IJA Secret Intelligence Team at Chofu

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Shinpachi,I have been gone for a week. Have been taking care of a house for some friends while they went on vacation. I'll read any of these stories that you post. It is extremely interesting to me seeing the Japanese perspective from someone who was actually there. Again, thank you for your time and effort.:cool:
 
Thank you Aaron for your unchanged friendship.
I'm coming home late recently and no time even to open the internet.
I want to translate them all eagerly to tell our father's generation's message to the rest of the world.

I'll manage to take time sooner or later.
You may look forward to them.
Please keep in touch.
Thank you.
 
Thank you Wayne and Aaron for your kind encouragement.
I've found a couple of free hours today, so please let me post our latest local news on Iwo-Jima.

JSDF Officer Dies at Iwo-Jima
======================

The Ground Self Defense Force Fuji school (Oyama-cho, Shizuoka) announced that one of their school instructors, a male Major (45), was found fell in the underground shelter of Iwo-jima (Ogasawara village, Tokyo)and died in the night of October 24.

According to the school public relations office, he may have suffered from heatstroke. Announcement says, on October 23 he arrived at Iwo-Jima with other six instructors to prepare for a war history class scheduled on November 10 for the students.
They checked safety of the ladders etc in the Senda shelter which is an underground shelter of the old Japanese Army. He did not appear at a gathering place after finishing the work and was discovered fell down in the shelter around 6:50 pm.
He was transported to the hospital of Atsugi base in Kanagawa Prefecture by a Self-Defense Force aircraft but died at 8:45 p.m. next day. The public relations office says the cause of his death is still under investigation but the temperature in the shelter was as high as 45 to 50'C(113 to 122'F) with also the high humiditiy.

News source: ASAHI.COM


Senda shelter photo from other source:
ttp://officers.hp.infoseek.co.jp/22ikou/ikou-iwojima027.jpg
 

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Thank you Wayne for the great photos.
It's so fantastic and sure an artwork more than a scale model!
I feel a lyric much from the scene.

Thanks Aaron for your condolences for his family.
His death has reminded us of the fact that both nations fought on a volcano.
He didn't have to die in a peace time though. Very regret.
 
Hi Shinpachi, took awhile to catch up on your thread. I must say, this is fantastic! I'm really impressed with your translation, hell of a lot better then me trying to translate with my spanglish skills. I like how this is told from the Japanese point of view.
 
No one wants to die but they were taught to die for the nation.
30% at most of Kamikaze pilots survived because of engine trouble or bad weather. They should have been happy to survive but their hardships in postwar was that they could not follow other 70% as a brave warrior.
Almost survivors had shut their mouths.

My translation will continue but I have no time to sit to the PC at the moment.

Thank you Aaron and Vassili Zaitzev for your posts!
I'll be back soon!
 
Article No.63

Reconnaissance on Iwo-Jima
=====================
Author: Mr. Teruo Miyoshi


When we were relaxing after dinner, Communication Liutenant came and asked us to come to his communication room in a hurry. Being afraid of any unexpected incident, Sergeant-major and I entered the room. English sentences like a communication text were streaming out from the speaker and one of our translation soldiers was struggling with the typewriter to record but, standing aside him, I couldn't read them well.

Transmittance ceased after a while and he translated and explained us the contents but they did not look unusual.

He urged our attention
"Please take a look at this telegram. It says ' Water purifier was out of order. Remaining water in the tank is for two or three days only. Urgent arrangement is requested' but the similar telegram was exchanged yesterday too. I don't know who sent and who received but I guess it any kind of code."


Chief of Communication Room said
"Sergeant-major. I can't help thinking that this communication indicates something. It says merely a water purifier trouble but I suspect any other messages are hidden there. What do you think?"

Sergeant-major seemed thinking about it folding his arms for a while.

He opened his mouth
"If I may tell the conclusion of my guess first, the place of telegram dispatchment will be Iwo-jima. When I confirmed the recovery condition of the runway soon after our Navy bombers'attack last time, many heavy vehicles for construction were working. Clouds of dust were raising and it was hard for me to catch the ground view from the sky, that is, to grasp the recovered condition perfectly.

Judging from this, the current Iwo Jima is in the dry season. As only the rainwater storage and filtration is not enough, they rely on sea-water purification equipment but it is out of order and immediate repair is necessary. Therefore this message should be understood as a kind of SOS. I don't know who is receiving the message but to rely the water supply on the nearby vessels would be limited. I believe this communication should be read about the water supply.


If Sergeant-major's guess was correct, we should know that they, the U.S. military, were preparing the island as a front line base for future landing operation onto the Japanese mainland.

Please let me explain the weather condition of Iwo-Jima.
The island which is located in Ogasawara Village of Metropolis Tokyo belongs to subtropical zone with average temperature of 23 degrees centigrade(--F) and has less rainfall of about eighty days a year. From the topography view of the seafloor, it is located on the top of a mountain of 25miles in diameter and 4,500 to 6,000feet in height. The volcano is active and crustal movements are violent. Environment is so bad as many faults and blowholes lie scattered. No fresh water comes up even if we dig the ground for wells.

It was once placed under the U.S. military occupation after the war but returned to Japan by courtesy in June, 1968.
However, former residents are not permitted to return yet(*The island is regarded as a huge graveyard).
Currently, there are JSDF base on the trace of old Motoyama airfield along with the U.S. military weather team and LORAN-C transmitter base nearyby(*the U.S. Coast Guard's Iwo Jima LORAN-C transmitter facility was transferred to Japan in 1993: Wikipedia).

