperor inquired.

"No your majesty" The admiral replied " Captain Fuchida was in command of the strike and he remained over Pearl Harbor for the duration of both attacks. He reported no hits on civilian areas"

"That is good"

Tojo then interjected "The Ambassador in Washington was late delivering the message, he delivered the message after the attack was over"

Yamamoto's face tightened. He would not show his anger in front of the son of heaven, but Ito could tell he was displeased. He motioned for the first map.

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"Nagumo failed to send in the third wave of attacks on the 8th as planned. We do not know why, but only fighters reached Pearl Harbor"

The emperor, his brother and Tojo pored over the maps.

Yamamoto continued: "Operation Coiled Dragon will now start. Nagumo, on Kaga and Akagi will withdraw to the north with the supporting oilers. They will lie in wait in the northern seas, hopefully undetected. Meanwhile, Hiryu, and the other faster carriers will transit to Kwajalein, passing between Midway and French frigate shoals. They cannot fail but be detected by the enemy flying boats. Once they reach Kwajalein they will support our South Seas operations."

The Son of Heaven nodded.

Yamamoto continued: "It is unlikely that those battleships will sink; there are very good repair facilities at Pearl. Chances are the enemy will patch them up and start sending them to the East piecemeal. They will only keep the less damaged ships to be repaired at Pearl. Nagumo will lie in wait and pounce on the heavy ships as they try to return to the West coast of the US"

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"In the philippines, operations are developing as planned:
Operation Earth: Homma's 48th division and the 65th brigade landed at Lingayen. They should take over Lingayen and move on to Clark.
Operation Moon: Sasebo 1st and the 104th Base force landed on Laoag in the north and estabvlished an airbase. Already fighters and dive bombers have arrived there to support Homma. The Yokosuka paratroopers airdropped on Bataan Island and seized it with no resistance.
Operation Fire: Kure 1st and the 2nd Naval Landing force have landed and taken Legaspi. Additional forces landed at Naga. They will drive to Manila from the south.
Operation Wind: The 2nd Maizuru and the 51st Naval Guards have landed and taken Wake.

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"In the Southern philippines" He continued "the 3rd NLF and 22nd Special base force have landed and seized the airfield at Jolo. I regret to inform your majesty that these forces were intercepted by a light cruiser, Boise and a heavy cruiser, Houston. Regrettably I negflected to provide for adequate protection and we lost some transports. The remainder of the transports will unload their supplies tomorrow under the protection of battleships from the blocking force. As you can see there is a large amount of traffic trying to escape the islands."

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"Finally, in Malaya we have landed troops at Singora. As soon as the landing is complete they will march towards Georgetown. Our troops have also landed and taken the airfield at Kota Bharu. Our submarines have also been active around the island of Singkep, and some of them have already expended all their torpedoes and are returning to base for more. A light cruiser,the Mauritius was torpedoed by SSI-155.

[kaleun]

"The airgroups of some of our smaller carriers needed training. We stationed them in the South China sea, where they are finding what the Americajin would call a 'target rich environment'" All the men chuckled at this.
"Finally, we have set up a submarine barrier to intercept the transports that will soon be leaving the American West coast to supply Pearl Harbor and Australia. They will also be in place to intercept any capital ships that slip through Nagumo's net"

[kaleun]

Showa 16 month 12 day 10

Ito's position as Yamamoto's aide made him privy to more information about the war than would be usual. Most of it he had to keep secret, but some he could share. On that evening, at a bath house, over beer and sake he commented with some other young officers:

"Imagine this Americans. They are using sailing boats. Look at what one of the Betty daitais wasted two torpedoes on. What next?"

[kaleun]

The Hosho CVE continues their training cruise in the South China sea, with a fair degree of success.
The different airgroups and task forces around the Philippines sink a large number of enemy ships. Among them, the large troop transport President Madison falls to Nells that hit it with 7 torpedoes! The oiler Trinity and Pecos also sink, as well as the transport Ariadne Moller that, after being used for target practice by the CVE Hosho enthusiasts is finished off by a submarine.

[kaleun]

No place is safe from marauding Japanese subs. A ahip is torpedoed only 200 miles from San Francisco and a minesweeper discovers that the waters off Suva are not as safe as the allied command would like.