Cuttlefish
Posts: 2454
Joined: 1/24/2007
From: Oregon, USA
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January 31, 1945
Location: Kure
Course: South
Attached to: TF 43
Mission: Bombardment
System Damage: 0
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475
Orders: Return to Kure
---
Captain Ishii is not usually one to pay much attention to gossip or give credence to rumors. Yet some of the talk he hears when Hibiki docks at Kure to refuel is so grave that he goes ashore to see if he can find out at least part of the truth. He comes back aboard a little while later, his face grave.
Once aboard he assembles his officers and tells them that there has indeed been trouble over the appointment of Admiral Yonai as Prime Minister. The Army, after considerable arm-twisting, was persuaded to go along with it for the time being. But some radical elements, especially among the younger, more idealistic officers, have refused to accept it. At some point in the last few days their threats escalated to violence.
“Yonai is unharmed,” says Ishii, “and the situation is calm at present. But several men have been killed and things remain tense. The hope seems to be that with the war at a crisis point the dissenters will abandon their cause for the good of all.”
“As long as Yonai continues to prosecute the war with vigor the Army hotheads can hardly complain,” points out Sugiyura.
“But they will still fear his appointment means that Japan is open to negotiations,” says Lieutenant Miharu. He shakes his head. “Officers taking politics into their own hands. It has become almost an institution. Many in Japan scorn the Americans as soft and weak but I can tell you that any American officer who did such a thing would be dealt with most harshly.”
“So would any British officer,” says Sakati.
“And if they were German or Russian they would simply be shot out of hand,” adds Kuwaki.
“Apparently some have been shot,” says Ishii. “Though it was in all the confusion and not as punishment. But I do not know any of the details.”
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Tokyo, two nights previously:
Chief Petty Officer Harano of the 54th Naval Guard Unit stands at attention outside the gated drive to Admiral Yonai’s private residence. When a sedan and two trucks turn onto the street and slow as they approach he is not surprised. He has been expecting trouble. There have been reports of clashes and unrest elsewhere in Tokyo since nightfall, though details are jumbled and hard to come by.
Harano has his orders, given to him by Commander Tezuka himself. They consist of two words - protect Yonai.
The vehicles pull up and soldiers hop out. The leader, who was in the sedan, is waving a sword. All of the men are Imperial Army soldiers and all are armed. Harano estimates there are about thirty of them.
“Stand aside!” says the officer, a colonel. He shoves the tip of his sword almost under Harano’s nose. Third Guards Division, notes Harano. Of course. If that lot had been assigned to protect Baker Island or some place like that things would be a lot calmer around here.
“No,” he says simply. He does not move and his seamed face does not change expression.
“What?” says the colonel in disbelief. “Listen, we are going to kill Yonai and we will not hesitate to kill you! You had better get out of the way!” The men around him chorus in agreement and several rifles are leveled at Harano. They are all scared and excited and their blood is up.
“Please listen to what I have to tell you,” he says to the men facing him. He deliberately pitches his voice low, forcing them to quiet down to hear him. “I apologize for not being able to obey your request, but I have my own orders. To carry out these orders I have two machine guns and a squad of marksmen out in the darkness covering this gate. If I am attacked they will open fire. Therefore I urge you to stop all this and go back to your barracks.”
“He is lying!” says a man standing next to the colonel. He lifts a pistol. “I will show you that we mean business!” The crack of a rifle comes from somewhere nearby, followed almost immediately by a second report. The man with the pistol cries out and collapses, blood pumping from two holes in his chest.
Everyone freezes for a second. In the Yonai residence a light comes on, and then another. The colonel stares at Harano in disbelief, then reaches slowly up and wipes a spatter of blood off his own cheek. He looks at his reddened hand in the lamplight, turning it over.
“You see that it is as I have said,” says Harano. The soldiers mill about uncertainly.
Suddenly the colonel bows. “I am sorry to have troubled you this evening,” he says. He barks an order and several men help the wounded man into one of the trucks. After a few quick arguments and some further apologies the soldiers all return to their vehicles and drive away.
Harano draws a bucket of water from a nearby well and thoughfully sluices the blood from the sidewalk, then returns to his post.
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