Joe smiled. "Your Majesty is quite wise."
"And perceptive."
Joe did not disagree. Where the hell was this going? he wondered.
"Someday you may have to make some difficult, even agonizing decisions, Captain. You may have to decide where your true loyalty lies. Is it to Anami and Sakei, or is it to Japan and your emperor? My duty lies in ending this war as quickly as possible and by using any means available. I feel that I could have been the instrument of peace. I pray that it is not too late for me."
Hirohito clapped his hands. "Go now. Think about what I have said and what is the evidence of your eyes, your mind, and your heart. I know you will make the decision that is best for Japan."
Almost in shock, Joe stood and bowed. He left the compound hastily and rode his bike out into the countryside. What the hell was Hirohito saying? It sounded as if he wanted Joe's help to spring him from his prison, and the more he thought about Hirohito's words, the more he became convinced that his assumption was correct.
Now what? Jesus. Just when he thought he had a handle on things, someone went and changed the damned rules. He had to get back to camp and contact his handlers. Maybe it was time to break into the new code? He was only to use it as a last resort because, after that, there was no other. Maybe he should try to use the old one without compromising himself. He'd have to talk to Dennis. Dennis was damned clever and would help come up with something.
With a jolt that nearly caused him to fall off the bike, he realized that he might have it within his power to end the whole war if he could get Hirohito out of his confinement and into the hands of other people who thought the way he did.
Chapter 54
Ernest Bevin was Great Britain 's secretary of state for foreign affairs in the relatively new government of Prime Minister Clement Attlee. It seemed poignant and significant to President Truman that the heads of both the world's greatest democracies had fallen within a couple of months of each other. Franklin Roosevelt had died of a massive stroke, while Winston Churchill had been replaced by a Labour government that the British people felt was better qualified to lead them through the coming peace.
Of the three world leaders who'd forged the wartime alliance against the Nazis, only Joseph Stalin remained.
"Mr. President, I have come on a mission of great urgency, and it is imperative that we be able to speak frankly and candidly, even though that will require the stating of some unpleasant truths." Bevin chuckled. "Indeed. First let me say that I come as the representative of a country, Great Britain, that is your only true friend on this earth."
Byrnes responded quizzically, "I'm delighted that you reaffirm our alliance, but why do you state that you are our only true friend?"
Bevin nodded. "Because France, under the insufferable Charles de Gaulle, is going its own arrogant way, and the other European countries are too devastated to provide anything beyond lip-service support to you as allies. In Asia, Chiang's China is tottering and claims to be your ally for the sole reason that you provide Chiang with the material resources to fight the Japanese and the Communists. Russia, of course, is betraying you routinely."
There was overwhelming evidence that the Russians were fighting only the Chinese Nationalists, while permitting hundreds of thousands of Japanese soldiers to trek through Soviet lines to Korea, where the Japanese tried to slip them into either Honshu or Kyushu.
"I spoke with Ambassador Gromyko this morning in person," Truman said, "and with Molotov by phone. Both men flatly deny any complicity in the fact that the Japs are getting through to Korea. When I showed Gromyko proof that Russian ships were actually ferrying Japs to Korea, they professed shock and said it must be the actions of a deviant local commander."
Bevin arched an eyebrow. "Did you believe them?"
"Hell no, and I let Gromyko have it with both barrels." Truman laughed bitterly. "When I tried to scold Molotov, the son of a bitch hung up on me. Deviant local commander, my foot. Nobody in the Soviet Union even goes to the John without Stalin's specific permission."
Bevin relaxed slightly. "Do you accept that China is lost?"
"I don't see how it could be otherwise," Truman answered. "I've met with some congressmen who are supporters of Chiang Kai-shek and they've yelled at me that we have to do something, anything, to help Chiang, but nobody knows what that something or anything might be. Yes, Mr. Bevin, China is lost no matter what the so-called China Lobby in Congress says and wishes."
"Mr. President, distasteful though that may be, it helps bring me to the reason for my visit. The Russians are moving down the coast of China and taking over the land held by the Japanese, which includes all the major coastal cities."
Byrnes nodded. "But how does that affect Great Britain?"
"Hong Kong," Bevin stated simply.
"I see," said Marshall. "You want your empire back and you wish us to help you get it."
"Not totally," Bevin corrected. "England is emotionally, physically, and economically ruined by this war. What my government has to do for her people is to end the war as quickly as possible so that we can begin to recover before recovery is impossible. Our army and navy must be brought home and the enormous expenditure in war material must be pared down."
"And how does Hong Kong fit in this picture?" Truman asked.
"It is much more than a symbol of empire. I know that your nation hates the thought of colonial empires and has made it emphatic that you are not going to fight to reestablish European colonies, but Hong Kong is unique. It is a British city-state, albeit with a large Chinese population, that is both a symbol to my country and a place where a great number of British prisoners, civilian and military, are being detained."
Truman understood and conceded that point. "The safety of our prisoners in Japanese hands is a grave concern."
"Then you were as horrified as we were about the massacre in Kagoshima," Bevin said.
U.S. Marines had finally stormed Kagoshima City in bloody house-to-house fighting. After slogging through the charred ruins of the town, they'd found more than two hundred Allied prisoners of war who'd systematically been murdered by the Japanese before they themselves committed suicide. The prisoners' hands had been tied behind their backs and they had been beheaded.
"We have to get our prisoners back," Bevin said. "The Japs have seven or eight Dutch or Commonwealth prisoners for every one American in captivity. While we have liberated some helpless wretches in our drive through Burma, the vast majority remain in very brutal Jap hands. You were truly fortunate in that you rescued so many in the Philippines, but you know full well just how terribly they'd been treated."
Only now were the truths of the Bataan Death March and the atrocities at the Philippine camps such as Cabanatuan being accurately assessed. The kindest camps were those where the inmates were merely overworked, beaten, and starved. At others, these were combined with torture, hideous experiments, and ritual murder. Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma had commanded the Japs in the Philippines at the time of Bataan and was one of the leading candidates to be hanged after the war. Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita, who currently led the ragged remnants of the Japanese army in the hills of Luzon, was another.
"So what do you want?" Truman asked.
"As I stated, Hong Kong. We wish your support in taking it. I'll be candid. If we do not get it, we may have to consider making a separate peace with the Japanese. It is that important to us."