Edge of Valor (35 page)

He did that alone. Amazing
, thought Radcliff.

“That's him, isn't it?” asked Peoples. “General MacArthur?”

“Damn right.” Radcliff felt a lump in his throat. America had been waiting for this moment since December 7, 1941. He couldn't believe his luck at being able to see it from such a great vantage point.

“Damn, look at all them reporters,” said Peoples.

Photographers rushed in, dozens of them, popping flashbulbs off their cameras. Just behind them a crowd of cheering civilians pushed in. White-gloved police stepped in to keep people from engulfing the general and his party. The police made room for two men in top hats, who walked up, removed their hats, and bowed. The general shook their hands and they spoke for a moment.

A company of Japanese troops, fully armed, stood alongside a line of dilapidated cars and trucks. But they faced away from the MacArthur party, keeping the growing crowd at bay. The general continued to converse as more Army personnel descended the ramp from the
Bataan
. Among them Radcliff recognized Gen. Richard Sutherland and Brig. Gen. Otis DeWitt.

“You getting this, Jon?” asked Radcliff.

Berne snapped his fingers. “Damn. It's in my bag.” He shuffled aft to retrieve his movie camera.

Radcliff looked back to see that a working party had drawn up under their cargo hatch. A forklift raised a man to open the cargo door and prepare for offloading. Just below, another man climbed the boarding ladder to the cockpit.

They were still gawking as General MacArthur's party headed toward the convoy of dilapidated passenger cars. There was a polite cough behind them. Radcliff turned and his eyes bugged out.
Holy shit. A brigadier!
“Ten-shun!”

It was Otis DeWitt. “Now, how in the hell can you guys stand at attention in this little cramped outhouse, Major?”

“Sorry, General. I only meant—”

“I have about fifty-five seconds to deliver this to you, Major.” DeWitt pointed out the cockpit window. “See that? Gen. Douglas MacArthur has just deplaned and now stands on Japanese soil. Can you imagine? Sort of a replay of when Commodore Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay ninety-two years ago. But unlike Perry, the general walked in here unarmed. We've been told to leave our weapons on board. No reason to be afraid of all those Japs out there. Look at their cars—straight from a demolition derby. That's what's supposed to take us into town. Pray for our souls.” He patted Radcliff on the shoulder. “Anyway, General Sutherland is a man of his word. He congratulates you all on a great job up at Karafuto.”

Hammer walked into the cockpit and quietly sat at his station.

Radcliff nodded and said, “That's okay, General. We didn't expect that—”

“Like I told you in Okinawa, we can't give you medals. But we can invite you to the surrender ceremony aboard the USS
Missouri
.”

“You're kidding,” said Radcliff.

An MP sergeant ran under the cockpit window and waved. Radcliff slid open his side window. The sergeant shouted up, “Ready, General.”

DeWitt hollered out the window, “Right there, Sergeant.”

DeWitt handed a packet to Radcliff. “These are your orders and passes. Special seats. It's gonna be really tight—lots of people from all over the world—but you'll have a good view. Congratulations, fellas.” He extended his hand to each of them in turn.

Radcliff asked, “General, how about Todd Ingram?”

“Yes, he'll be there. In fact, you're in his party. Now I gotta go. Time to skedaddle into Yokohama. No, no, damn it, don't get up. Hell's bells. You can't anyway.” Otis DeWitt walked out and exited the airplane.

Radcliff opened the packet. Orders for all four of them spilled out. “Here you go boys, congratulations.” He passed them around.

“Humpff,” went Peoples.

“What?” said Radcliff.

“We gotta step onto some Navy rust-bucket and watch these guys whompin' on a bunch of Japs?”

“Leroy, let me ask you a question.”

“Shoot, boss.”

“Do you plan on having grandchildren?”

Peoples rubbed his jaw. “Well, now that you mention it, yes. It's a fine old tradition in the Peoples family. Kids all over the place.”

“Well, hang on, Leroy. With all that coon-dog stuff you spread around, this is gonna be the best story you'll ever tell them.”