NLP (Night Landing Practice = Touch-and-Go) has almost moved to Iwo-Jima from Atsugi base.
Landing practice of JSDF's C130 transport aircrafts was also taken place here before they were dispatched to Iraq on the other day.

Now-

Chief of Communication Room explained Base Commander what we had talked about the communication contents.
Base Commander said
"Such hidden information as this cannot be handled by other organizations but us.
I think Sergeant-major's estimated theory is probably correct but, in order to fly and confirm the U.S. military aircrafts status on the island, we must know that interception by their fighters and attack from the ground are unavoidable unlike the past twice sorties on Iwo-Jima." and added "I will consider what is the best way this evening. You all also consider and let me hear your operation plan by 2400."


"If it is ---, how should we do?"
"If we may encounter ---, how should we do?"
"If we are placed under --- situation, how should we response to it?"
I was murmuring listing up every possibilities I could imagine.

"Stop it." Sergeant-major said.
"If you start to imagine those IFs, it will expand endless like the circular-constant and you will be collapsed when you encounter unexpected incident. You state what you think best now."

"In the past missions, we approached the island from the east twice. So, I think the U.S. military would be lining up their warning network extending to near the Minami(meaning South)-Torishima island. Therefore, to defeat their plan, we had better fly straightly south from the Sea of Enshu(*West of Mt.Fuji) and approach to Iwo-Jima from its south hiding Mt.Suribachi at ultra-low-altitude." I suggested.

Sergeant-major commented
"You are always good at defeating other's plan. Good. I will offer it to Base Commander."


It was just around 2200 in the night. I requested a ground crew leader "You may reduce the cannonballs but load fully 12.7mm bullets. Wait for us starting engine with the full fuel too."

Base Commander told us his order
"Bear it in your mind that the sortie purpose this time is, unlike previous ones, to grasp their concentration status of the enemy planes. Pay attention to confirming the situation and reporting it more precisely than ever. Never use reckless tactics. Make much of your lives. Sortie time is 0200 tomorrow morning. Take a rest till then. This decision for the sortie shall be reported to the headquarters by myself later. That is all."


'Take a rest' was helpful but we had only three hours or so.
I told Chief of Communication Room our sortie time and asked him to transfer all U.S. military communications to us on the way.

All staff of the communication room was waking up.
The ground crew leader told us our plane was ready for take-off. Engine oil was also exchanged with new one.
That was better.

A weather forecast soldier came to report the latest weather condition. In addition, soldiers of the cipher room were found in the communication room.

Past 0100 in the midnight, we were told that our Base Commander had already asked Navy for refuelling assistance for our homing. All what we had to do next was only to take off and arrive at the island before dawn.


At 0150, Base Commander came and said "Do it well." In response, I held my saber in my hand tightly and saluted him saying "We now make a sortie, sir." I also saluted other staff in the room. This was the moment that we were tensed up most.

As I had been very nervous since the last evening, I forgot to bring the aviation ration with me.
It was too late for me to say "I forgot" and our plane took off on schedule.

We were flying in the complete darkness.
As long as we were looking at Southern Cross, unless there was strong drift wind, we would not take wrong course.

We had to be careful all the time as we were flying through the U.S. military monitoring network.
As fuel consumption was high with full engine throttle, we kept flying at altitude 15,000feet with cruise speed 250knots/h.
Three hours had passed.

I told Sergeant-major "We will be at the turning point in twenty minutes."
"We'll turn at 6miles farther south."


"Why?" Looking down vaguely, I found many enemy vessels on the sea surface.

Sergeant-major's decision was correct.
The plane heading for the south would be out of their alert.

We kept flying close to the sea surface. It was almost fifteen feet above the surface. Splash which was raised up by the propeller's wind pressure beat the canopy. No pilots could make this kind of good performance with no sufficient combat experiences.

For the first time, I contacted with our base by sending telegraph "3-S-50" and wondered if they understood the S for South.
Reply R(for Ryokai=Understood) was returned to relieve me.

Our plane had suddenly appeared on the Iwo-jima island behind Mt.Suribachi and passed through above old Chidori airfield, old Motoyama airfield and old Kita(=North) airfield one after another at ninety feet altitude. I had taken photographs.

When I was sending telegraphs in high spped raw-text style to report the type and number of the U.S. aircrafts on the ground, several people were observed running on the runway. Scramble order would have been issued. They looked just waken up and terribly in a hurry.

Approximately a hundred fighters on three airfields. Sergeant-major's prediction hit the right answer.

A pilot was running with no parachute.
Even if he started the engine immediately, thinking the time for warm-up and take-off, it would take two or three minutes no matter how fast he might manage.
Our plane was heading north with full throttle at altitude 15,000feet.

"To the base. Mission is over. We head for refuelling."
I had never imagined that the mission went so well.
I was concerned with the interceptor but it would be hard for him to shorten the distance of two or three minutes.

Now, the sun was rising from the eastern horizon.
I was enjoying a refreshing morning.


/End of Article No.63
 
Oh, how many mistypes I have made!
I give up to correct them this time. Take apology:cry:

Wayne, timshatz, Vassili Zaitzev and Aaron.
Thank you for your long waiting and warm comments again:)
You may look forward to my future translations too.

Thank you all!
 

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