For That One Day

Next book recommendation: Mitsuo Fuchida’s For that One Day, The memoirs of Mitsuo Fuchida, Commander of the Attack on Pearl Harbor. 

This autobiography was written by Fuchida and assembled after he passed. Subsequently, there are some gaps that can be filled with other writings. For context, Mitsuo Fuchida planned and led the air attack on Pearl Harbor, survived several crash landings, fought in China, survived Midway with two broken legs, fought in the battle of the Leyte Gulf, was in Hiroshima the day before the atomic bomb was dropped, opposed the Navy’s involvement in continuing the war, was on the MISSOURI for the surrender, was witness at the war crime trials, and became a Christian Missionary after the war. 

Things in this book that jumped out to me:

The risk of espionage in Pearl Harbor was real. LCDR Suguru Suzuki traveled under a factious title of assistant purses on the TAIYO MARU and reported the number and type of airplanes at each base, their patrol schedules, the number and type of ships in Pearl Harbor, and ready defense capabilities. His report was made 23 Nov, 1941. This report shaped Fuchida’s plan. 

Fuchida gave the order to his flight -To, To, To (totsugekiseyo—to charge) and a few minutes later gave Chief Mizuiki the order to transmit Tora Tora Tora – (totsugeki raigeki or lightening strike) to the ships signaling the attack was unanticipated (a surprise). Fuchida was convinced they could find a way to launch torpedoes in 10m of water, even though the American’s believed it impossible, because the British attack on the Taranto Naval Port proved you could launch in 14m (1940). His planning, ability to train pilots, and leadership lead to the success of the attack. Fuchida advocated to train the air wings as a single force under on aircraft commander in peacetime so they would function as a single unit in wartime. Four aircraft carriers would deploy an aviation combat force that trained as a single unit. It appears this was the only time a large effort was made to train the pilots in this manner.

The only officer Fuchida found that criticized the fact the American Aircraft Carriers were not destroyed was Captain Keizo Ueno, Commander of the Yokosuka Air Squadrons. The Naval Admirals considered the attack a great success since the capital ships were destroyed. Aircraft carriers were considered auxiliary ships in Japan before and after Pearl Harbor. Simply put, battleships remained the capital asset in the mind of the Admirals. The momentum was lost as the Navy maintained thebig gun big ship theory. 

The mini-sub crews were awarded “outstanding deeds of valor” and the air crews “prominent deeds of valor,” one step below. This irritated Fuchida because he knew the greatest impact was delivered by plane. The downgrade was twofold. The Navy Admirals considered vessels superior to planes and inflated the impact of the submarines to maintain the vessel centric culture of the Navy. Secondly and insightfully, Yamamoto was displeased that Nagumo didn’t follow up with additional attacks. The downgraded award deteriorated the morale of the pilots and aviation workforce.

To support Fuchida’s perspective, we need only to look at Midway. While four aircraft carriers were sent to destroy the defenses of the island and draw the main American Battle Fleet from Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto was 300 miles away on his flagship YAMATO with the main battle fleet. It was for this, the downgraded recognition of aviation’s role at Pearl Harbor and other acts that placed big gun big ship over aircraft carriers that lead Fuchida to believe Yamamoto to be a mediocre admiral. Fuchida believed the Navy’s inability to respond simultaneously to the changing nature of warfare operations, the rapid evolution of air power, and an obsession with big gun big ship polices caused Japan to lose the war. Incidentally, the main proponent of this theory and head of the naval gunnery school, Toshihira Inoguchi, was the Captain of the MUSASHI when Halsey’s carrier-based plans sank it. 

Speaking of the Battle of Midway, Fuchida was recovering from appendicitis on the AKAGI during the battle. Had be led the battle as planned it might have turned out differently. Incredibly, he suffered two broken legs and survived its destruction. One item of note, Fuchida states a large number of pilots survived because their planes were awaiting takeoff. This is counter to the claim that Japan lost all of its experienced pilots at Midway.Also surviving that day was friend, Minoru Genda. 

Fuchida was in Hiroshima for a three-day meeting that ended the 5th of August, 1945 to discuss an effort to destroy B-29s on Guam, Saipan, and Tinian. Deputy Chief of Staff Hisayasucalled him back to Tokyo to advise on a planned communication facility. The meeting was 6 August, 1945, the day the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. He was immediately sent back on a fact-finding team. There were dead and wounded people everywhere and as a fact-finding team, vice a rescue team, unable to do much for the survivors. On August 9th the second atomic bomb exploded over Nagasaki and his fact-finding team shifted to that location. A monument at Hiroshima reads “let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat this error.” Fuchida states “who made this promise?… these are only the words of a poet. They may pretend to appeal to the wisdom of human beings, but the wisdom of human beings is not something worth admiring.” 

On August 11th he was first confronted with the notion of surrender. On the 12th he was asked to join, and persuade the Navy to support, the coup d’ etat lead by the Army. Major Yoshida was an aggressive man and ardent supporter of Prime Minister Anami. Fuchida remembered the Army Air Force’s woeful contributions and stated, “we cannot accept.” Yoshida called him a coward and stormed out of the room.

Somehow Fuchida, as a staff officer, found himself on the MISSOURI for the official surrender and later as a witness during the Class A war crimes trials. His perspective of the war crimes tribunal and one-sided nature of the proceeding and occupation is unlike anything else I’ve read. What I find consistent is the superiority spirit within a host-guest relationship, a colonial-colony population, or a mainland-territory relationship. When people in a position of power, granted by their government, use it for personal gain at the expense of the general population, a spirit of cooperation diminishes and progress erodes. This is purely my experience and perspective – our general lack of concern for pacific island nations is the key contributor to our loss of influence. It’s not posturing by an Asian power, is indifference. Apathy is the destroyer of trust. 

After the war Fuchida was relegated to the subsistence farming with no income. Four about five years, when professional military members were socially and politically shunned, he became focused on the idea of peace and forgiveness. By chance he came upon the story of Corporal Jacob DeShazer. DeShazer was one of Doolittle’s raiders that was shot down and captured in China. His captivity was brutal, and he was understandably bitter about the treatment he and his fellow prisoners faced at the hands of the Japanese. After a few years DeShazer was given a bible, read it non-stop, and became a devout Christian (born again). A few years after his release from prison, he returned to Japan as a missionary.

This story, along with a few other experiences, led MitsuoFuchida to read the bible for himself. What he found was a deep sense of understanding in Luke 23:24, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” Over the next few years Fuchida delivered his testimony with Billy Graham in front of 8,000 people and independently met Jacob DeShazer (who because a close friend), President Truman, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, Admirals MacArthur, Nimitz, Spruance, survivors from the Arizona, and family members of those lost during the war. He was as dedicated as an evangelist as he was a warfighter. 

If you want a new perspective of the Japanese view of western influence, have an interest in WWII history, or want to experience an incredible story of redemption, this book is for you.

However, peace is not something that is obtained by using human power in a fight. Peace is something that is granted from above. Based on this believe, the phrase on the monument’s plaque is a prayer pleading to God, not talking to the atomic bomb victims. In other words, the spirits of those who died tragically are in God’s hands, and we are pleading to God that he not let us human beings commit the same error. The God is Jesus Christ, and there could be no other God. What are you supposed to do standing in front of the monument? There is only one answer to this: “believe in Jesus Christ.”