The Pacific Theatre – Island hopping

In the first few months after Pearl Harbor American forces continued to suffer setbacks at Guam, Wake Island, and the Philippines. But, six months after Pearl Harbor,  the U.S., initiating an “Island hopping” or leapfrogging tactic intended to cutoff Japanese supply routes, began to regain naval superiority in the central Pacific and halt Japanese progress.

In early May, 1942, the Battle of the Coral Sea took place. The U.S. Naval forces defeated the Japanese Navy, blocking a Japanese threat to Australia. The Battle of Midway took place a month later on June 3, 1942. Midway was an American held island strategically vital to U.S. communications and the defense of Hawai’i. U.S. intelligence led to the knowledge of the Japanese attack.  The battle was fought by planes based on carriers. American planes sank four of Japan’s aircraft carriers, 17 Japanese ships total. The Japanese lost so many planes and pilots that they could not be replaced. The Midway defeat essentially ended Japan’s offensive capabilities.

U.S. Navy and Marine Corps pushed to capture a series of important atolls from their well-armed Japanese defenders and open a path to Japan. There were more than 100 island invasions during 1942-45, including Guadalcanal, Eniwetok, Iwo Jima, Solomon Islands (“The Gettysburg of the Pacific War”), Papua, New Guinea, and Tarawa. In 1944, the U.S. forces came within air range of the Japanese home islands with victories at Guam, Iwo Jima, Saipan and Tinian.

“PT 109” – sung by Jimmy Dean, songwriters, Marijohn Wilkin and Fred. B. Burch (1962), is a song about the adventures of John F. Kennedy and the crew of the PT-109 during the Solomon Islands campaign. The PT -109, a patrol torpedo boat, was famous even before Kennedy ran for President because it was cut in two after being rammed by a Japanese destroyer, after which there came a survival story with rescue of the crew by native islanders. The song is jingoistic, but it does tell the tale of actual events. (https://youtu.be/79pAw8ubhh4)

In forty-three they put to sea thirteen men and Kennedy
Aboard the PT 109 to fight the brazen enemy
And off the isle of Olasana in the strait beyond Naru
A Jap destroyer in the night cut the 109 in two

Smoke and fire upon the sea
Everywhere they looked was the enemy
The heathen gods of old Japan
Yeah they thought they had the best of a mighty good man

On the coast of Kolomangara looking through his telescope
Australian Evans saw the battle for the crew had little hope
Two were dead, some were wounded, all were clinging to the bow
Fighting fire and a-fighting water trying to save their lives somehow

Smoke and fire upon the sea
Everywhere they looked was the enemy
The heathen gods of old Japan
Yeah they thought they had the best of a mighty good man

McMahon the Irishman was burned so badly, he couldn’t swim
Leave me here go on he said ’cause if you don’t we’ll all be dead
The PT skipper couldn’t leave him a man to die alone at sea
And with a strap between his teeth, he towed the Irishman through the sea

Smoke and fire upon the sea
Everywhere they looked was the enemy
The heathen gods of old Japan
Yeah they thought they had the best of a mighty good man

He led his men through waters dark, rocky reefs and hungry sharks
Braved the enemies bayonets, a thirty-eight hung round his neck
Four more days and four more nights a rescue boat pulled into sight
The PT 109 was gone but Kennedy and his crew lived on

Now who could guess or who could possibly know
That this same man named Kennedy
Would be the leader of the nation, be the one to take command
The PT 109 was gone but Kennedy lived to fight again

Smoke and fire upon the sea
Everywhere they looked was the enemy but JFK and his crew lived on
Which proves it’s hard to get the best of a man named John
Big John, big John, big John, big John

“The Ballad of Rodger Young” written by Frank Loesser (sung by Burl Ives at https://youtu.be/hY3K3oNiNGU; and sung by the West Point Glee Club with a good video that includes a few pictures from the battle of New Georgia and some from Rodger Young’s actual army file https://youtu.be/1MEJM0cboDg), was first performed March 1945. The ballad is an elegy for Army Private Rodger Wilton Young, who died in the Battle of New Georgia after rushing a Japanese machine-gun nest on July 31, 1943, and is largely based on the citation for Young’s posthumous Medal of Honor.

On July 31st 1943 a bloody round in the battle for the Solomon Islands
Was being fought in the tangled jungle of the island of New Georgia
This is the story of one of the young men who fought and died there
This song is respectfully dedicated to those heroic infantrymen
Who like Roger Young have sacrificed their lives
That their nation might remain forever free

Oh, they’ve got no time for glory in the infantry
Oh, they’ve got no time for praises loudly sung
But in every soldier’s heart in all the infantry
Shines the name, shines the name of Roger Young

Shines the name – Roger Young
Fought and died for the men he marched among
In the everlasting glory of the infantry
Shines the name of Private Roger Young

Caught in ambush lay a company of riflemen
Just grenades against machine guns in the gloom
Caught in ambush till this one of twenty riflemen
Volunteered volunteered to meet his doom

Volunteered Roger Young
Fought and died for the men he marched among
In the everlasting courage of the infantry
Was the courage of Private Roger Young

It was he who drew the fire of the enemy
That a company of men might live to fight;
And before the deadly fire of the enemy,
Stood the man, stood the man we hail tonight.

Stood the man, Roger Young,
Fought and died for the men he marched among;
Like the everlasting spirit of the infantry,
Was the spirit of Private Rodger Young.

On the island of New Georgia in the Solomons
Stands a simple wooden cross alone to tell
That beneath the silent coral of the Solomons
Sleeps a man sleeps a man remembered well

Sleeps a man Roger Young
Fought and died for the men he marched among
In the everlasting glory of the infantry
Lives the story of Private Roger Young

“The Ballad of Ira Hayes”, was written by Peter LaFarge (1964), and is sung by Johnny Cash (https://youtu.be/NdNV9JX-Xi8). Ira Hayes was a Pima Indian from Maricopa County, Arizona, who enlisted in the Marines. He was in the famous photo of the Flag Raisers at Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima, but he had not been one of the actual raisers of the flag. The picture Hayes was in was staged later for an army photographer. Nevertheless, Hayes was treated as a hero. He, along with several others, went on a patriotic, public relations campaign sponsored by the armed forces to sell war bonds. During these events, Hayes was feted by the public, which plied him with free liquor. This, plus terrible war memories and an introverted personality that very much disliked the public attention, led to excessive drinking. He died of acute alcoholism and exposure after spending the night in a cotton field on the Pima reservation in 1955.

Ira Hayes,
Ira Hayes

Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won’t answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin’ Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Gather round me people there’s a story I would tell
About a brave young Indian you should remember well
From the land of the Pima Indian
A proud and noble band
Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land

Down the ditches for a thousand years
The water grew Ira’s peoples’ crops
‘Till the white man stole the water rights
And the sparklin’ water stopped

Now Ira’s folks were hungry
And their land grew crops of weeds
When war came, Ira volunteered
And forgot the white man’s greed

Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won’t answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin’ Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

There they battled up Iwo Jima’s hill,
Two hundred and fifty men
But only twenty-seven lived to walk back down again

And when the fight was over
And when Old Glory raised
Among the men who held it high
Was the Indian, Ira Hayes

Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won’t answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin’ Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Ira returned a hero
Celebrated through the land
He was wined and speeched and honored; Everybody shook his hand

But he was just a Pima Indian
No water, no crops, no chance
At home nobody cared what Ira’d done
And when did the Indians dance

Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won’t answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin’ Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Then Ira started drinkin’ hard;
Jail was often his home
They’d let him raise the flag and lower it
like you’d throw a dog a bone!

He died drunk one mornin’
Alone in the land he fought to save
Two inches of water in a lonely ditch
Was a grave for Ira Hayes

Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won’t answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin’ Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Yeah, call him drunken Ira Hayes
But his land is just as dry
And his ghost is lyin’ thirsty
In the ditch where Ira died

In June-October, 1944, during the first and second Battles of the Philippine Sea, the Japanese fleet suffered more crippling losses. On October 20, 1944, General MacArthur led a force of 250,000 to retake the Philippines. They landed on the island of Leyte. The Japanese Navy assembled most of its remaining fleet to try to stop the invasion, resulting in The Battle of Leyte Gulf, aka, The Second Battle of the Philippine Sea, October 23-26, 1944. The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the largest naval battle in U.S. history. The Japanese lost 5 carriers, 4 battleships, 14 cruisers and 43 other ships, plus thousands of aircraft. So dominate were the American planes, the American pilots called it “The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.” As a result of the Battle, the U.S. finalized control of the Pacific shipping lanes. Deprived of fuel because their merchant tankers could not use the shipping lanes, what was left of the Japanese Navy was forced to stay in port during the remainder of the war.

