“I have also heard you have a most unusual ship.”
“Oh? Not really. It is a prototype heavy destroyer, with our very best new radar sets.”
“And more,” said Nishimura. “Don’t think I have not heard all the talk about rocketry.”
“Yes, those are prototype weapons as well, but if you will excuse me, we are not permitted to discuss them. I’m sure you will understand.”
“Of course.” It was enough for Nishimura that the existence of such weapons was confirmed. Now he wanted to see what this operation would require of him. “Good that you were in the right place at the right time to rescue general Imamura. He still speaks highly of you. Now I understand you will be heading into the Indian Ocean—a very good idea. There isn’t much threat the British can pose now, not with the Air Force posting strike planes here on my airfields. Yet the British cannot be left to ripen out west. Soon the stench will begin to blow this way. It is about time Yamamoto decided to go and prune the tree.”
“Yes sir,” said Harada.
“Then you will attack their bases on Ceylon?”
“Sir, Admiral Hara will have been fully briefed on this operation, and he will have orders for us when he arrives here. I am only a Captain.” Harada thought he had better say as little as possible.
“Well, I am a General,” said Nishimura. “You see, the Navy needs me to provide troops for this operation, and so I already know a good deal.”
“Probably more than we know, sir. Care to enlighten us?”
Nishimura smiled. “Attacking Ceylon is certainly the mission. What else? So I will provide two regiments of my 5th Infantry Division, and hold a regiment of my Imperial Guards in reserve. They were the heroes of Singapore, under my personal command, I might add.”
“Most extraordinary, sir. A lot has been said about them.”
“Oh? What is going around?”
“Why, in the operations up north, the troops of the 7th Division were told to remember what happened here, and how your troops crushed the last of the enemy resistance.” Harada was, of course, buttering the General’s bread, even if none was being served that evening.
“Indeed? Well that is very true.” This one is sly, thought Nishimura. He is clearly trying to say as little as possible about this ship, the Takami, or so I am told. No one seems to have heard anything about such a ship before it appeared. Most interesting. It seems Yamamoto keeps a few flowers hidden in his garden these days. After the loss of so many carriers, he has every need to be cautious.
“So the newest carrier, and your ship, will join our two newest battleships. I was told to expect Satsuma and Hiraga here in three days. Yamamoto must be very serious about this campaign. There is only one thing I cannot seem to understand. Your ship was up north with those battleships, neh? And I believe there were two fleet carriers out to sea with you as well. How is it nothing came of that?”
Harada had no idea where this man was getting his information, or what he might have heard. “I don’t understand,” he said. “We were to cover the transfer of reserve units to Karafuto, and that mission was completed.”
“Yes, but not without incident. Didn’t Haruna take damage in that operation?”
“If I may, sir, how is it that an Army General knows so many things about naval operations?”
Nishimura inclined his head. That skirted the border of impertinence. “It may interest you to know that I am being considered for a higher position on the Imperial General Headquarters. I must therefore keep abreast of more things than the number of Chinese heads I take here each day.” He smiled, but behind it was the tension of a look that said ‘don’t question me like that again.’
“Of course,” said Harada.
“May I ask if you have heard anything concerning this rogue Siberian vessel in the north. The name Mizuchi is being spoken even here, and in fearful whispers.”
“Respectfully, sir, I was told to discourage such rumors by the Admiral.”
“Of course,” said Nishimura, a little mocking echo of what Harada had said a moment earlier. “However, rumors do not compel the fleet admiral to pull all his most important ships out of the home waters, do they? I think there is more to these stories than the wild imaginations of sailors in the bars of Yokohama. Very well, I see that dinner is being served. Let us enjoy the meal, and talk again after. Would you be interested in a tour of the island? I can certainly arrange that.”
“You are most kind,” said Harada, “but I have pressing business aboard ship.” And no, there won’t be a tour arranged for you there, he thought. That’s what this one was angling for. He’s heard something, and more than he should. Either that, or interests on the Imperial General Staff have contacted him and asked him to go fishing here with this little dinner party. I must be very cautious.
Throughout this exchange, Fukada remained discretely silent, but he could easily perceive the polite thrust and parry in the conversation, and he knew enough to stay out of it. If asked a direct question, he would speak, but otherwise, his was to be a quiet presence, but one without opinions. Deference to the Captain was expected, and he knew how to play the part.
At that moment, and half way through the dinner, there came a quiet but persistent knock on the door. Nishimura turned his head with a look of displeasure. “What is it?”
A man entered, walking quickly up to the General and handing him a slip of paper, which Nishimura read silently. “Well,” he said. “It seems we have an uninvited guest tonight. An enemy submarine has attacked a supply ship in the Strait of Malacca. Kasigi Maru has been hit!”
Harada stood up immediately. Bowing as he did so. “General, I thank you for your hospitality, but it is clear that I have urgent business to attend to. Mister Fukada, we must depart for Takami immediately.”
Urgent business indeed, thought Nishimura. See what you find out there, Captain, because this message was, of course, pre-arranged. I’ve had my time with you, and I see that you are just another tight lipped Navy man, most likely thick with Yamamoto if he entrusts you with this mission. You will find nothing, for there is no submarine, nor any ship by the name of Kasigi Maru. Let us see how you like chasing after ships no one has heard of.
He smiled, then turned to an aid waiting quietly by the door. “Bring my pen and paper. I must draft a special message to go out in a secure pouch on the next plane north.”
That message would be sent to the Imperial General Staff, and was also a pre-arranged code, just a single kanji character that read “Sakura,” the word for Cherry Blossoms. Only one man would understand what it meant—that the ship Nishimura had been told to look for and report on was there at Singapore.
Nishimura was not the only one interested in the doings of that ship. The Imperial General Headquarters was also curious, particularly one Hajime Sugiyama, Chief of Staff. It was a ship, he was told, that had already demonstrated the ability to fire and use rocket weapons similar to the secret ‘Project Okha’, or Cherry Blossom. There was a great deal of rivalry between the Army and Navy, and Sujiyama wanted to know everything he could about the rumors now circulating—of a ship called Mizuchi, of battles fought in the Sea of Okhotsk, and of a ship named Takami that appeared nowhere on the official register of commissioned vessels in the Navy.
Yes, he was most curious.
When they returned to Takami, Harada and Fukada went straight to the bridge, immediately checking sonar and radar stations for any reports. There was nothing out of the ordinary.