Authors: Japanese Reaping the Whirlwind: Personal Accounts of the German,Italian Experiences of WW II
Numerous diaries like this one were captured during the war. While British and American troops were told to burn personal effects before they went into battle, a surprising number of Japanese went to war carrying diaries and letters. When these were found in the possession of prisoners, or on dead soldiers, they were taken for translation by the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section (ATIS) as they were frequently full of invaluable intelligence material. In their diaries, Japanese soldiers often wrote that they were amazed at how good Allied intelligence was, when in fact they themselves were providing it.
One captured diary belonged to Sub-Lieutenant Kumataro Kubota of Number 122 Regiment from the city of Matsuyama, the capital of the Ehime prefecture in southern Japan. On 1 November 2601, he and his unit were mobilized. Two weeks later they embarked at the nearby port of Mitsugahama, ready to go to war, though there were still over three weeks to go until the attack on Pearl Harbor. Kubota noted in his diary:
15 November: Start! To the Front where one marches over dead bodies, we start. The ship is already prepared to take us on our way. Goodbye homeland. Goodbye, the moments of the busy life of a human being. We are leaving Mitsugahama.
16 November: To the south the ship is speeding. On the blue sea the white gulls are floating. Are they going to the Front with us?
17 November: The white clouds are streaming towards the north. Where is the source of the Great Universe? Alas, there is fighting among the men. Everyone wants to be a winner.
On 20 November, they landed on Formosa (now Taiwan) – a Japanese possession since the first Sino–Japanese War of 1894–5. The other Japanese soldiers Kubota met there bolstered his patriotism, though he had to wait another ten days before he heard the earth-shattering news:
8 December: The news of the declaration of war against America and England broke with the morning sun. At the same time Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines were taken.
This was a little premature. Although Pearl Harbor, Guam and the Philippines had all been attacked on 8 December, Japanese time, Hawaii was never taken. Guam was not taken until 11 December and the Philippines were overrun the following year. Nevertheless, Kubota was delighted.
9 December: The great order of the Proclamation of War by the Emperor has fallen. People have waited; nations have waited; and now men who have waited have the opportunity to bury their bodies on foreign soil.
However, he would have to wait another two weeks before he could join in the action. The night before they sailed, he recorded that 13 petty officers from the torpedo boat
Takawo
went to see one last movie, noting that ‘it was their last pleasure in the human tragedies’.
23 December: Boarded the ship, the Shun-yo-maru, which is leaving our Empire. Oh, Shun-yo-maru, I pray you reach your destination safely. I pray to God for my child’s health and happiness. I think of this, the well-being of my child, before I think of my safe return home.
The following day, his company was given a pep talk by its commander:
24 December: Today is the day after we joined the Greater East Asia war. We have lived safely in our own harbours and bays, but now everyone must realize that real struggle is before us. Now we are seeing victory after victory since 8 December and we are beginning to look on the war as one great sham. This attitude will lead us to disaster …Thinking of the enemy as a light one brings us to a most dangerous conclusion. The war has just begun and there are hardships before us.
Soon Kubota was preparing to go ashore, but he revealed no fear of the fighting to come:
26 December: Preparation for the Front is completed. Troops are on the boat. Warships guard us … one’s great obligation and duty is to guard the Empire. Fight, my daring squad! Guard our Emperor’s life! Advance towards the trenches. Die like a flower blown down by the wind! Advance with the flag of the Rising Sun! Thrust with the white blade of the Japanese sword! Forward with high spirit even though San Ferdinand beach in the Philippines is well fortified! The waves will be high and the fortifications long and strong, but we will always go forward!
The Japanese went ashore in the Gulf of Lingayen in three waves, protected by naval gunfire and an anti-aircraft screen, while torpedo boats saw off an enemy submarine:
30 December: Our convoy of transport with the protection of the 51st Torpedo Boat Group began operations at eight o’clock in the morning … Look at the ordeals of those brave torpedo boats which guard their land-based comrades. It is like mother birds caring for their young. She flies to the front, to the rear, to the sides, watching that the slow tottering babies come to no harm. And so the torpedo boats guard us from the attack from submarines. The waves roll over those arrow-like little boats, splashing their slender figures. I felt proud and the thought that we were the sons of Tenno [the heavenly emperor] increased.