In a last ditch effort to stop the American naval advances, on October 25, 1944, during the Battle of the Leyte Gulf, the Japanese Kamikaze Special Attack Force carried out its first mission.  Kamikaze means “divine wind.” Young, single, volunteer Japanese pilots agreed to fly suicide missions in planes armed with a 500-pound bomb, or other explosives such as torpedoes, with only enough fuel for a one-way flight. Their objective was to fly the planes into American ships and take them out of action. As a result of the Kamikazi flights at Leyte, seven U.S. carriers plus 40 other ships were damaged. Five ships were sunk, 23 were badly damaged, and 12 were moderately damaged.

The peak in Kamikaze attacks occurred as part of the Battle of Okinawa, April-June 1945. The Japanese sent about 1,500 planes against the American Navy, putting 30 or more U.S. warships, mostly smaller vessels like destroyers, but no carriers, out of action. In the final analysis, 19% of Kamikaze attacks hit a ship, but 3,860 Japanese pilots died in the efforts.

“The Wild Blue”, written and sung by Christine Lavin (1997), is based on “Kamikaze,” a documentary film by Jonathan Stamp. The documentary and song tell the story of the creation of the Kamikaze force and a Japanese pilot who very much wanted to become a Kamikaze. (need audio link; the song can be found on the album, “One Wild Night: Christine Lavin in Concert,” Christinelavin.com records, PO Box 67594, Rochester, NY 14617.) (Ms. Lavin generously provided me with an extensive background memo based on research she did in writing the song. Upon request, I will email a copy of the memo to the requester. )

The year was 1944
the country was Japan
World War II was raging
on the sea and on the land
the Japanese were losing
but would not give up the fight
they railed against the Allies
with their collective might
There was a Japanese warrant officer
named Showichi Ota
stationed in the Naval Air Corps
he loved to fly
he went to his superior
because he had a plan
he thought for sure would end the war
restore glory to Japan
Ota thought up a flying weapon
that any pilot could steer
straight into the heart of the enemy
though the pilot would die, that much was clear
his superior turned him down flat
and was appalled to think
of sacrificing pilots, no matter
how many ships there were to sink

But the war continued
Japan lost so many men
Ota’s superior said
‘tell me your plan again’
18 large bombers took off
with 18 manned ’ohkas’ strapped beneath their wings
but the American ‘Hellcats’ shot them down
before they could harm anything
So they went back to the drawing board
came up with a flying bomb
recruited just the young and single
lots of boys signed on
they called them kamikazes
all were volunteers
most were under twenty years old
and had no thoughts of fear
But there was a pilot named Hajimi Fugee
who had a wife and three young girls
but wanted to be a kamikaze
more than anything in this old world
so his wife drowned their daughters
then drowned herself, too,
four months later her husband died
when he flew into
The wild blue
the wild blue
this was war

this is what men do
the wild blue
the wild blue
this was war
this is what men do
I used to think that ‘kamikaze’
simply meant ‘suicide’
but in the13th century
a time when more Japanese fought and died
a gale force they called ‘kamikaze’
which meant the ‘Divine Wind’
drove the Mongols from Japan
that’s a war that they were destined to win
But now these new kamikazes
April 1945
Japan’s last hope
for keeping dreams of victory alive
and in their brief reign of terror
36 ships were lost
368 more were damaged
for our side, a heavy cost
5,000 Allied sailors
died in the blood red sea
4,800 more were injured
by the kamikazes
but still Japan was losing
still these suicide missions flew
morale was sinking lower

