Chapter 1052: Island Frontline

The boundless ocean was the only scenery. Takemoto Tarō looked at this familiar view, already numb to the fact that he was in a foreign land. He had been conscripted a year ago, entering the Army to serve as an honorable infantryman of the Great Japanese Imperial Army, only to be sent to a small island on the front line, stationed at a supply port.

He knew he wasn’t anything special. He’d heard that if you wanted to be called a main-force soldier, you had to go to the distant “Shina” (China), kill people, see blood, and only then would the real main-force divisions take notice and select you as a more elite infantryman. But Takemoto Tarō had no desire to compete for the title of “elite.” He had seen far too many of those so-called elites.

As a soldier garrisoning the island, he had watched from the docks as friendly troops from the famed “Draught Horse Division” arrived. They stood in immaculate formation, bristling with gear, rations, and long Type 38 rifles, looking incredibly spirited. These units were heavily armed with machine guns, grenade launchers, and even large field equipment like mountain artillery. Tarō and his comrades on duty would sometimes imitate the officers with their officer’s swords, the way they held their chins high, looking down on a world that wasn’t worthy.

But it would only be a few days before they would see these same familiar faces being sent back to the island on transport ships and destroyers, broken and dejected, to “rest.” The once-pristine soldiers looked as if their souls had been ripped out. Their wails and screams shattered the island’s peace, night after night.

A few units managed to bring back their rifles, but most had no ammunition. What kind of battles they had experienced on the distant front, everyone was curious. But the bigwigs were tight-lipped about it, and officers forbade the soldiers from privately discussing the war. The information they got was extremely limited.

Still, Takemoto Tarō knew the fighting at the front was going badly. Two months ago, navy crews coming ashore from resupply ships would still head to the nearby restaurants and comfort stations to leak some “inside information.” They would brag about sinking some American warship in the Solomon Sea, or boast about how the Imperial Army had successfully repulsed an American offensive on some island.

But recently, everyone had fallen silent. They didn’t even speak of these local victories anymore. Everyone just quietly did what they had to do, until now, when the news of defeat could no longer be concealed. Hundreds of wounded were being brought in by transport ships. They all came from the frontline islands. For these wounded men, this was still a stroke of luck. Tarō soon discovered that from the islands where the fighting was heaviest, they couldn’t even evacuate the wounded anymore.

Takemoto’s given name was Tarō, a traditional Japanese name. Tarō meant the eldest son; the second was called Jirō. So, if one were to apply this train of thought maliciously, wasn’t the name “Yamamoto Isoroku” rather comical? As the eldest son of his family, Takemoto Tarō had no desire to be like those so-called elite units and be sent to the front. He hoped he could serve in the rear for the entire war, right up until it ended. Not every Japanese man was eager to shed his blood, at least not when they were losing.

Unfortunately, his beautiful wish had been completely shattered by harsh reality. Just two days ago, the island’s defense command had received an order: the 280th Division, this reserve unit, must begin construction of defensive shelters and fortifications on this very island. Everyone was put on manual labor, digging tunnels and using stones and earth to build shelters and breastworks.

Another transport ship arrived at the harbor. Column after column of replacement troops in new uniforms, looking universally young, walked down the gangway, following their squad leaders and sergeants. These soldiers were clearly different from the elites who had been sent to the front. Even Takemoto Tarō, who had never been to the front, could see that these were new recruits—recruits even greener than he was.

The war had not only pushed the populations of Germany and the Soviet Union to their limits; the one truly exhausted was Japan. This island nation had never had much manpower to expand with. To make matters worse, they had chosen China, a vast and resource-rich opponent, right from the start, and then had immediately gone to war with the world’s number one power. It was like only choosing “Hard Mode” in a game. Sometimes, you just had to admire this “high-level player” mentality of the Japanese, to die such a spectacular death.

“General Ishida…” A Japanese lieutenant general, his hands clasped behind his back, spoke to a man with the rank of major general behind him. “This place is about to become the front line. That bastard Yamamoto Isoroku’s navy has been defeated again and again. They’ve even lost the most basic courage to support our operations. The Navy has advised us to abandon this island, but Army Headquarters hopes we can hold out here for another three months…”

“Your Excellency! I understand. I, Ishida, am prepared to share the fate of this island! The 280th Division under my command will follow me and fight to the last man!” The major general bowed his head in a deep bow. “My family in Kyoto… I leave them in your care. Please tell them that I, for the glory of the Great Japanese Empire, held out until the very last moment.”

