The Ghost Mountain Boys - James E. Campbell [134]
“I’ll give you until I count ten to surrender,” the Australian commander shouted.
Again Yamamoto did not respond. He tied a Japanese flag to the blade of his sword. Then with one hand he raised the sword and with the other he stretched the flag across his breast.
“Nine,” yelled the Australian commander. A second later, the Australian riflemen shot Yamamoto dead. Later they found Yasuda. He had committed suicide by cutting open his belly in the fashion befitting a Japanese soldier.
That afternoon, Allied troops took control of Buna Government Station. The beach looked like a charnel house as the corpses of dead Japanese, some of which had been chewed on by sharks, rolled in on the waves. They swelled in the sun and in no time were filled with maggots.
The following day, January 3, as Allied patrols hunted down enemy stragglers, soldiers at “Maggot Beach” removed their boots and rolled up their pant legs and walked barefoot in the warm sand. Some men took the opportunity to wash their filthy clothes; some swam naked in the bay. Others lay sprawled under the scarred trunks of coconut palms or curled up in remnant foxholes.
Blamey and Herring sent messages congratulating Eichelberger. The general’s sense of accomplishment, however, was tempered by the realization that he had sent too many soldiers to their deaths. In a letter to Emmaline, Eichelberger confessed, “To see those boys with their bellies out of the mud and their eyes in the sun…. made me choke, and then I spent a moment looking over the American cemetery which my orders of necessity have filled from nothing.”
Curiously, no message came from MacArthur. When two days later there was still nothing from the commander in chief, Eichelberger penned a brief letter to Sutherland, “Is your secretary sick?” he asked.
Nearly a week after American forces took Buna Government Station, MacArthur finally wrote Eichelberger. If the general was hoping for gushing praise, MacArthur disappointed him.
Dear Bob,
I am returning to G.H.Q., Brisbane, Saturday morning the 9th so will not see you until some later time. I have been wanting to personally congratulate you on the success that has been achieved. As soon as Fuller [Major General Horace Fuller, commanding general of the 41st Division] takes hold, I want you to return to the mainland. There are many important things with reference to rehabilitation and training that will necessitate your immediate effort. The 32nd Division should be evacuated as soon as possible so that it can be rejuvenated.
I am so glad that you were not injured in the fighting. I always feared that your incessant exposure might result fatally.
With a hearty slap on the back,
Most cordially,
MacArthur
On that same day, MacArthur issued a communiqué stating that the campaign in New Guinea was “in its final closing phase.” “The Sanananda position has now been completely enveloped,” MacArthur told correspondents. “A remnant of the enemy’s forces is entrenched there and faces certain destruction…. This can now be regarded as accomplished.”
Although MacArthur and his staff had described Sanananda as a “mopping up operation,” Eichelberger and the Australians knew otherwise. Barely able to contain his disgust, Eichelberger would exclaim, “If there is another war, I recommend that the military…. and everyone else concerned, drop the phrase ‘mopping up’ from their vocabularies. It is not a good enough phrase to die for.” Eichelberger added, “The best plan” for Sanananda “would seem to be to surround the area and cut off all supplies, accompanied by plenty of mortar fire and constant harassing. This seems to me very slow work, but I realize that any other decision may result in a tremendous loss of personnel without commensurate gains.”
It was the exact approach that he and MacArthur had rejected at Buna.
Had the Allies known that Japanese Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo had