The Final Storm - Jeff Shaara [3]
In 1940, with war now spreading across Europe, a new power emerges in the Japanese government, whose civilian voices have grown increasingly weak. The army assumes increasing authority, and from that army comes General Hideki Tojo. Tojo is vehemently anti-American, a philosophy he imposes on Japanese culture whenever possible. Tojo also commands the Japanese secret police, a force that stifles dissent among the moderates, whose voices are all but snuffed out. In September 1940, building upon a reputation for ruthlessness in Manchuria, Tojo becomes war minister. Immediately he puts his harsh feelings for the United States into strategic planning. Tojo believes that both America and Britain have been weakened considerably by the war in Europe, and all signs point to Germany’s eventual victory. Thus a confident Tojo begins to plan for the ultimate achievement, a war to conquer the vast resources of the United States. It is not a view shared by the Japanese navy. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto delivers a scathing report that calls any engagement with the Americans utter foolishness, and he is supported by many of the admirals who know they will be on the front lines of a fight that must inevitably span the entire Pacific. Despite Yamamoto’s reluctance, Tojo orders him to create a plan that will ensure a swift and decisive victory. Yamamoto knows that boldness and surprise are the twin ingredients of success against a formidable foe. He plans to make exceptional use of both. Despite discussions between Japanese and American diplomats in Washington, Tojo has no intention of reaching any peaceful solution. Aware that Yamamoto’s plans call for a sneak attack at the very moment their diplomats are talking peace, Tojo remarks, “Our diplomats will have to be sacrificed.”
What the Japanese do not know is that the Americans have broken their communications code and are fully aware that soothing words in Washington belie what is taking place in the Pacific. American intelligence knows that Japanese warships have put to sea, but there is no specific word of their mission. Regardless, on Hawaii, the two Americans in command, Admiral Husband Kimmel and General Walter Short, are informed that hostilities with Japan could begin at any time. Though he is warned that the Japanese seem poised to attack the Philippines or Borneo, Admiral Kimmel never receives word that Washington believes Hawaii to be a target as well. Thus his preparations are minimal, ordering two attack aircraft carriers away from Hawaii to ferry aircraft to Midway and Wake islands. It is the only stroke of luck the Americans will experience. With no reconnaissance planes searching for trouble anywhere close to Hawaii, the American commanders are blissfully unaware that nine major Japanese warships, along with six aircraft carriers and a scattering of smaller escort ships, are steaming toward the U.S. fleet from the northwest. At 6 A.M. on December 7, 1941, the first of two waves of Japanese dive bombers, fighters, and torpedo planes begins an attack at Pearl Harbor that will cost the United States twenty-one ships, more than three hundred aircraft, 2,400 dead, and 1,100 wounded. Despite the isolationist sentiment that still pervades the mind-set of a vast number of Americans, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor shatters American complacency. America is in the war.
Even while the smoke rises from Pearl Harbor, Japanese invasion forces surge into the Philippines, virtually obliterating a powerful force of American heavy bombers and fighter planes commanded by General Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur’s ground troops, totaling 100,000 Filipinos and 25,000 Americans, are routed completely, and despite a valiant American defense on the Bataan Peninsula and the island fortress of Corregidor, the Japanese prevail. Though MacArthur escapes, the combined forces, under American general Jonathan Wainwright, are forced to surrender, and thus begins the transfer of the prisoners to Japanese prison camps in what will become known as the Bataan Death March. Sixty