as they took off for the wild blue
The wild blue
the wild blue
this was war
this is what men do
the wild blue
the wild blue
this was war
this is what men do
On a U.S. aircraft carrier
in a damaged part of the ship
a young sailor found a kamikaze’s right leg
severed at the hip
he stripped the meat right off it
made jewelry from the bone
today he shakes his head and wonders
‘were our hearts made out of stone?
What if his parents knew
that we made sport with his remains?
would they think we were barbarians?
would they think we were insane?
no – this was war
he was trying to kill us
we were trying to kill him, too
when you’re in this situation
this is what men do’
Ota volunteered

for every mission that was sent
but he was never chosen
that’s how the story went
and in September of ‘45
when the peace treaty ended the war
Ota climbed into the cockpit
left his colleagues on the shore
Legend was he flew over the ocean
then he crashed his plane
he could not hide his anger
he could not live with his pain
more than 1900 kamikazes
all those boys and young men
would never get to see their homes
or their loved ones ever again
It’s said that the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo
is where kamikaze spirits reside
their families come and visit
not with sorrow, but with pride
some know the name of “Ota”
they bow their heads and say their prayers
because, like their brave ancestors,
they think that he is there
But in 1994
an old man lay dying in his bed
his children gathered ‘round him
can’t believe what he has said
“I am Ota. It was my fault

I hid, then changed my name
I could not let anyone know
I was the one to blame”
He cried and held his children
“What have I done? Oh God, what have I done?
all those young people died
I should have been one!
I volunteered for every mission!
they never called my name!
I’ve lived my life in agony
I’m so ashamed”
Now his son sits quietly
in the cemetery
it’s been four years since
his father has been buried
and he says,
‘maybe we could have helped him,
but we never knew’
the reporter nods
the camera zooms
into the wild blue
The wild blue
the wild blue
this was war
this is what men do
the wild blue
the wild blue
this was war

this is what men do

The invasion of the island of Okinawa, which began on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, was the largest amphibious operation mounted by Americans in the Pacific war. Okinawa is 350 miles southwest of the home islands of Japan; it provided vital airbases for future bombing of those islands. American forces suffered their heaviest losses of the Pacific campaign at Okinawa.  More Americans died or were wounded in Okinawa than at the Normandy D-Day invasions. 95,000 Japanese civilians died, either by committing suicide, at the hands of their own families or soldiers or by enemy fire. Japanese military losses were near 100,000, with American casualties reaching 12,500, the highest of any Pacific campaign. (Sakamoto, p. 278) The intensity of the Japanese defense of Okinawa was one more lesson of the great cost that could be expected if the Japanese home islands had to be invaded.

“Navajo Code Talkers”, written and sung by Jack Gladstone (1995), pays respect to the members of the Navajo tribe that joined the Marines and helped win battles such as Okinawa by providing communications in their native language that could not be broken by the Japanese. (https://youtu.be/YZuOiqo1glk)

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese struck our shores
The tentacles of the axis power called this land to war
Down in the mile higher western desert homeland to the Navajo
The marines were looking for a few good men to go

In the hot dry southwestern sun the volunteers took the oath
To defend this U.S. soil though none of them could vote
From their mother tongue they were told
To devise a code that they alone, the Navajo, would know

Code talkers communicating freely through the hot fire of tyranny
Code talkers sending and receiving combat orders for the military
Kit Carson pillaged their home in ‘64 and the nation is now calling their men to war

And the pain — in the elder’s eyes and the bitterness swept aside
To see their young sons join the ranks of the stars and stripes
From Guadalcanal to Okinawa their weapon was their speech
That the churches and the boarding schools refused to teach

Code talkers communicating freely through the hot fire of tyranny
Code talkers sending and receiving combat orders for the military
Kit Carson pillaged their home in ‘64 and the nation is now calling their men to war

Monologue in Navajo language
Stars and stripes on Suribachi
On the pacific sands of Iwo Jima
Navajo teams worked around the clock
The marines were pinned down on the beach
By gunners entrenched in rock
The strike that turned the battle’s tide was signaled by the tribe
Whose mother tongue and spirit had survived

Code talkers communicating freely through the hot fire of tyranny
Code talkers sending and receiving combat orders for the military
Kit Carson pillaged their home in ‘64 and the nation is now calling their men to war
Code talkers, Code talkers
We are the Navajo Code Takers (in Navajo)