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What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2005 1:42 am
by rtrapasso
Having gotten interested, i re-read Japanese Destroyer Captain by Capt. Tameichi Hara (with Roger Pineau and Fred Saito). The edition i have is the 1961 Ballantine Books edition. There is a foreward dated 1958 that says he was working at a salt transport company since the end of the war.
Anyone know what has happened since? If he is alive, he would be 105 this October 19. Tried all kinds of stuff on the web - even found a web site with biographies of Eta Jima graduates, but they don't give details on lowly captains. Haven't been able to find an obit.
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 4:12 am
by rtrapasso
bump...
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 5:37 am
by CaptDave
While we're on the subject of "whatever happened to...", does anyone know anything about Lt Kaminski, one of the few people at Pearl Harbor who actually had his head on top of his shoulders instead of between his legs and slightly higher? Thought about him earlier today when I read the phrase "don't worry about it" in someone else's post!
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 6:41 am
by mogami
Hi, Never read his book. There is a man with that name shown as C.O. Japanese CL YAHAGI, during OKINAWA Campaign. Final rank given is Rear Admiral.
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 7:27 am
by Bongo
That is the same guy as he ended the war in the light cruiser sunk during the Yamato sortie. I would highly recommend the book as it is an informative and quick read.
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 1:50 pm
by rtrapasso
ORIGINAL: Mogami
Hi, Never read his book. There is a man with that name shown as C.O. Japanese CL YAHAGI, during OKINAWA Campaign. Final rank given is Rear Admiral.
Yes - Hara commanded
Yahagi on the final
Yamato sortie, and was one of the few survivors from his ship. He only claimed the rank of Captain. The Eta Jima roster (49th Class) also only gave him a rank of Captain, as did the Combined Fleets Website.
Excellent book - fast read, if you can find it. It's out of print, but lots of copies are on the web for exhorbitant prices. Some copies are still floating around in some libraries.
He gives first hand account of landings in PI, DEI, Battle of Java Sea, Eastern Solomons (escorted
Ryujo), Second Savo ("the bar room brawl"), Vella Gulf (sole surviving ship), Empress Augusta Bay, Carrier attack on Rabaul ("2 November raid"), and the final
Yamato sortie among others. He also gives Japanese accounts of other battles (Coral Sea, Tassaforanga, etc.) His flagship,
Shigure was also the sole survivor from its force at Surigao Strait (although he was not in it at the time).
He is doubly lucky to have survived the war - surviving all those battles, as well as surviving his criticism of the Japanese High Command. He was one of the few Japanese after the war to criticize Yamato. He also criticized them during the war (and immediately before the war). In one memorable scene, he is presented an award for his valor at a party - he gets drunk and tells them to shove the award and starts in on the IJN High Command. He also submitted a personal petition to the Emperor to end the war (although whether it got to the Emperor or not is moot - but he gave it to the Emperor's brother). I suspect this is partly how he got selected on the suicide mission to Okinawa (Hara was vehemently against Kamikaze missions in all forms).
So anyone know what happened after 1958 or so?
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 5:01 pm
by adsoul
ORIGINAL: rtrapasso
Having gotten interested, i re-read Japanese Destroyer Captain by Capt. Tameichi Hara (with Roger Pineau and Fred Saito). The edition i have is the 1961 Ballantine Books edition. There is a foreward dated 1958 that says he was working at a salt transport company since the end of the war.
Anyone know what has happened since? If he is alive, he would be 105 this October 19. Tried all kinds of stuff on the web - even found a web site with biographies of Eta Jima graduates, but they don't give details on lowly captains. Haven't been able to find an obit.
Sorry, I cannot be much useful. I assume you have searched the Internet, so I did the same looking for Italian or French sites about Hara but unsuccesfully. My version of the book is an Italian translation with preface written by a guy (maybe a journalist) that says no more than Hara was working at a salt trasport Company.
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 7:49 pm
by testarossa
Here is my crude translation from Russian using babel fish.
On 10 July I learned about a fall of Saypan and loss of Admiral Nagumo.
