Naoki Hyakuta - The Eternal Zero

I’m not the type of man who readily sympathizes with others, but I felt very sorry for those young pilots. They thought they were doing it for the sake of Japan and for their families. And after so much distress, their deaths weren’t rewarded in any way. Their deaths were a total waste. Their deaths had no value at all.

You might think that kamikaze sorties were solemn, stern affairs. But since it was an everyday occurrence, we grew accustomed to it. At first the ground crews would tearfully wave their hats in farewell, but after a while it became part of the daily routine.

Does that sound heartless? But that’s how humans are built. If we didn’t grow numb to it, we’d suffer nervous breakdowns. I’m sure that at first the commanders who ordered special attacks felt like they were slicing off a part of their own bodies. But after a while they must have drawn up the lists of pilots like it was just paperwork. I can’t blame them for that. That’s just how people are.

But it’s a different matter if you’re the one being sent off to die. You only live once.

They were truly upstanding young men. I had assumed that reserve officers coming straight from college would be a soft bunch. But lo and behold, they were all manly.

I’d seen plenty of officers from the Naval Academy who spouted off brave words but were useless in combat. Meanwhile, the reserve officers sucked as pilots but went off to their deaths with dignity. Once I saw a Naval Academy graduate raising his voice and asking, “I have to go too?” when he was ordered to join a kamikaze mission. How pathetic.

After the war, I met many yakuza, but the student reservists were so much tougher. They hadn’t been handpicked or anything. They’d been taken on in droves, and just a short year before they had been college students. So where did that bravery come from? How could plain students become so strong?

Perhaps the concept of dying for the sake of loved ones really makes ordinary men grow that strong…

What do you think?

Yeah, of course you wouldn’t know. How could someone wallowing in today’s world comprehend their strength?

The fact is, I don’t know, either.

Some kamikazes were boys as young as seventeen. Those kids had such sparkly eyes. “I will happily go to my death,” they’d boldly declare, but I could tell that in the bottom of their hearts they were wrestling with terror. On the morning of their missions, all of their eyes would be puffy. They’d probably wept into their pillows all night without even realizing it. Yet they tried not to show any weakness. Damn, they were amazing!

And yet—I’ll say it again. Their deaths were completely pointless.

The special attacks were devised as a way for the military brass to save face. By the Battle of Okinawa, the Navy didn’t have a single fleet capable of taking on the American military. By all rights, they should have thrown up their hands and said they could no longer fight. But they did not see that as an option. Why? Because they still had aircraft. And so they decided to use all those planes in kamikaze operations. That’s what special attack personnel died for.

It was the same with the Yamato. There was no way they could defeat the U.S. forces that had landed on Okinawa, but they couldn’t just stand by idly and watch the island be taken over. When the Imperial Army was fighting a hopeless battle on Okinawa, the Navy couldn’t be sitting on its hands. Could they allow the Yamato to remain while other ships had been destroyed? If not, they had to deploy her even if defeat was the only possible outcome.

After the war, I opened several gambling dens. It’s the amateurs who don’t know how to cool it. Once they’ve squandered a lot of cash, the blood rushes to their heads, and figuring there’s no point in holding onto what little they have left, they bet it all.

For the General Staff, ships, airplanes, and troops were like gambling money. When they were winning, they were stingy, missing the chance to win big. Once the situation gradually worsened and they started losing, they got pissed off and bet everything at once, like typical amateurs.

So was the use of the Yamato in a suicide mission a total waste? Did all of the kamikazes in the Battle of Okinawa die entirely in vain? Not so.

At Okinawa, many soldiers and civilians fought a desperate battle. In the face of the Americans’ overwhelming advantage, they were ready to die to the last man. Well, does one sit idly because going there would be no use? Mustn’t a bushi aid them even if he knows he won’t survive?

What am I saying… Aw, shit. There’s something terribly wrong with me today.

Was the Yamato ’s sea kamikaze mission a total waste? As far as results go, yes. But Admiral Ito, and the crew of more than three thousand, martyred themselves for Okinawa. The Shinpu Special Attack Force was the same.

They may have been killed for the sake of the General Staff and Combined Fleet Command, but what they offered up their lives for was their nation, and Okinawa.

Enough. I’m sick of talking about the Yamato.

My task was to guard kamikazes and to shoot down any enemy aircraft that tried to attack them. But by that point, we were already vastly outnumbered and there was no hope for victory. The Americans had positioned picket destroyers well forward of the main task force and were able to detect incoming kamikazes via radar. They could even discern the planes’ altitude. If our planes were at 3,000 meters, they’d be at 4,000 meters, and if we were at 5,000 meters, they’d come in at 6,000. They would always be waiting to ambush us from above.

Then, from their cushy position, they would attack. The escort fighters, flown by seasoned pilots, could dodge that first strike, but the inexperienced kamikaze pilots were unable to, and many were felled in the initial assault.

It was extremely rare for a kamikaze to reach the Americans’ fleet.

Some kamikazes judged that they couldn’t possibly reach the carrier fleet and instead hurled themselves at one of the picket destroyers. That was far more worthwhile, they figured, than aiming for an aircraft carrier and simply getting shot down.

The destroyers apparently found this unacceptable. I saw one ship where the crew had painted a large arrow on the deck as if to show us the way to the aircraft carriers. I was appalled at first, but in time, I felt like tipping my hat to them. A military that’s capable of doing that sort of thing is the truly indomitable one, in my book.

The kamikazes were finally unable to sink any large warships but did take out a number of smaller vessels, destroyers and transports and such. I think the American crew who manned those destroyers far ahead of the main task force, where the kamikaze could get to them, were very brave.

Guard contingent fighters had to protect the special attack planes. We were told to put ourselves in the line of fire to protect them if necessary. But that was a bridge that I was not willing to cross.

The most we could do was chase off enemy fighters. But no matter how many unfriendlies we fended off, they kept coming at us, each wave taking out one or two more kamikazes.

Sometimes, the entire kamikaze formation was shot down before my eyes. It was a wretched sight. People think that kamikazes went out in a blaze of glory as they crashed into a warship, but mostly they were shot down long before they got that far. During the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Americans easily shot down our attack planes and mockingly called it the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.” During the Battle of Okinawa, they must have had an even easier time taking out our kamikazes.