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By Root 727 0

wounded men were left to die because there was not enough food to nurse them back to health. When malnourished native carriers crumbled under their loads, Japanese soldiers beat them. The celebrated Japanese “seishin” was being tested as never before. Back in Kokoda, at the Japanese field hospital, the sick and the wounded languished. They were “packed in like sardines.” Those without beds lay on leaves. Soldiers screamed out in pain, but doctors had no morphine to help them. They performed operations and amputations without anaesthetic. A newly dug graveyard sat just outside the hospital’s entrance, so that the dead would not have to be dragged too far.

Horii’s candid section leader, who earlier wrote of the soldiers’ quest for water, wrote in his diary on September 18 of the shortage of food. “How long is this state of affairs going to last…? My eyes have sunk in. Who would take me for a man of this world…. No one has any strength to work and if you lie on your side you stay that way. You cannot help feeling weak on 5 SHAKU of rice a day…. We are taught in the training manual to overcome any hardship or obstacle, but are there any battles as difficult as this? I’m keeping my diary, but even holding a pen tires me. How I’d love to eat something! Anything to fill my stomach!”

Lieutenant Sakamoto despaired: “Dreamed all night of lost subordinates…. Hurried on with the construction of positions. Detailed men from remaining TAI [unit] to dig for yams and taros…. How will we live in our present position without food? In another few days, we will have to eat roots or tree bark.”

On September 19, Sakamoto laments the scarcity of food and medicine. Then he comes as close to disloyalty as a Japanese soldier dared. “Wonder what General HQ are doing? Patients will die and we will soon starve. How can we fight against this?”

On September 20, as the dark clouds emptied themselves of rain, he continued, “Not a single grain of rice left. Taros sufficient for only another day. From tomorrow, we will have to chew grass or bark.” Then Sakamoto, as if recognizing his near-mutiny, rallies and regains his soldierly composure: “The battle we are fighting now is an important one,” he writes. “The eyes of the world are upon us.”

That same day, September 20, Horii had hoped to resume the attack on Port Moresby. His army, though, stayed put. Recognizing the need to boost his soldiers’ morale, Horii assembled his troops and read to them a message he had prepared:

More than a month has elapsed since the Shitai departed from Rabaul. Following in the footsteps of the gallant Yokoyama Advance Tai, we have crushed strong positions at Isurava, the Gap, Eora, Efogi, etc; advanced swiftly, and after a fierce battle, destroyed the enemy’s final resistance at Ioribaiwa. We now hold securely this high hill, the most important point for an advance towards Moresby.

Each Tai has tramped over mountains and through dark valleys…and pursued the enemy for over 20 days. We have waded through knee-deep mud, climbed breath-taking cliffs, uncomplainingly carried heavy weights of guns and ammunition, overcome the shortage of provisions, and thus accomplished a break-through of the so-called impregnable Stanley Range.

Words cannot describe the hardship…. The enemy at Tulagi and Guadalcanal have not yet been annihilated….

Then Horii continued his deception. “The reason we have halted,” he lied, “is to regain our fighting strength, in order to strike a crushing blow at the enemy’s positions at Moresby…. Realize the value and importance of your mission. Bolster your morale and make your preparations complete, so that we can throw in the full fighting strength of the butai….”

Four days later, as the sun evaporated below Imita Ridge, Tomitaro Horii sat “solemnly upright on his heels, his face emaciated, his grey hair reflecting the dim light of a candle, that stood on the inner lid of a ration can.” Lieutenant Colonel Tanaka sat across from him. To Seizo Okada, they looked like “two lonely shadows.”

Horii and Tanaka were pondering a series of wireless messages