By this time I was appointed as the chief of new torpedo school in Kavatane, not far from Sasebo. I received a secret order to prepare cadets "for combat near the coast of Japan".
I do not know what happened with me, but I unexpectedly began to write a message to emperor Hirohito. This was, of course, foolish, but, apparently, I no longer could control myself.
I wrote that Japan already lost a war, calling emperor to look at the situation realistically. I noted that officers not familiar with the methods of waging modern war occupy the highest posts in the army and the navy, and that the continuous rivalry between Army and Navy leads to the disastrous results.
I urged emperor to finish war and as the first step - to expel from the service all incompetent Admirals and Generals.
It was act of not simply scandalous indiscipline, but also high treason and could've brought me under the courtmartial in accordance with the Naval regulations. I did not think about it. I thought only about the fact that the entire country is rolling to the catastrophe. After finishing my petition, I took the first train to Tokyo.
On 12th of July, being terribly disturbed, i entered the the Admiralty. The first, whom I saw there, was rear admiral prince To-Takamatsu - brother of the emperor.
I rushed to him:
- Your majesty, can I talk with you in private?
The eyebrows of prince shot up from such impudence. Probable he though that I lost my mind, but nodded and invited me to his office. There I gave him my message, and asked to present it to the emperor.
- Is it ok if I read it? - asked prince
- Certainly, Your Majesty, I bowed to him.
Prince slowly unrolled paper and nursed through the text. Noticing nervous motion of his eyebrows I understood, how unpleasant it was to him to read my message. He glanced at me, apparently, considering: if I mad or not, and then put letter into the pocket.
- Good, Hara, -said prince, Don’t worry about this.
I never found out what happened to my message to the emperor. In any case, no one in Navy circles had any knowledge of it. …
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 8:54 pm
by rtrapasso
ORIGINAL: testarossa
Here is my crude translation from Russian using babel fish.
On 10 July I learned about a fall of Saypan and loss of Admiral Nagumo.
By this time I was appointed as the chief of new torpedo school in Kavatane, not far from Sasebo. I received a secret order to prepare cadets "for combat near the coast of Japan".
I do not know what happened with me, but I unexpectedly began to write a message to emperor Hirohito. This was, of course, foolish, but, apparently, I no longer could control myself.
I wrote that Japan already lost a war, calling emperor to look at the situation realistically. I noted that officers not familiar with the methods of waging modern war occupy the highest posts in the army and the navy, and that the continuous rivalry between Army and Navy leads to the disastrous results.
I urged emperor to finish war and as the first step - to expel from the service all incompetent Admirals and Generals.
It was act of not simply scandalous indiscipline, but also high treason and could've brought me under the courtmartial in accordance with the Naval regulations. I did not think about it. I thought only about the fact that the entire country is rolling to the catastrophe. After finishing my petition, I took the first train to Tokyo.
On 12th of July, being terribly disturbed, i entered the the Admiralty. The first, whom I saw there, was rear admiral prince To-Takamatsu - brother of the emperor.
I rushed to him:
- Your majesty, can I talk with you in private?
The eyebrows of prince shot up from such impudence. Probable he though that I lost my mind, but nodded and invited me to his office. There I gave him my message, and asked to present it to the emperor.
- Is it ok if I read it? - asked prince
- Certainly, Your Majesty, I bowed to him.
Prince slowly unrolled paper and nursed through the text. Noticing nervous motion of his eyebrows I understood, how unpleasant it was to him to read my message. He glanced at me, apparently, considering: if I mad or not, and then put letter into the pocket.
- Good, Hara, -said prince, Don’t worry about this.
I never found out what happened to my message to the emperor. In any case, no one in Navy circles had any knowledge of it. …
Yeah - this was in the book. Probably no one in the IJN high command knew of this or they would have had him shot. However, he probably pissed off a bunch of people in some of his other actions (i.e. - the drunken party incident i mentioned above).
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 8:56 pm
by rtrapasso
ORIGINAL: adso
ORIGINAL: rtrapasso
Having gotten interested, i re-read Japanese Destroyer Captain by Capt. Tameichi Hara (with Roger Pineau and Fred Saito). The edition i have is the 1961 Ballantine Books edition. There is a foreward dated 1958 that says he was working at a salt transport company since the end of the war.
