Luckily no real damage was done at Tokyo, and it was more of an insult than a real attack. Yet it underscores what could happen if the Americans do ever get bombers close enough to reach our homeland. I saw the images, terrible to behold, of our cities leveled and burning, and that terrible mushroom cloud over Hiroshima. Is all that fated to come, just as this Doolittle raid occurred, exactly the way these visitors claimed? Can I really do anything to avoid that inevitable fate? Can that ship do anything to help us?
I had to disappoint their Captain when I told him the Emperor had been moved to an undisclosed location, and that no high lever audiences would be permitted in the foreseeable future. And Tojo is railing that I must do something about the Siberians before they take any further action in the north. Army chief of staff Sugiyama has been mustering units from the Kwantung Army for the last several months, and preparing for a summer offensive that I will most certainly have to support. As for the Siberians, they have been moving small detachments to northern Sakhalin by air, but cannot move anything more substantial until the sea ice clears in the Sea of Okhotsk, where it is still very heavy, reaching its maximum by late March. It will remain heavy through the end of April. In that interval, I have precious time to see to affairs here in the South Pacific. Come May, with the sea lanes opening in the north, I will have to see about the Siberian threat, but for now…. Operation FS.
Yes, I disappointed this Captain Harada when I told him no audience with the Emperor was possible for the moment, and that it would also be impossible for me to sit idle for another month until that opportunity arises. A most interesting man, that one. I could see he is very conflicted about his situation here, which is only understandable. His Executive Officer is quite another man. He wanted to strike down MacArthur, then immediately challenge the Americans in battle. I must be very careful with that man. Tonight I will hear them out on the prospects for Operation FS, as from what I have been able to discover, there is nothing in their history books about it beyond the initial orders—orders that were cancelled in favor of the Midway Operation that I, myself, so strongly supported.
I was wrong about Pearl Harbor, wasn’t I. And it seems I made more than one mistake if the story of this war as written in those books is a true reflection of these events. It was I who insisted on Midway, and so the responsibility for the losses there would have also been mine. But how very strange. Forewarned is forearmed. Knowing what these men have told me, how could I allow an operation such as the Midway Campaign to ever proceed. I asked Ugaki to collect the best proposals for operations under the assumption that the Midway plan would be shelved. Operation FS is what they handed me, and now I must see what these strange visitors have to say about it.
“Gentlemen,” said Yamamoto, “I have invited you both here to my stateroom again with Admiral Ugaki, and this time to hear your opinions as to operations now proposed by the Navy. I realize you brought me a question concerning peace, even if you did so on a most unusual ship of war. At the moment, it is war that is the order of the day, and we cannot afford to remain idle until the question of peace can be raised with the Emperor, which could take months. Tojo has spirited him away, and no audiences or other high level meetings are to be permitted. That leaves us with some difficult decisions to make, and so I wish to hear your opinions. Admiral Ugaki?”
Yamamoto correctly solicited the feedback of his Chief of Staff first. Ugaki cleared his throat, glancing over at Harada and Fukada, still inwardly disturbed by their presence, in spite of his brief accommodation with Fukada over saké. “The initial question is whether to first continue with our operations in New Guinea, or to move immediately to forge a link with our positions in the New Hebrides by a thrust into the lower Solomons. Two plans have been put forward, which I will briefly describe…”
He paused, eying Fukada and with a glint of mischief in his eye. “As you are supposedly men of a future time, you should, of course, already know these plans. Yes?”
Yamamoto raised an eyebrow, unhappy with Ugaki’s challenge to his guests, but before he could determine how to resolve it, the Executive Officer spoke up.
“Two plans,” said Fukada, “Operation MO was to be aimed at completing the New Guinea operation with the seizure of Port Moresby by General Horii’s 144th Regiment, the South Seas Detachment. At the same time, and as an adjunct of this operation, a seaplane base would be established with 3rd Kure SNLF Battalion and supporting forces at Tulagi in the lower Solomons. Rear Admiral Shima was to command this force, covered by Rear Admiral Arimoto Goto aboard light carrier Shoho, with four cruisers, and one destroyer.”
He folded his arms, a smug look on his face, and now it was Ugaki’s turn to raise an eyebrow. These plans had only recently been approved by the Imperial General Staff. There would simply be no way these men could be privy to them. Was this nothing more than a good guess? Yet how would they so clearly identify the objectives; the commanders only recently assigned to these missions? Fukada continued.
“Unfortunately, both plans fail. Either one or both should have easily succeeded, but they were not prosecuted aggressively enough. In the first case, the operation was compromised from the very first, because an intelligence unit in Melbourne was able to decode signals traffic. Have we changed our naval code yet? If not, you expose yourself to similar vulnerabilities. The enemy knew we were coming, and the American Admiral Fletcher was sent to stop us with a carrier task force. The engagement that followed became known as the Battle of the Coral Sea. Each side sustained losses, though the Americans were hurt badly with the loss of one of their bigger fleet carriers, while we lost only one light carrier. Even that could have been avoided by strengthening the carrier group assigned to the operation. Hara took in the 5th Carrier Division, but one more carrier there could have made all the difference. As it happened, the resulting air duels depleted our fighters and strike planes to the point where they could no longer adequately cover the troop convoy. Admiral Inoue ordered a withdrawal of the invasion force bound for Port Moresby. Thus the Americans achieved their strategic objective, and this operation was foiled. This led to a long and costly campaign along the Kokoda trail in southern New Guinea in an attempt to take the port from the landward side, but that failed as well. Shall I go on?”
Ugaki looked at Yamamoto, somewhat stunned by what this man had said. He was privy to details of the operation that were closely guarded secrets. Inoue had only just been selected the previous night by Yamamoto to lead the invasion force and assume overall command. How could this man know that? Somewhat frustrated, he decided to let him speak further, inwardly hoping he would ramble off in error, and subject himself to a stern rebuke.
Yamamoto knew what his surly Chief of Staff was up to here, attempting to discredit these men by prodding them to speak of these otherwise secret plans. Yet it seemed his ploy was back firing on him, and he said nothing, waiting calmly as Fukada continued.
“The other plan to take Tulagi succeeded at first, a survey was also made of the north coast of Guadalcanal to look for suitable sites for an airstrip. One was started near the mouth of the Lunga River, and it became the focal point of a battle for that island that lasted nearly a year, and eventually ended with our shameful defeat and subsequent withdrawal. From that moment on, the enemy was on the offensive. We never recovered, and this was largely because of the disaster at Midway that I spoke of earlier.”