Free One Man's Justice by Akira Yoshimura Page B

of the operations room to be allowed to take part was so compelling that his name was added to the list. A member of the kendo club during his university days, Howa was the only man among the executioners to decapitate two of the prisoners.
    While these executions temporarily relieved the frustration Takuya felt, each time he stepped outside the operations room and caught the horrific sight of a city razed to the ground, irrepressible anger and pain welled up inside him. According to reports issued by the municipal office, the death toll was over one thousand, with over fifty thousand families losing their homes and untold thousandsof people injured in the firestorm. Everywhere there were dazed people sifting through the ashes of the scorched ruins. Here and there groups of men, women and children sat listlessly on the side of the road. Viewing such scenes, and contemplating the fact that these people were destitute because of the B-29 raids, he thought it an injustice that the remaining prisoners were still safe inside the headquarters building.
    The day after the incendiary attack on Fukuoka city the key members of the headquarters staff moved to caves near Yamae village in the Tsukushi area, leaving behind only those who worked in anti-aircraft intelligence. After the attack on Fukuoka, the US Army Air Force started saturation bombing raids on other main cities and towns in Kyushu. First, on the twenty-ninth of June, a force of ten B-29s bombed Nobeoka in Miyazaki prefecture, and then Kanoya in Kagoshima prefecture. Beginning in July, attacks were made on cities and towns including Kurume, Yatsushiro, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Oita, Omuta and Miyazaki.
    Among those left to work on anti-aircraft intelligence, tension mounted as preparations were accelerated to meet the expected American landings on Kyushu. Defensive earthworks were being constructed everywhere, artillery pieces were placed in caves facing the sea, and special kamikaze attack aircraft were hidden in underground shelters.
    Plans were also being made to strengthen the mobile reserve, the Thirty-sixth Army, by redeploying three infantry divisions from the Chugoku and Kinki areas, and by moving the pride of the mainland defensive forces – twoelite armoured divisions and six reserve divisions – from the Kanto region to meet the enemy in Kyushu.
    With such crucial forces being readied, Takuya began to sense that the last decisive moments of the war were close at hand. If the remaining armies played their part in the grand defensive strategy prepared by Imperial Headquarters, it would be possible for Japan to deal the American forces a body blow. There was no doubting Japan’s advantage in terms of supply lines and the willingness of the ten million inhabitants of Kyushu to do their utmost to contribute to the success of the defensive effort. Though Takuya did not doubt that Japan would be victorious in the coming battles, he had a premonition that he himself would not live through the titanic struggle about to unfold. At least, he hoped, he would succumb knowing that he had inflicted the greatest damage possible on the enemy.
    That summer was much hotter than average. The steel doors were usually pushed wide open, but because the tactical operations centre was encased in a thick layer of reinforced concrete it was oppressively hot inside the building, the lone fan sending a stream of hot air across the desks. Sweat dripping from their brows, Takuya and his colleagues went on processing incoming information and preparing the anti-aircraft defences for the next bombing raid.
    Toward the end of July there was a dramatic increase in the number of enemy aircraft participating in each attack. On the twenty-eighth, a total of three thousand two hundred and ten planes attacked targets in the Kanto, Tokai and Kinki regions, while around six hundred and fifty carrier-borne planes made bombing and strafing sorties overKyushu, some of the latter aircraft even going so