Tuesday, April 9, 2013

April 7th 1945, We Should Remember

A tower was erected in the April of 1968 in memorial to the Japanese battleship Yamato, the light cruiser Yahagi and the destroyers Asashimo, Hamakaze, Isokaze, and Kasumi which all sank on April 7, 1945.  Over 400 U.S. war planes dropped bombs and struck the Yamato with torpedoes over a period of almost two hours before it sank.

The Japanese Navy planned to have the giant battleship run aground at Okinawa and then fight off American sea and ground forces with its artillery for as long as possible. The Navy designated the mission as "special attack" (tokko in Japanese), which meant the men on Yamato were expected to die in the attack.

Some reports suggest the Japanese navy knew the battleship was unlikely to reach Okinawa.  It had originally planned to use the Yamato to defend Japan itself but concluded maintaining it until the Americans attacked would be impossible considering their limited supplies.  Thus it was apparently decided the Yamato and its brave crew would best serve Japan by showing the Americans Japan's courage and resolve even in the face of imminent defeat.

Whether it made such an impression on many Americans is uncertain but that these brave Japanese sailors and patriots made an impression on history as a whole, I think is unquestionable.  No war ship's name is closer to the edge of peoples' tongues than that of the mighty battleship Yamato, though most don't even know why that is.

I, an American who is glad my country won that war, am writing this in hopes of letting others know why the name Yamato deserves to hold the place in our minds that it does.

Over 3,700 men sailed out in the defense of a crumbling nation knowing they would likely die that day.  Mistakes had been made that led to that moment and less wise people might think the thing they should have done was to abandon their lost cause.  But their cause wasn't lost and never has been lost.  Their cause wasn't that battle, that war.  Their cause was Japan, but not just Japan but one that matters to all human beings.  Their cause was human dignity.

Dignity is a strange cause because it can never be taken from any of us unless we give it away, but none the less it still requires our lives from time to time.  Times like 2:22 PM on April 7th 1945.  You can find the following words on the academic web site linked to.

"One cruiser and eight destroyers accompanied Yamato, but no air cover was provided. Yamato sunk at 2:22 p.m. after almost two hours of fighting off American planes dropping bombs and torpedoes. In addition to Yamato, the light cruiser Yahagi and the destroyers Asashimo, Hamakaze, Isokaze, and Kasumi sank. According to a sign next to the tower, 3,721 men from this Japanese task force lost their lives that day [1]."

One of the few survivors of the Yamato, Yoshida Mitsuru wrote on the occasion of his rescue, "Make of this moment a turning point toward a life of constancy and dedication".

Yes, let's make the day April 7th of each year be a moment for all human beings across the Earth to think upon the importance of human dignity and that on that day in 1945 thousands died for that truth.  And as long as people fail to see the importance of the individual and all that makes people free enough to express that, there may be future Yamato tokko's needed to remind us that nations are concrete realities and the individual is bigger than all of us.  No mere human can reshape those truths.

2:22 PM April 7th 1945, remember.

1 comment:

  1. Am I implying that every time a soldier dies for his or her country that they die for these two greater truths? Well am I?

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