Michael Mayer - Time Trippers The Nights of the Round Table

I asked the gunner about the ‘computer.’ Jonathan started to grin at what he thought was a joke but to his surprise, the gunner explained about the gunnery computer way down below that calculated just how to aim and when to shoot the guns. It was a big mechanical computer that gunners had been using since the First World War, because hitting a distant moving target from a moving and rolling ship is almost impossible without a computer.

We thanked him and got out, glad to be outside, and toured the rest of the ship. She had been modernized just this year, I told them.

Coming down from the bridge we saw on the bow, just in front of the forward turrets, a small crowd gathered around some sailors including two young Japanese officers in their severe black uniforms. We made our way through and saw a black bear cub doing simple tricks, then drinking from a bottle.

“Look, it’s a bear!” Jonathan said.

“He’s Bruno the Bear, our ship’s mascot,” one of the sailors replied with a measure of pride. “Ain’t he the berries?”

“He’s cute!” Lauren said.

“Can we pet him?” Jonathan asked.

“Sure, but nice and gentle like, see?” the sailor replied. Jonathan was a little nervous but soon was petting him as was Lauren and some of the other kids as well. Bruno loved all the attention.

Bruno the Bear - mascot of the USS New York

Photo courtesy Jon Burdett and Navsource.org

“Lito, what will happen to this ship?” Jonathan asked with a worried look, still petting Bruno.

“Well, she’ll give a bully account of herself in any battle…” I said for the benefit of the sailors and visitors gathered around Bruno.

The sailors grinned, one of them said, “You bet she will!”

I took the kids aside out of earshot and told them that the New York, the ‘Grand Old Lady of the Fleet,’ was really too old for the Second World War. She’d fight in both the Atlantic, where she will slug it out with shore batteries, knocking them out and providing covering fire for the invasion of North Africa in 1942, and later in the Pacific on bombardment missions, providing pinpoint artillery support to Marines on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Her 14-inch guns would destroy enemy strong points, like Shuri Castle in Okinawa. She would end up as a target for atomic bomb tests along with other battleships. She’d survive two atomic bombs and have to be sunk by gunfire later on.

“She’s a tough old ship,” I told them.

“What about Bruno?” Lauren asked.

“Oh, don’t worry about him, I’m sure he’ll end up in a zoo long before the war starts,” I said laughing.

“This battleship didn’t do very much, did she?” Jonathan asked.

“Well, a navy ship or any weapon does its job best when it is not used.”

“Huh?” Jonathan said puzzled.

“Weapons are best used to keep the peace, not to fight a war. Remember what your favorite president, Teddy Roosevelt said, “Speak softly but carry a big stick?” I reminded him.

“Yeah!!” Jonathan said.

“Carry a big stick and enemies will think twice about tangling with you. Right?”

“Right!” the kids said.

We walked past the two Japanese officers talking between themselves. One of them said, “Dinosaur,” playfully slapping the forward gun turret. Since I could speak some Japanese I couldn’t resist joining the conversation. I said in Japanese:

“Excuse me, dinosaurs may be out-dated but still dangerous, no?” with a big smile. The two young officers’ eyes widened in astonishment. The older of the two said I spoke excellent Japanese, and the usual game of polite denials began, “No, please excuse my very poor Japanese,” and so on. The kids looked on puzzled.

The older officer, whose friend called him Tora-san, spoke some English and we managed to communicate. They smiled and greeted Jonathan and Lauren with a slight bow and handshake. Jonathan, seeing that he was Asian, went into his Tae Kwan Do fighting stance. Both officers grinned. Tora-san asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up? Jonathan said he wanted to be a Ninja. They both exclaimed, how marvelous!

“Ninja!! So desu ne?”

Jonathan tried a couple of kicks and they applauded with big smiles, praising his skill. Tora-san said that Lauren was very pretty, and patted her head.

She smiled shyly.

Courtesy: Jon Parshall (Author: ‘Shattered Sword’)

They were both Midshipmen, officers-in-training, from the Iwate. Tora-san said that he was training as a pilot and believed that the airplane made battleships ‘obsolete.’ I agreed that airpower would be the future of naval warfare, but that there would always be a place for the battleships. I explained to the kids that both Japan and the United States each had an experimental aircraft carrier, Hosho and Langley, but each also had two large, modern aircraft carriers. Ours would be commissioned in November, Saratoga and Lexington. Japan had Akagi and Kaga. Tora-san looked surprised that I knew about them.

“Both ours and the Japanese carriers were converted from battle cruisers and/or battleships that were never completed due to a naval treaty limiting the number of ships each nation could have after the war.”

Tora-san picked up most of my explanation and nodded agreement.

“Are we going to fight them, Lito?” Jonathan asked innocently.

“Jonathan!! They are our friends,” I told him. “They were our allies in the First World War….”

Tora-san smiled at his question then raised his eyebrows, puzzled, “First World War?” he asked. (It was always referred to as The Great War in the 1920’s). Covering my lapse, I said that it was the first war that was global. He seemed satisfied with that.

I explained to the kids that ‘The Great War’ was so terrible that no nation would ever again start another war, it was called the ‘war to end wars.’

“They have a ‘League of Nations’ in Geneva, Switzerland now where nations can talk out their differences instead of fighting,” I explained to the kids.

Tora-san was smiling and said: “Except America…not in League, ne?”

“Yes that’s right kids, the United States did not join the League after the war, we turned our back on the world, a very big mistake.”

Tora-san grunted agreement. (I had to be careful about knowledge of the future!) He asked if I was with the Navy in any way.

“Just a civilian,” I explained.

I asked him if he was going to the Yankee’s game today, the pennant race against the Washington Senators, with the rest of the Japanese officers? He nodded and said they would have to leave soon. Perhaps he’d see us at the ballpark? I said I hoped so.

“Come on kids, lets go to the ball game today, game starts around 3 pm.”

We all caught one of the launches back to shore saying goodbye to our Japanese friends. They went off to join their companions who were boarding a bus to Yankee Stadium as a group, guests of the management. Lauren asked what does ‘san’ mean after Japanese names?