But Kubota was held back aboard ship. He was saved from the first murderous onslaught and it was another two days before he could go ashore.
31 December: Tomorrow we will reach our destination … Thanks for all of your efforts, my comrades of the sea! These are the words of the man of Shikoku [Kubota’s home island], ‘Goodbye brave comrade! I am going to Manila and give my last thrust to the enemy’s throat. And may the flag of the Rising Sun electrify the air!’
So we exchange our thoughts. Good luck, those white sailors’ caps waving at us and we returned the wave with our service caps. Goodbye Comrade! Thank you for the protection you have given us. The land is now ours. There is no barbed wire, nor forts nor shells to fear! We are the sons of the Mikado and ready with our bullets of human flesh!
Tomorrow is the New Year, the 17th year of Showa! Landing in the face of the enemy is due tomorrow … the whole opening fire of the enemy is due tomorrow. Wait our people with good health, you will hear of the fall of Manila.
Then his big day came.
1 January 1942: The critical 16th year of Showa ended with storm and distress. Now we are looking at the mountains towards the south. The sea is calm and the morning quiet. I am writing with the feeling promoted by our Battalion Commander’s talk: ‘Go ahead with a friendliness among you and keep in good health and high spirits.’
The transport fleet swings into single file as I write. Friendly aeroplanes are flying over our heads. The New Year morning sun is very hot and our duties are important ones. I must spur on the men under me.
At around 2pm, the convoy rounded the peninsula into the bay. The captain of Kubota’s ship came from Takahama, which was near to Matsuyama and Mitsugahama, so felt an affinity with the regiment. He was not going to let them go ashore without ceremony:
The captain is such a kindly man. He offered us saké for the New Year. He also gave us makizushi [rolled sushi] and zoni [soup traditionally drunk at the New Year].
It seems there had been plenty of boozing going on aboard ship.
Saké and beer were served [on] alternating days to the officers, but none was given to those below the rank of warrant officer. I felt terribly sorry for the men, but at any rate they got saké for their New Year’s celebration. But my conscience troubled me when we got beer and saké and the men got nothing.
There were other privileges.
All officers have the privilege of taking hot baths every day, but not non-commissioned officers and soldiers. I felt terrible about it whenever I took my bath, yet I was thankful that I was of officer’s rank. I will look for an opportunity to give the soldiers the right to take a hot bath whenever I can.
Then, at the end of his entry for 1 January 1942, Kubota recorded dispassionately:
At two o’clock in the afternoon, we landed without incident in Lingayen Gulf.
Kubota had a gentle introduction into the war zone, though the initial landing party had plainly had a hard time getting ashore.
2 January: I welcomed the second day of the New Year under palm trees. Strangely enough, my dream was not of home, nor of my wife and child. It was about ‘K’ who is an easy-going, self-willed person.
The soldiers of our company were already having a difficult time with fever. Today’s report is that the enemy is retreating towards the south of Manila. There is no order for an advance …
He also got an opportunity to compare the attitude of soft, life-loving American soldiers to that of his own men who were fired with Bushido.
We got hold of an American soldier’s letter. It was from the US barracks in San Fabian to a friend. It said: ‘There is a report that the relationship between America and Japan is dangerous. If there is a war, don’t worry. There is no chance of losing, nor any danger to my life.’ This soldier’s letter most likely represents American thought. I wonder what they are thinking now. Our soldier’s letter would be like this: ‘The relationship with the USA is dangerous. Be at ease. We will never lose to a nation like America. Needless to say, we have made up our minds to die. We cannot meet you again in this life, unless you go and pay your respects at the Yasukuni Shrine and pray for the nation’s safety.’
