This time the terrible silence was broken by the sounds of marching feet and the music of an approaching military band. Incredibly it sounded like something by Sousa.
The military portion of the surrender was complete. The Japanese occupied Pearl Harbor and other facilities, and the American prisoners of war had been marched off in long, grim lines to camps that were being built near Wheeler and Schofield, in the center of the island.
Now it remained for the Japanese to take possession of the civilian portions of the city.
By the time the parade reached Honolulu’s McKinley High School, the crowd of spectators had grown to several thousand people of all ethnic backgrounds. Alexa estimated the Japanese military contingent at several hundred small and grim-faced men with bayoneted rifles on their shoulders. The rifles were long and looked like oversize toys being held by children. But the soldiers weren’t children. They were the conquerors. Despite everyone’s fears, the Japanese had lived up to at least one part of their bargain: They had not turned their army loose. Discipline had been good, and fears of atrocities were diminishing. So far.
“They don’t look so great, do they?” Melissa said softly. “Kind of like houseboys in uniforms.”
Alexa agreed that they did not look frightening at all. How had they defeated the American army on Hawaii so completely and with such apparent ease?
An English-speaking officer came forward and announced that this was one of several flag-raising ceremonies that were taking place and would signify the Japanese occupation of the islands. The flagpole in front of the school was empty. The American flag had long since disappeared. The Japanese would not be able to stomp on it and desecrate it.
The Japanese officer stated that newspapers would soon publish a complete list of rules and regulations, but he would summarize some of the more important ones.
First, all adult males over the age of sixteen were to report to special locations for the purpose of forming work gangs to repair the damage caused by the fighting. Failure to show, he added, was punishable by death. Alexa thought this order would help the Japanese round up strays from the military who were trying to hide in the civilian population. She wondered if that included Jake.
Second, all women and children were to be occupied in the growing of food. With that, Alexa agreed heartily. Food shortages were getting worse.
Third, hoarding was punishable by death. Alexa gasped. Did that include the cache of rations under her house?
Fourth, all civilians would bow to Japanese soldiers regardless of rank. There would be instructions on how to bow correctly, but it would be at a fifteen-degree angle and would be held to a count of five. When a man in the front of the crowd laughed, the officer made a quick signal and soldiers dragged him away and, while a woman screamed, ran a bayonet through the meat of each of his thighs.
“Next person who laughs, dies!” the Japanese officer yelled while the man writhed in bloody agony on the ground. With a nod he allowed the man to be taken away by his friends, leaving behind a bright red pool of blood and a throng of people shocked to silence.
At another signal, the band began playing a slow, stately melody. To Alexa’s surprise, the Japanese soldiers joined in and sang with enthusiasm and reverence. When it was over the officer told them that this was the Japanese anthem, the Kimigayo.
“In the future,” the officer concluded, “you will stand and show reverence when you hear this melody as you did for ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ This is your new anthem. You will respect it.”
The climb through the thickly shrubbed and heavily wooded hills of the island of Hawaii was more tedious than arduous, and it took Jake and his men a couple of days to reach their objective.
When they did, a handful of tattered sailors greeted them with enthusiasm and relief. It was obvious they’d never expected to be found by anyone. After checking on those who were lightly wounded, Jake got on with his task.
“Now, where’s your boss?” he asked, and several sailors directed him to a path that led up a hill.
“But no one’s allowed up there, sir,” one young ensign said and stood before him, blocking the path.
Jake grunted something vulgar and pushed past the man. He had gone only a couple of hundred yards when he came to a decrepit shack. Thinking that the situation was totally incongruous, he knocked on the door. After a moment, it opened and a disheveled and exhausted looking man Jake guessed to be in his mid-forties stood before him.
“I told you people to stay away,” the man said and stopped as he realized this was somebody new. “Who are you?”
“Raven,” Jake said.
“Nevermore,” the man said after a moment’s hesitation. “Next time we get more original call signs.” He smiled and held out his hand. “I’m Commander Joe Rochefort, and you must be the cavalry.”
Jake introduced himself and was pleasantly surprised that Rochefort’s grip was firm and strong. Maybe he always looked like a frazzled college professor? At least his target now had a name. His orders had denied him even that basic piece of information, and he wondered why.
“We’re the infantry, Commander, not the cavalry. We had to walk here, and you’ll have to walk out.”
“Name’s Joe, Jake. I’m not big on rank. Besides, I think we’re equal.”
Jake grinned. “And we’re on land and not a ship. Since I’m in charge of getting you out of here, I’m supposed to command this part of the enterprise.”
Rochefort shrugged. “Makes sense. Do me a favor, though, don’t come up here unless it’s a real emergency.”
“Fine.”
There was no opportunity for further talk as Jake found that Rochefort’s sailors hadn’t eaten much in several days. Hawaii may have been paradise in some people’s eyes, but food did not grow on trees. It had to be searched for and found.
The hungry sailors ate army rations with a gusto that amused some of the soldiers, who didn’t think that anyone, even a sailor, would be dumb enough to like them. Jake made a mental note that their rations were limited and the addition of eight healthy appetites would reduce their limited inventory in a big hurry.
Also, the eight men had only two pistols among them. Jake’s twelve had ten brand-new M1 Garands with a number of clips of ammunition each, along with two Thompson submachine guns. Jake had a. 45 automatic pistol. When he’d mentioned to Hawkins that it would be good for close-in combat, the sergeant had spat on the ground and said he had no intentions of fighting anyone close in.
“I’m glad you came,” Rochefort said after the men were fed. “After the surrender, I was afraid we’d been forgotten.”
Jake blinked. He’d stayed off his radio since landing for security purposes. “Then it’s official.”
“Over and done. Short surrendered everyone on every island, and that includes us. I can’t, of course, but what about you?”
Jake wondered about the “of course,” but didn’t ask. “I never planned on it, so this is a godsend in a way.” Then he told Rochefort of his orders that the commander was never to fall into Japanese hands.
“No surprise,” Rochefort said solemnly. “Do you wonder why?”
“Of course, but I’m under orders not to ask.”
“Then let me clarify something for you. Back on Oahu, I ran a radio listening post. We would sit back and wait for the Japs to talk. With a big enough antenna, we could listen to what they were talking about in Tokyo. Most of the time, they didn’t bother to use code for the mundane and routine reports and such, and this gave us excellent insights into the Jap mind.
“When they did use code, we were stumped, but we could still extrapolate much of their intentions from the number and frequency of their messages. We could also determine that, when senders and receivers moved, the Jap fleet was at sea and where it was headed. I’ve established a crude listening post at the top of that hill, which is why I keep it secured. The receiver’s in that abominable shack, and the antenna is strung up to a tree. Other than letting the navy know we’re here, we’ve only listened and not sent. The Japs, by the way, have announced that anyone with shortwave radio equipment will be shot.”
Jake nodded politely. The story was interesting but intriguingly incomplete. What Rochefort did for the navy was great, but hardly worth killing him for. Listening to unencoded messages was something that anyone could do, and guessing movements from unreadable coded data was also not that special. Commander Joe Rochefort wasn’t
