traveled in America, served in Washington, and had even attended Harvard. It was said that his English was excellent and he’d developed a taste for Scotch whisky and playing poker.
Yamamoto continued. “Regarding battleships, the Americans are building at least a dozen larger and newer battleships that, while not equal to the
Tojo shook his head. This dire report was not what he’d expected. “What else do you need?”
“A forward base of operations, but I do not see that as likely. Hawaii and Midway are too far away from California to be useful, so food, oil, and reinforcements must come by a stream of ships from Japan. We have taken the islands of Attu and Kiska in the Aleutians, but they are not useable as a base.”
“That stream of ships will be vulnerable to attack.”
“Good,” the admiral said with suruprising emphasis. “Then perhaps the Americans will come out and fight and we can destroy them. Ironically, our successes seem to have made the Americans want to conserve what they have left, which is one carrier and a handful of old battleships much smaller and totally inferior to the
The admiral sipped his tea and paused for effect. “We have perhaps a year, two at the most, before already growing American strength will, like I said, overwhelm and crush us.”
“The emperor,” Tojo said and nodded his head reverentially, “is also concerned about that. He said that ‘The fruits of war are tumbling into our mouths almost too quickly.’ He too wishes an end to the war with the United States as soon as possible.”
Yamamoto nodded agreement. “While you pursue a diplomatic end to this war, I will continue to harass, sting, and destroy Americans everywhere I can. We will raid their cities and wreak havoc. This will occur as soon as I can get the campaign organized and supplied. We did not expect such an overwhelming victory so soon and were not prepared to exploit it.”
Tojo smiled grimly. “Such are the unintended consequences of unexpected victory.”
“Hopefully, the Americans will be so demoralized by our assaults that they will seek a negotiated end to the war and a return of the many thousands of prisoners we now hold. Those prisoners are a great concern to them. I was dismayed to hear that so many died in what the Americans are calling atrocities and death marches. As bargaining chips they should be kept in good shape.”
Tojo sighed. “You are right, of course, and I will give the necessary orders. However, many of the men guarding the prison camps are inferior soldiers and it will be difficult to control them insofar as they consider surrendered soldiers to be less than human.”
“But we must try, prime minister.”
“Indeed. Will your forces invade Hawaii or Australia?”
“No. My intent is to let the Hawaiian Islands starve, and perhaps their lamentations will provoke the Americans to try and relieve them. We will do much the same with Australia and New Zealand. They would be a distraction. We must focus on the real enemy, the United States. A number of transports recently tried to escape Hawaii in a desperate venture and were slaughtered.”
Tojo brightened. “Then they will not try it again. What else do you require?”
Yamamoto smiled, “Diplomatic help from our erstwhile allies, the Germans. Our victories have doubtless caused the Americans to send hundreds of thousands of soldiers and thousands of planes to their west coast to forestall an invasion that will never come. That relieves significant pressure on Germany, does it not?”
Tojo nodded. “It does.”
“Then I would like German saboteurs to destroy American installations like our brave men did to the Panama Canal. I would prefer to use Japanese soldiers, but they cannot hide in the American population, while a white- skinned German could, especially since local Japanese in California are being imprisoned by their army. Give me well-trained Germans who speak excellent English and let them raise havoc with their shore installations.”
CHAPTER 5
DANE WAS SICKENED BY THE RESULTS OF THE CARNAGE. A DOZEN ships in all had departed Hawaiian waters and all but two had been sunk by Japanese planes flying from an unexpected carrier.
Approximately ten thousand people, most of them civilians and the rest wounded military personnel, had been killed along with the crews of the escorting warships. Only a few hundred survivors, many of them badly wounded, had been picked up by fishing boats and other ships whose captains were brave enough to help. So far, news of the slaughter had been kept from the civilian population, which was still reeling from the litany of disasters since the initial attack on Pearl Harbor. That couldn’t last and soon the American public would find out about this latest round of bloodletting.
He couldn’t help but wonder if one of the dead was Amanda Mallard. She’d said that she would try to get out of Hawaii, hadn’t she? Worse, he might never know her fate. There were no accurate lists of those who’d been on the ships, so she and so many others might be listed as missing forever. Nobody should ever be “missing,” he thought angrily. Family and friends and lovers should know what happened to the ones they cared for. Even as he thought that, he knew there were thousands of such missing from previous wars, so many that nations had tombs dedicated to them. There was a tomb in Washington for an American unknown from the First World War, and there would certainly be one from this conflagration as well. He wondered if they’d put up a separate tomb or just add another body. What a hell of a happy thought, he concluded.
“Captain, when the devil are we going to start winning?” he asked Merchant as he passed by Dane’s desk.
“Possibly when we stop underestimating the damned Japs and realize that they are extremely smart and dedicated people. A number of senior officers still think that Nazi Germany both made their planes and are flying them because little yellow-skinned Japs can’t possibly be that good. The same people don’t think it’s possible that the Japs have giant battleships, either. Or even better torpedoes than we do. Christ, the stubbornness of some people in command is enough to make you want to punch someone, but you didn’t hear that from me, did you?”
Dane grinned. “Not a word.”
“Good. I submitted your paper regarding their suicidal tendencies, and the reaction around the fleet and the Marine Corps has been less than overwhelming. Some of those I talked to don’t believe humans would do that. One of our admirals actually said it wasn’t Christian. He got a little annoyed when I reminded him that very few Japanese were Christians. Well, fuck him. The Marines said they weren’t planning on taking prisoners anyway, which is good thinking.”
“So once again we’re doomed to learn the hard way.”
“Looks like it, Dane. You going to watch the
The Pacific Fleet’s one remaining carrier, along with three of Admiral Pye’s old battleships and a handful of cruisers, would be departing San Diego that night. It had been determined that she was just too vulnerable in the narrow confines of the bay and, since there was a civilian population of more than a hundred thousand in the area, there was little possibility of keeping her presence a secret. Once upon a time, this particular incarnation of Task Force 16 would have been a powerful force. Now, her ships were going to run for their lives and hide from the overwhelmingly strong enemy. The battleships were there not because they were strong, but because they might delay or distract a Japanese assault, and possibly pay with their lives, permitting the carrier to get away. Dane wondered if their crews understood that.
How the hell did the United States Navy ever get itself into this position? Dane wondered. Where the