Sub-Lieutenant Kubota had 40 men under his command who seemed to enjoy sleeping under the palms on the beach at Lingayen.
3 January: … The fruits from the trees hung like bells at the edge of the frame of an umbrella. Men were climbing up the trees with the joyous feeling of the native … The sweet-juiced palm fruits and their peaceful shadows sway in the air, to protect and give joy to the tired traveller. Water buffaloes are strolling between the misty hills … Summer is always here in the Philippines. The waves are beating and rubbing the beach and they visit with a white smile the gentle palms lining the white shore. They dance with the palms when the wind comes along the inlets of this strange land.
Even so, it was cold enough in the evenings and mornings to burn wood fires. But this reverie could not continue long.
4 January: Trucks from the main troop station arrived. Now the sky is protected by friendly aeroplanes. The truck drivers had a hard time because the bridge near San Ferdinando has been destroyed. They had to drive over the railway bridge which was still intact. They took away seven injured men and two non-commissioned medical officers. I felt sad at their departing and thought of the old saying, ‘Just touching the kimono sleeve brings affinity.’ The day after tomorrow the trucks will come back and pick up whoever is left and take them to Tarlac.
Kubota revealed the full extent of the Japanese losses in the initial assault.
Now we are sitting on the beach of Lingayen Gulf where our landing party was annihilated, save three out of the whole battalion. How great was our loss! …
But he was not downhearted. He shared the belief that the Japanese Army was freeing the Far East from Western hegemony. This view was reinforced by a pamphlet called
Read This Alone – And the War Can Be Won
, prepared by Imperial Army headquarters. It was designed to be read in the cramped conditions of the troop ships, and 40,000 copies were printed and distributed immediately after embarkation. As well as practical advice on hygiene, the terrain they would be fighting in, fruits that could be eaten, snake bites, weapons, signals, tactics and the like, the pamphlet explained why they were fighting:
Three hundred and fifty million Indians are ruled by 500,000 British, 60,000,000 Southeast Asians by 200,000 Dutch, 23,000,000 Indochinese by 20,000 Frenchmen, 6,000,000 Malayans by a few tens of thousands of British, and 13,000,000 Filipinos by a few tens of thousands of Americans. In short, 450,000,000 natives of the Far East live under the domination of less than 800,000 whites. If we exclude India, 10,000,000 are oppressed by less than 300,000. Once you set foot on the enemy’s territories you will see for yourselves, only too clearly, just what this oppression by the white man means. Imposing, splendid buildings look down from the summits of mountains or hills onto the tiny thatched huts of the natives. Money squeezed from the blood of Asians maintains these small white minorities in their luxurious mode of life – or disappears to their respective home-countries.
The white people may expect, from the moment they issue from their mothers’ wombs, to be allotted a score or so of natives as their personal slaves. Is this really God’s will?
The reason why so many peoples of the Far East have been so completely crushed by so few white men is, fundamentally, that they have exhausted their strength in private quarrels, and that they are lacking in any awareness of themselves as a group, as peoples of Asia.
Japan, which had never been invaded, was going to put that right, the pamphlet said. But this ignored the atrocities the Japanese Imperial Army had already committed against Asian people, notably at the Rape of Nanking. Kubota would have known about this. He was a regular soldier and had served for two years in Manchuria. The pamphlet went on to complain that Britain and America were denying oil and other raw materials to Japan, though the very reason for this embargo was to get Japan out of China and stop the murder of Asian civilians there. Nevertheless, at this point in the war, Kubota felt a kinship with the Filipinos.
5 January: I sent Corporal Ishiki to the mountains for chickens. Four natives came along with twelve chickens, all for one yen, 50 sen [about 50 cents US]. All of the natives looked like one of us. I am convinced that they are the same race as ours and I wondered if they were thinking the same as I. I have always thought that dojin [natives] were a tribe that went about naked and wild. Now I know better. We should call them ‘local people’ from now on. They have the manners of Americans. They looked as if they were starving, perhaps because of wartime shortages. I gave them rice to take to their homes.