PART TWO

ADMINISTRATIVE MESSAGE

ROUTINE

DTG: 02091741Z SEP 45

FROM: CINCPACFLT

TO: ALNAV-PACFLT

INFO: CNO

SECNAV

JOINTCHIEFS

SECSTATE

SECWAR

THE PRESIDENT

//UNCLAS//N5370

MSGID/GENADMIN/CINCPACFLT//

SUBJ: DEPORTMENT, EVERY MAN'S DUTY

IT IS INCUMBENT ON ALL OFFICERS TO CONDUCT THEMSELVES WITH DIGNITY AND DECORUM IN THEIR TREATMENT OF THE JAPANESE AND THEIR PUBLIC UTTERANCES IN CONNECTION WITH THE JAPANESE. THE JAPANESE ARE STILL THE SAME NATION WHICH INITIATED THE WAR BY A TREACHEROUS ATTACK ON THE PACIFIC FLEET AND WHICH HAS SUBJECTED OUR BROTHERS IN ARMS WHO BECAME PRISONERS TO TORTURE, STARVATION AND MURDER. HOWEVER, THE USE OF INSULTING EPITHETS IN CONNECTION WITH THE JAPANESE AS A RACE OR AS INDIVIDUALS DOES NOT NOW BECOME THE OFFICERS OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. OFFICERS IN THE PACIFIC FLEET WILL TAKE STEPS TO REQUIRE OF ALL PERSONNEL UNDER THEIR COMMAND A HIGH STANDARD OF CONDUCT IN THIS MATTER. NEITHER FAMILIARITY NOR ABUSE AND VITUPERATION SHOULD BE PERMITTED.

C. W. NIMITZ, FLT ADMIRAL, USN

Chapter Twenty-Six

1 September 1945

USS
Missouri
(BB 63), Tokyo Bay, Japan

T
he minesweepers had cleared what they could, allowing more than two hundred ships of the U.S. and Allied navies to anchor in Tokyo Bay. Battleships, cruisers, destroyers, amphibious and auxiliary ships lay quietly in their berths, some teeming with life and sending men ashore, others still waking up, feeding their men before quarters were called at 0800.

Conspicuously absent from the line of capital ships in Tokyo Bay were the carriers. Fearing a trick or a counterattack by hotheads in the Japanese military, Fleet Admiral Nimitz had ordered Adm. Raymond Spruance to lay offshore with his Task Force 58, the Big Blue. These deadly carriers and escort carriers could, at a moment's notice, wipe out any kind of Japanese military effort with hundreds of fighters and bombers. Admiral Nimitz, who had flown in from Guam on his Coronado aircraft, allowed four carriers into Tokyo Bay. All were escort carriers: two from the U.S. Navy and two belonging to the Royal Navy.

A few bombed-out hulks of the once proud Imperial Japanese Navy littered the harbors of Tokyo Bay. One of these, a titan with empty fuel bunkers, was the battleship
Nagato
, now dockside at the Yokosuka naval shipyard. At 42,850 tons
Nagato
was the world's first battleship fitted with 16-inch guns. On 7 December 1941 she had served as Admiral Yamamoto's flagship during the raid on Pearl Harbor. After suffering damage at the Battle for Leyte Gulf, the
Nagato
was taken to the Yokosuka shipyard for repairs. But Yokosuka's yard workers couldn't restore the ship quickly enough. Worse, the Japanese navy simply didn't have enough fuel to waste on such a dinosaur. She was converted to a floating AA platform until, on 18 July, Admiral Halsey's carriers caught her with two bombs and a rocket that took her out of the war entirely.

A few POWs escaped from local camps and made their way to friendly picket boats off the shores of Kamakura. They described the horrible conditions in the camps and made it clear that a large number of prisoners needed immediate
attention. On hearing this, Admiral Halsey sent the USS
Benevolence
(AH 13) in ahead of schedule and docked her at the Yokosuka naval shipyard on 29 August. Within twelve hours she had taken on a full load of 794 POWs from surrounding camps, with hundreds more en route.

