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Cuttlefish -> RE: Small Ship, Big War (5/2/2008 9:16:57 PM)
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January 24, 1944
Location: Tokyo
Course: None
Attached to: Disbanded in port
Mission: None
System Damage: 0
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475
Orders: Await further orders.
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Capt. Harlock’s recent reminder about the dramatis personae posted back on page 57 prompted me to take a look at it. It’s useful but badly out of date now, so without further ado here is a revised version.
Officers:
Lieutenant Commander Hagumu Ishii, Captain. We know quite a bit about his character but little of his home life, except that he is from Hyogo Prefecture and has a granddaughter, Sachiko, who he has never seen.
Lieutenant Sakamoto Miharu, Executive Officer. His home is in Kanazawa. Taught Japanese at Annapolis for a year in the 1930’s.
Lieutenant Sakati, Chief Engineer. Trained at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
Lieutenant Sugiyura, Chief Torpedo Officer. Martial artist and the most aggressive of Hibiki’s officers.
Lieutenant Kuwaki, Chief Gunnery Officer. Recently promoted to full lieutenant.
Lieutenant JG Nakagawa, ship’s medical officer.
Lieutenant JG Kataoka, paymaster.
Ensign Handa, small boat specialist. His war of practical jokes with Ensign Izu got out of hand for a while, but the two are now good friends. Transferred to battleship Musashi in 1943.
Ensign Tomio Izu. Amateur ornithologist, his father is a colonel in the Kwangtung Army.
Midshipman Konada. Handa’s uptight replacement, is trying to overcome the perception that he is more style than substance.
Petty Officers:
Chief Petty Officer Shun. From Okinawa. Terror of the ship’s enlisted men. He and Captain Ishii go back a long ways.
Constructor Chief Petty Officer Shinoda. Baseball player and master of the machine shops.
Senior Petty Officer Toshio Aikawa. Appears in the narrative only rarely, but Shun respects him.
Petty Officer First Class Okubo. A bully and all-around jerk.
Petty Officer First Class Taiki Takahashi. Began the war as an enlisted man. Remarkably intelligent. Has lost much of his naïveté during the war but not his sense of honor. Married Sayumi Komatsu in January 1944.
Enlisted Men:
Leading Seaman Riku Ariga. A former rogue and con man who is trying very hard to reform after having the bad luck to fall hopelessly in love with Shun’s daughter.
Leading Seaman Shiro Kuramata. A woodcarver and gentle soul from Tendo. Close friend to Riku and Taiki. We know he will one day write a book about his experiences during the war.
Leading Seaman Yoshitake. Bunks with Shiro, Riku, and Oizuma.
Leading Seaman Hosogaya. Torpedoman and baseball player. Joined the crew in 1943.
Seaman Senior Oizuma, “Snake Man.” Owner of Benzaiten.
Seaman Senior Kinsei. Torpedoman. Joined the crew in 1943, started out in Sugiyura’s doghouse but has since won approval.
Seaman Senior Chuyo. Torpedoman, friend of Kinsei and Hosogaya.
Seaman First Class Itokawa. Cook and baseball player.
Seaman First Class Hikaru Shoji. Another bunkmate of Riku and Shiro, is plagued by bad luck.
Seaman Second Class Moshizuki. A heavy drinker and frequently in trouble.
Others:
Kojima Miharu, Lieutenant Miharu’s wife.
Morito Miharu, the lieutenant’s brother. A member of the Communist Party, which is a criminal activity in and of itself. Killed on Okinawa by Umeda.
Rin Shun, CPO Shun’s mother. A wise and tough old woman, seriously ill for a time but recovered. Shot and killed Umeda when he invaded the Shun home in an attempt to kill her son.
Nanami Shun, CPO Shun’s daughter. Beautiful but fiercely protected by her father.
Ensign Noboro Takahashi, Taiki’s brother. Serves aboard battleship Mutsu. Injured off Wake in ’42, has burn scars as a result.
Benzaiten, a Borneo blood python. The ship’s unofficial good luck charm.
Lieutenant Umeda of the Tokeitai. Held a grudge against Chief Shun and Captain Ishii, killed on Okinawa by Shun’s mother.
Sayumi Komatsu. War widow who attempted to continue running her family’s plastering business. Married Taiki in January 1944.
Frank Barnwell of the RAF, Blenheim gunner and radio operator. Picked up by Hibiki when his plane was shot down in the early days of the war. Escaped and after many adventures is now in India with his unit.
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Marson of the Australian 7th Infantry Division. Appeared in the battles of Timor and Port Moresby.
Gordon McNair, merchant seaman. His tanker was torpedoed and he was left adrift by Kido Butai off New Zealand.
Ensign Mark Turnby of PT-62, son of a friend of Lieutenant Miharu’s. Rescued by Hibiki and now a resident of Kawasaki POW Camp 2-B.
Jack, torpedo boat commander. Captured along with Ensign Turnby and also a resident of Kawasaki POW Camp 2-B.
Seaman Ralph Bethke. A crewman on the US destroyer La Valette. He writes messages and tosses them overboard in bottles, one of which gets Yoshitake into trouble.
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