"A gigantic fleet... has massed in Pearl Harbor. This fleet will be utterly crushed with one blow at the very beginning of hostilities...Heaven will bear witness to the righteousness of our struggle."
Rear-Admiral Ito - Chief of Staff of the Combined Fleet - November 1941
Rear-Admiral Ito - Chief of Staff of the Combined Fleet - November 1941
Kumamoto 9:13 AM
January 17, 1945
Jiro Kobayashi had always wanted to be a sailor. He loved the smell of the sea, the feeling of the waves rocking the boat, the cool sea breeze on those mildly choppy days, but one thing he loved the most about the sea was its utter calm.
However, in Japan, there was only one kind of sailor Jiro could be: a sailor for the IJN. The idea of fighting a war on the peaceful ocean made him cringe a little bit, but the propaganda posters declaring "Make the sea red with the enemies blood!" and other patriotic slogans more than convinced him.
Jiro was listening to the radio that morning, and was smiling gleefully at the news of how the American fleet was losing ships by the hour thanks to the brave Japanese sailor, when the air raid siren began to bellow in that monotonous manner.
Instinct took over, and he shut off the radio, bounded to the room of his little 4 year old sister, gathered her up in his arms, and carried her to the neighborhood air shelter, where their mother, the local nurse, would be waiting.
He stepped out onto the already crowded street, and follow them to the community air-raid shelter. The general babbling of the crowd, the scraping and shuffling of the people's feet, and the drone of the air-raid siren all served to wake up Mariko.
Her sniffles and drowsy moans forced Jiro to pick up the pace, and get Mariko to the shelter and to mother.
"Jiro, I wanna see mommy!!"
"Mommy is up at the shelter, it will only be a minute or so till we get there"
"I want her NOW!!"
Jiro akwardly fumbled through his pockets for a short amount of time, and pulled out a tin with pretty colors and smiling little boy and girl on it. He opened the lid, pulled out a green ball, and plopped it into Mariko's outstretched hand.
Air raid shelter, 9:17 AM
"Mommy!!!" Mariko shoved herself away from Jiro and dashed to their mother.
"My sweet Mariko, are you okay?"
"Yes Mommy, Jiro gave me a candy! Wanna see?" and with that, she sticks out her tiny little tongue, with is holding a much smaller green ball than the one that had entered.
"Jiro, are you okay?"
"Yes mother, I heard that the americans lost another battleship today in the South China Sea"
"Did it say which ships were engaged?"
"Yes, but they did not mention the Nagato" Jiro said, obviously disapointed.
"Jiro, you know you musn't be sad that your father isn't in the news, it means that he is alive" Jiro's mother said wisely.
"I know, I just wish he could kill more Americans for the Emperor...."
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