Surrender ceremony preparations had been under way for days. The star of the show in Tokyo Bay would be the 52,000-ton USS
Missouri
(BB 63). When Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz flew in from Guam on the twenty-ninth, he made the
Missouri
his flagship and Admiral Halsey politely shifted his flag to the battleship USS
South Dakota
(BB 57). Surrender ceremony preparations began in earnest when the
Missouri
moved into Tokyo Bay on 30 August. Admiral Halsey started off by making sure the
Missouri
anchored in the same spot where Commodore Matthew Perry had dropped his anchor ninety-two years previously. And then came the real work. Most of the ship's crew was pressed into service. There were innumerable errands to be run ashore and to ships anchored about the bay. Nimitz and Halsey decided the ceremony would take place on the 01 deck, a showplace sometimes called the “veranda deck.” The veranda deck's starboard side lay under the Big Mo's massive number two 16-inch gun turret, which would serve as a backdrop. Shipfitters and welders were detailed to build a large platform outboard of the 01 deck to support journalists, photographers, and other special visitors.

An enormous task was the chipping away of the dark gray paint on the battleship's main and 01 decks to expose bare teak that hadn't seen the light of day since the
Missouri
's commissioning. With extra hands laid on from other ships, the “deck apes” got it done. Then, in the time-honored tradition, they holystoned the newly found teak, bringing the hard wood back to life.

No detail was left untouched. The flag that flew over Washington, D.C., on 7 December 1941 was flown to Tokyo and broken on the
Missouri
's foremast. At Admiral Halsey's instigation, the U.S. flag flown by Commodore Matthew Perry when he entered Tokyo Bay in 1853 was flown out from the U.S. Naval Academy. They mounted it in a special frame on a veranda deck bulkhead overlooking the spot where the ceremony would take place.

The actual document of surrender was flown out from the State Department accompanied by an Army colonel. There were two copies: one bound in leather for the United States, the other bound in canvas for the Japanese. Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijiro Umezu would be the two principal signatories for Japan: Shigemitsu for the government of Japan and Umezu for the military. The Allied signatories to the surrender agreement were to be Gen. Douglas MacArthur, as supreme commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP); Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz for the United States; and for Britain, Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, who had steamed into Tokyo Bay on board his battleship, the
Duke of York
. Other delegates were General Hsu Yung-Chang for China, Lieutenant-General Kuzma Nikolayevich Derevyanko for the USSR, General Sir Thomas
Blamey for Australia, Colonel Lawrence Moore Gosgrove for Canada, General Jacques Leclerc for France, Admiral C. E. L. Helfrich for the Netherlands, and Air Vice-Marshal Sir L. M. Isitt for New Zealand.

General MacArthur insisted that two special guests attend, both recently rescued from Manchurian prison camps. Shaken but somewhat rested and wearing fresh uniforms were Lieutenant-General Arthur E. Percival, who commanded the British Army that surrendered to the Japanese at Singapore in February 1942, and Lt. Gen. Jonathan W. “Skinny” Wainwright, the defender of Corregidor when it fell in May 1942. Activity was frantic when later in the day food and bathrooms were prepared for civilians and special delegates. General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz also had large guest lists, many of them from the world press.

General MacArthur insisted the ceremony start at exactly 0900—no sooner, no later. Timing was critical. So was the sound system. Communication specialists tested and retested the ship's PA system. Movie cameras were positioned. A special radio network was set up to broadcast the ceremony to listeners around the world.

A dress rehearsal was conducted during the afternoon of 1 September that simulated the delegates' arrival and places during the ceremony. Most of the personnel on the veranda deck were to be flag officers standing in ranks. Three hundred of the Big Mo's sailors were rounded up to act as stand-ins for the admirals and generals. Grinning boatswain's mates and gunner's mates with Popeye-like forearms stood on the deck markings where generals and admirals would stand. Eleven crewmembers stood where the Japanese delegates were to be posted. The planners even went so far as to simulate the faltering steps of Japanese foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu, who walked with great difficulty on an artificial leg and cane, his real leg having been blown off by an assassin's bomb years before in Shanghai.