Джон Шеттлер: Sea of Fire

“Perhaps we can’t,” said Captain Harada. “Maybe our best option here would be to try to be neutral in all of this—find a safe haven where we can ride this out and try to make sense of what’s happened to us, or find a way back to where we belong.”

“To do that we will have to reach an accommodation with the Japanese armed forces here now,” said Fukada. “The Chief made a good point, we can’t cruise about here for very much longer. We’ll have to find some safe port, and believe me, we may not find one anywhere in Australia. So as I see it, our only option is to sit down to tea with the Japanese authorities here.”

“That would mean we’d have to answer quite a few questions,” said Chief Oshiro. “And I’m not sure we have any of the answers yet. I mean… well we can’t just come out and tell them who we are, can we? For one thing, they’ll likely just laugh in our faces. I no naka no kawazu . How would they possibly comprehend who we are, and what we’re capable of?”

As the Japanese often did, the chief had thrown out the opening lines of an old proverb to make his point. I no naka no kawazu , roughly speaking meant ‘ a frog in a well,” and the full proverb read, ‘a frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean.’

“I’m not so sure,” said Fukada. “To begin with, the very existence of this ship will be somewhat of a mystery to them. There was no Takami in the IJN in 1942, and certainly no ship like this one. They’ll take one look at us and wonder who the hell we are. Certainly they could never understand our computers and technology, but one look at a missile coming off that forward deck will stand in for a thousand words. They’ve apparently seen them in action before, which is a mystery we’ll have to solve. In any case, I’m inclined to think they would end up believing us. No matter how deep their well is, how else could they account for our presence here?”

“Well then,” said Chief Oshiro, “if they do believe us, then I can’t imagine they’ll want to simply fill up our fuel bunkers and let us go happily on our way to look for another volcano. Give them one look at what we’re capable of, and they’ll want us front row center in their fleet. At the very least, they want to get their hands on those missiles.”

“Gold coins to a cat,” said Lieutenant Otani, throwing out a little proverb of her own.

“I agree with that at least,” said the Captain. “We keep our missiles and technology under the decks here where they belong. Besides, there’s no way they could make use of any of it. It would be like giving gold coins to a cat. Our weapons would be nice and shiny, and certainly command their attention, but that’s as far as it would go. There’s no way they could even reverse engineer any of it. The technology is simply too advanced.”

“Then they’ll want us to fight for them,” said Fukada. “They’ll expect it, and to express any reservation would mean we would have to tell them more about how this war ends than they might want to hear.”

“Agreed,” said Captain Harada. “That’s another thing we have to consider. We all know information is power. Tell them they’re going to lose this war and it will only increase their ardor for battle. They’ll insist we fight to prevent that outcome.”

“What if we tried to facilitate a negotiated peace?” said Lieutenant Otani. She had been fiddling with a pen, head down, her long black hair all tucked neatly up under her service cap. A beautiful woman by any standards, her face was troubled now. It was clear the thought of joining WWII on the side of the men who ran the Japanese Empire was difficult for her.

“What do you mean?” said Harada.

“Well… if we could get to the real decision makers, a man like Yamamoto perhaps, then we might convince him of the futility of prosecuting this war, given the inevitable end we all know is likely to come. Perhaps we could convince them to sue for peace with the Americans.”

“After Pearl Harbor?” Fukada shook his head. “Not likely. The Americans would never agree to it.”

“We might make them see things differently,” she persisted. “We can stop them right in their tracks if they won’t listen. We have the power to do that.”

“Perhaps,” said the Captain. “At least this year, and possibly next year, but they ramp up production and put more carriers into the Pacific than we might want to tangle with by 1944. And let’s not forget what they’ll have by 1945. I don’t have to remind anyone here that no ship in our navy has ever carried nuclear weapons. So in a matter of just a few years, they’ll have the proverbial big stick, and as Lieutenant Commander Fukada pointed out earlier, they won’t hesitate to use it.”

“Then we can’t let things go that far,” said Otani. “We have to convince them to make peace before they become the unstoppable force they were by 1945.”

“A little like trying to pacify a tiger after you’ve just raided its den and killed a few cubs,” said Fukada. “Frankly, I think they’d tell us to go to hell, and then they’d go right on with their war. Oh, we could try to sit on the sidelines, but remember what happens after they get bases close enough to bomb Japan. I’m not talking about Hiroshima now. Don’t forget what the fire bombs did to Tokyo. At least 100,000 died there in a single night, with a million more injured and homeless. That was a napalm attack, with the E-46 Cluster Bomb. The lead bombers just came in over the center of the city and lit up a nice little burning letter X. Then the rest of them, another couple hundred or so, just used that for a target. The resulting firestorm nearly burned the entire city to the ground. Yes, the men running this empire were ruthless and cruel, but so were our enemies, so was General Curtis LeMay. That was the most deadly bombing raid in history. What are we going to do, just sit on some island out here and let it happen again?”

“We’re a long way from that,” said Lieutenant Otani. “We can try and divert the course of these events before it ever gets to that point.”

“How?” Fukada was adamant. “By threatening the Americans if they won’t agree to terms? Well they won’t. I can tell you that much right now. So any threat we make will have to be backed up with this ship.”

“But sir, respectfully, aren’t you saying that to try and prevent this war, we have to go to war? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It will to our enemies…”

No one in the room failed to pick up the obvious fact that Fukada had made up his mind in this matter. Captain Harada was giving everyone a wide latitude to express any opinion or feeling on the matter, no holds barred. It would have to be that way if they were ever to reach a consensus on what to do, for it had to be a consensus. There was no other way. He couldn’t order these men and women to do anything they could not fully support or embrace with their own conscience. In a way, they had to finally decide why they put on those uniforms now. Japan’s military had been considered a civilian body for decades. They were meant to be a defensive force, and specifically prohibited from developing or bearing overtly offensive weapons.

And yet, quietly, almost surreptitiously, the navy had been putting new ships into their order of battle. It was very much like the little shell game the Japanese played with the Washington Naval Treaty, designing cruisers with 6-inch guns, only with barbettes enlarged so they could be quickly converted to full 8-inch gun heavy cruisers. There were two of them out there right now, just over the horizon. They built seaplane tenders and commercial ships with specific requirements that would facilitate the easy conversion to an aircraft carrier. And in modern times, the new “Helicopter Carriers,” all ostensibly for defensive ASW patrols, could now easily receive the new F-35 strike fighter and become offensive carrier platforms. Takami had also just received a more powerful SSM, for defense against enemy ships at sea, or so went the logic. Yet it was a defense that could only be used by attacking the enemy. In accordance with another old proverb, any good officer in a modern day fight knew that the best defense was a good offense.