“How can you know this?” said the stern faced Ugaki. “That was a private meeting, which now leads me to accept my suspicion that you are all operatives of the Kempeitai!”
“No sir, as artful and intrusive as they may be, not one man among them would know anything about what I will now reveal here. Hara expressed his doubts about waging total war. He asked if we might not simply strike south to seize the resources of Indonesia, while avoiding action in the Philippines against the Americans, but you told him it was too late to change the plans, that every diplomatic option had run its course, that we now had no choice except this war with the United States. A week after that conversation you began writing Senso Roku, the Seaweed of War, your personal diary.”
“What? Then you are a spy, as I have long suspected. How else could you know this?” He looked at Yamamoto now, his eyes wide. “You see? The Kempeitai are everywhere, and this fantastic story spun out here is simply a distraction. Now they begin to reveal who they truly are.”
“Sir, with all respect, we are not members of the Kempeitai. I also know that you both had entertained the same reservations expressed by Hara, and wonder whether this war will turn out to be a victory cup or a bitter dose for the future empire.” In saying that last bit, the Captain was making a direct quote from Ugaki’s own diary, and he cast a wary glance at him as he did so.
“I know this because I have read your war diary, Admiral Ugaki, and not because we are agents spying on your personal affairs. No. Your diary was published and widely circulated after the war. It is history. A copy of everything you will one day come to write in it now resides in our ship’s library. I will not speak further of this, firstly out of respect for your privacy, and secondly because we have seen that things are different here now. That volcano, for example, was never supposed to erupt. There never was a Russian ship dueling with our navy in the north. Siberia never invaded Kamchatka, largely because we never had troops there, and they already owned all that territory. Hiryu was not sunk after Pearl Harbor as you say here, nor was Mutsu and the cruiser Chikuma damaged as you spoke of earlier. So from what we can see, the history is different, and it may not re-write itself as we know it. Therefore, your account of it may differ considerably if you continue to set your thoughts down in that diary, particularly if you allow us to make yet one more proposal.”
“Another proposal?” Yamamoto forced a smile, deeply disturbed now by what this man was saying. How could he have known about something as private as Ugaki’s personal diary. How could he have the effrontery to ever mention it openly like this if he did have knowledge of it. And now this claim that it was all published history neatly dovetails into their other impossible story, the grand theater in which they beckon me to take a part.
“What proposal?” he said, wanting to hear these men out before he finally decided their fate.
Ugaki was barely managing to contain his rage, but he forced himself to sit down again, and reached for the saké himself, in spite of Yamamoto’s disapproving glance. It was the one chink in the otherwise unassailable fortress Ugaki stood watch on, his aspect always stern and expressionless, never revealing his emotion or inner thoughts. That he had shown such anger and frustration here was evidence that he was most upset with these events, and Yamamoto knew there would certainly be repercussions.
“Sir, we know of your own views concerning this war, and our prospects for victory. America has been struck a heavy blow, and they will rise now with great rage to prosecute this war. You yourself know this, and even though our present navy is now second to no other fleet in this world, that will not always be the case. The industrial might of the United States, and the vast resources they have at their disposal, will soon make any real victory in this war impossible for Japan. If we do fight on, it will be to our utter destruction and shame. This is what we now hope to avoid, for like Admiral Ugaki’s diary, we know the entire history of this war, every battle, every decision and its outcome, every mistake and failure, every brilliant thrust. It is all history, and a fate that we sincerely hope we can avoid now. This is why, after finding ourselves here, we come to you so boldly, speaking like drunken fools, yet with the hope that you will still hear us and realize the potential we have before us. With this ship, you can re-write that history in a way that might save our nation.”
“You have intimated twice now that the outcome of this war leads to our destruction,” said Yamamoto. “It is as if it is all finished and resolved. Humoring you for the moment, tell us what you claim to know.”
“Everything sir, at least as it once happened. We know that you hold to the notion of kensho, the daring and artful blow that can knock down your enemy with one strike. It was this thinking that led you to believe the attack on Pearl Harbor would smash the American Fleet before it could intervene in any effective way to oppose the Strike South plan. In this you were correct, and you will now please forgive me if I claim to be putting thoughts into your head, but we came to understand that your desire for this one great and final blow will now lead you to plan an operation, in just a few months, that will seek a decisive battle with what remains of the American fleet. In that battle, Japan will suffer a catastrophic defeat.”
“I see…” said Yamamoto. “And just where will I fight this battle?”
“Sir, in the history we know, it was fought over Midway, Operation MI. You will send the Kido Butai east again, hoping to find and destroy the American carriers, but in that battle we lose the cream of our fleet carriers, Hiryu, Soryu, Kaga and Akagi. Yet you tell me Hiryu is already sunk, so as I have said, the history we know is already different.”
Yamamoto inclined his head, seeing Ugaki take yet another sip of saké, but saying nothing about it. “And after this battle?”
Harada now looked to his First Officer, who had prepared for this possible meeting by reviewing the history. “A long defensive grind,” said Fukada. “Our ability to conduct offensive operations is severely limited. The Americans, however, quickly replace any losses. In fact, at this moment they have twelve more fleet carriers building in their shipyards, and they will just be the leading edge of the storm that will soon come for us. They will deploy twenty-six in what will be called their new Essex class fleet carrier series, nine more in their smaller Independence class light carriers series, and these will all be added to the ships they presently have. Beyond this, they will build more battleships, cruisers, and destroyers and submarines in droves. They will use this force to put thousands of naval aircraft into the skies over this ocean, and they will eventually destroy the Japanese navy as an effective fighting force. We will see them take back one island outpost after another, bypassing those they do not deem suitable for their real war winning strategy.”
“And what is that?”
“Strategic bombing, sir. The Americans will develop a new long range bomber, the B-29. Once they take back the Marianas, they will develop a cowardly strategy of unrestricted bombing of Japanese cities—fire bombing. Tokyo will be literally burned to the ground, along with many other cities, and then late in the war, they will develop a terrible new weapon that will enable them to incinerate an entire city with only one single bomber. That may sound as unbelievable as everything else we have said, but I can show you documents from our library concerning this, photographs of the actual bombing taken by American planes, and images of what happened on the ground when this weapon was used against us.”