Anyone know what has happened since? If he is alive, he would be 105 this October 19. Tried all kinds of stuff on the web - even found a web site with biographies of Eta Jima graduates, but they don't give details on lowly captains. Haven't been able to find an obit.
Sorry, I cannot be much useful. I assume you have searched the Internet, so I did the same looking for Italian or French sites about Hara but unsuccesfully. My version of the book is an Italian translation with preface written by a guy (maybe a journalist) that says no more than Hara was working at a salt trasport Company.
Thanks for checking![:)]
Yeah - searched everything on the web I could read. I suspect the answer is on a Japanese website. I don't read Japanese, though.
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 3:22 am
by testarossa
You are right guys. Thee is nothing about him on the internet. I gonna ask my neighbour to google it in japanise.
I've fished out another good link though.
http://www.cvl-22.com/pics1.html
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 2:38 pm
by rtrapasso
ORIGINAL: testarossa
You are right guys. Thee is nothing about him on the internet. I gonna ask my neighbour to google it in japanise.
I've fished out another good link though.
http://www.cvl-22.com/pics1.html
Good deal! Let us know what your friend finds!!![8D]
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2005 5:25 pm
by Tom Hunter
On photo page 6 of the link posted by testarossa there is a 5 photo sequence of a kamikaze flying past a US BB (I think) and into the Intrepid. Its an amazing sequence in the fist photo the kamikaze is visible over the after turret of the BB and the photographer followed it all the way in.
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 2:57 pm
by rtrapasso
ORIGINAL: testarossa
You are right guys. Thee is nothing about him on the internet. I gonna ask my neighbour to google it in japanise.
Did your friend ever find anything on Capt. Hara?
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 6:50 pm
by testarossa
ORIGINAL: rtrapasso
ORIGINAL: testarossa
You are right guys. Thee is nothing about him on the internet. I gonna ask my neighbour to google it in japanise.
Did your friend ever find anything on Capt. Hara?
They don't have internet[X(]. I'll try to catch someone at the church on Sunday.
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 9:24 pm
by MikeH1952
He is listed on this site.
It is always being upgraded and might be worth checking regularily.
Its a pretty good resource.
http://navalhistory.flixco.info
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 5:07 pm
by rtrapasso
ORIGINAL: Mike Hayday
He is listed on this site.
It is always being upgraded and might be worth checking regularily.
Its a pretty good resource.
http://navalhistory.flixco.info
Thanks - i had seen this in my earlier researches (or something very similar). Alas, it does not tell what happened to him after the war. I will continue to keep looking and checking until i find something definitive.
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 2:15 pm
by rtrapasso
ORIGINAL: testarossa
ORIGINAL: rtrapasso
ORIGINAL: testarossa
You are right guys. Thee is nothing about him on the internet. I gonna ask my neighbour to google it in japanise.
Did your friend ever find anything on Capt. Hara?
They don't have internet[X(]. I'll try to catch someone at the church on Sunday.
Pray tell, did you ever find anyone who can read/write Japanese who might shed any light on this?
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 9:06 pm
by testarossa
O boy, it is harder than i thought.
One guy did a search for me and found out that Hara was in merchant marine after the war. We knew it already, right? I don't know this guy that close to ask him to spend more time and dig deeper. It's kind of difficult to persuade people to spend time on something they have no interest in.
I'll keep looking though.
RE: What Ever Happened to Capt. Hara?
Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:46 pm
by rtrapasso
ORIGINAL: testarossa
O boy, it is harder than i thought.
One guy did a search for me and found out that Hara was in merchant marine after the war. We knew it already, right? I don't know this guy that close to ask him to spend more time and dig deeper. It's kind of difficult to persuade people to spend time on something they have no interest in.
I'll keep looking though.
Hmm - what we knew was that he was involved with a salt transport company. Well, i didn't know this was merchant marine - i kinda thought it was a truck company for some reason. But merchant marine makes sense.
Thanks for the followup!