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Cuttlefish -> RE: Small Ship, Big War (10/7/2007 8:19:01 AM)
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April 27 - May 2, 1943
Location: 60 miles west of Admiralty Island
Course: East
Attached to: TF 36
Mission: Surface combat
System Damage: 3
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 296
Orders: Guard against enemy invasion forces heading for Lae or Buna
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Annapolis, Maryland, November 1935:
Lieutenant JG Sakamoto Miharu arrives at the home of Lieutenant Ben Packard and his wife, Mary, at exactly 7:30 pm. This was the time on the invitation, and so the young Japanese officer is of course the first to arrive.
The Packards are not surprised; they had, in fact, expected it. They are both fond of Miharu, and his unfailing punctuality at social gatherings is just one of those quirks that reminds them from time to time that he is, after all, from another culture.
Ben opens the door. Miharu is stand there in his dress whites. A box is tucked under one arm. He gives a small bow as the door opens.
“Sakamoto-san, it is good to see you,” says Ben. He shakes Lieutenant Miharu’s hand. “Come in, come in.” The Japanese officer steps inside, removing his cap as he does so. Ben takes it. Mary comes out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on the apron she still has on over her cocktail dress.
“Hello, dear,” she says. Lieutenant Miharu smiles and bows again. He holds out the box.
“Thank you once again for inviting me into your home,” he says. “This is for you.” Mary takes the box, a look of curiosity on her face. It is fairly heavy.
“Why thank you,” she says, and sets it on a small table nearby to open it. “You really didn’t have to…oh my!” She unwraps and lifts out an exquisite covered Japanese serving bowl. “This…” she stammers, “this is beautiful! It must have cost a fortune. I can’t take this!” Lieutenant Miharu smiles. This is a perfectly appropriate response. A Japanese hostess would have gone on at greater length, perhaps, about being unworthy of so fine a gift, but the forms have been observed.
“It has been in my family for many years,” he says. “Please, it is just a small token for all you and your husband have done for me during my stay in America.”
“Well I…I’m going to go put this someplace safe!” she says. She stretches up on tiptoe to kiss Miharu on the cheek. “Thank you,” she says simply, and holding the bowl protectively she returns to the kitchen to finish preparing for the party.
Ben Packard leads Miharu into the living room. He is an instructor in foreign languages at the Naval Academy. Lieutenant Miharu has spent the year teaching Japanese there. The two men began by giving each other additional lessons in their respective languages and ended up becoming friends.
As they enter the living room “Chasing Shadows” by the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra is playing on the phonograph. Ben gets Miharu a drink and then goes to help Mary get the plates of hors d’oeuvres set out. It isn’t long before the doorbell chimes again, and the dinner party is underway.
It is a small but eclectic gathering that night. Ambassador Sternwheeler, Ben’s uncle, and his wife Jennifer are there, along with Sternwheeler’s aide, Mr. Retief. Thaddeuz Skorda, a Polish naval officer (“the other one, he is back in Poland,” he jokes) is there with his date. There are a couple of other friends of Ben and Mary, also naval officers, and Stewart Wetherby and his wife Marie. Stewart is an old high school friend of Ben’s who is now an Army Air Corps captain.
After an excellent dinner the women move to the kitchen to clean up and chat while the men retire to Ben’s study for drinks and cigars. Given the composition and interests of the group the talk naturally turns to international affairs. The situation in Europe, where earlier in the year Hitler passed the Nuremburg laws and announced he was abrogating the Treaty of Versailles, is discussed. So too is Asia, especially China. The Marco Polo Bridge incident is still almost two years in the future, but already there are those who think that eventual war with Japan is inevitable.
Ambassador Sternwheeler puts forth the optimistic view that the United States can avoid going to war anywhere. Lieutenant Commander Charles Turnby, who teaches seamanship at Annapolis, disagrees.
“I have a son, Mark, who is twelve,” he says. He looks over at Miharu. “He wants to follow in his father’s footsteps and go into the Navy. I believe that by the time he gets there you and he will be enemies.”
“I sincerely hope not, sir,” says Lieutenant Miharu. “Our two countries have much to gain by being friends, and much to lose by being enemies.” Turnby sips his brandy.
“I agree with that,” he says. “You and I, we can sit here and discuss things as friends. I like you, Lieutenant. You strike me as an intelligent and reasonable man, and I like to think I am too. If it were up to you and I, well, we could probably work out everything just fine. But nations have a harder time doing that, and war has a momentum all it’s own.”
“A pessimistic view, Captain,” says Sternwheeler. “Fortunately there are men such as myself whose job it is to help nations find solutions other than war.”
“And it is the job of people such as myself to fight if you fail,” says Turnby. “But I wish you success, I really do.”
“Here is to peace, then,” says Skorda, the Polish officer. There is a chorus of agreement, and everybody drinks. The talk turns to the upcoming Army-Navy football game ( a game Army is destined to win, 28-6) and then to other matters. But Lieutenant Miharu will remember Turnby’s words in the years to come, as the shadow between Japan and America grows longer.
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The Japanese ships remain for several days in the Bismarck Sea. The enemy makes no moves, however, and their ships at Gili Gili vanish again.
Captain Koyanaji’s task force is next ordered to head east, clear the Bismarck archipelago, and then proceed down the northern side of the Solomons. Perhaps Captain Koyanaji knows the reason behind the orders; aboard Hibiki they do not. This does not stop rampant speculation, of course. But as Captain Ishii points out, the why of things really does not matter. They will go where they are told regardless of the reason, and see what is waiting for them when they get there.
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