The old general sighed, and then continued, “With you here, I am relieved. Ishida-kun… you must hold on for three months. This is a battle that concerns the fate of the Great Japanese Empire. You, me, all of us, cannot have any illusions.”

He turned around, looked at the subordinate he admired most, and then patted him on the shoulder, consoling him. “As for your family, I have already had my eldest son go and take care of them… I… I won’t be going back either. This is the order that just came from High Command. See for yourself.”

The order in the telegram was clear. This lieutenant general was to lead an elite division in Malaya, rendezvous with General Yamashita, and fight a decisive battle with the Americans in the Malay Archipelago. The content of the telegram was easy to understand, and Japan’s forces in Malaya were by no means small. But thinking of the ferocity of the Battle of Darwin, it was truly unsettling. Once they lost command of the sea and air, this kind of island battle would ultimately become a disaster for the army. This was a consensus among all the army generals.

“General! The Navy… can they really not use the islands as a base and fight the Americans head-on?” This general, named Ishida, slapped the telegram in his hand angrily, his voice seething as he asked, “We are all willing to die for the country. Do they not have even that little bit of resolve? The spirit of the Great Japanese Imperial samurai has been completely lost by that group of cowards in the Navy!”

The old general looked at his subordinate with resignation. He really wanted to comfort him, but he didn’t know where to start. He wanted to tell Major General Ishida that within the navy, there were also those voices calling to fight to the last drop of blood. But these irrational shouts had no decisive effect at all.

Any of the high-ranking naval admirals who had replaced Yamamoto Isoroku had discovered that they had only two choices: either to be consumed bit by bit, to buy time for Japan’s future, and to see if they could find a turning point in the delay; or to concentrate their forces and gamble on a vague, ethereal victory. But if they really lost that gamble, it would be a total collapse. Japan would lose all chance of victory within a few months. Who would dare to give the order for such a gamble? Probably not even the Emperor himself would have the courage to say it.

On the pier, with a shout, a group of bare-chested Japanese Army soldiers, chanting in unison, were unloading a heavy, large-caliber anti-aircraft gun from the ship. They had only simple tools and could only rely on manpower to complete this difficult task. After all, the Japanese were physically small, and it was not easy for them to cope with this kind of physical labor.

In fact, if they were transporting according to the list of weapons most needed at the front, the heavy weapon the Japanese should have been supplementing these front lines with was large-caliber support artillery. After all, the Japanese army had already lost the effective support of the navy. Lacking heavy weapons, the Japanese troops were simply unable to cope with the U.S. Marines, who were covered by the big guns of the U.S. Navy’s warships.

Watching the soldiers unloading the equipment on the pier, Major General Ishida, one hand on his officer’s sword, complained to his superior, “The soldiers lack training. We’ve even canceled more than half of our training to save ammunition… But in this situation, the 30 Type 92 infantry guns we were promised have yet to arrive… How is my unit supposed to set up a basic defensive system?”

“Ishida-kun, the transport to more than a dozen islands on the entire front is in chaos. The fact that you can at least maintain the replenishment of food and manpower here is already a great feat,” the old lieutenant general said with some dejection. “I’ve heard that during the battle for the Solomon Islands, many brave soldiers… because they had no rations… starved to death at their posts.”

Japan’s original strategic thinking was to “feed the war with war.” This strategy had been very effective in the rich and weakly-resisting China. But when the Japanese had applied this set of strategies to the poor Southeast Asian archipelago, and against the United States, which they could not defeat and from which they could not reap any benefits, they had to face the difficult problem of being unable to effectively “feed the war.”

What was even more fatal was that Japan’s steel production was severely insufficient, and its oil reserves were also very limited. In terms of heavy industry, they simply had no ability to make up for the heavy artillery and other weapons and equipment, which they had accumulated for many years, that were being consumed in the war with the United States.

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