Under the Emperor's Nose

Admiral Shigetaro Shimada, the chubby, cherry-lipped little man who had steered Japan's Navy through its worst defeats, was sacked again. Already out of the Cabinet (Navy Minister), he was dropped from his No. 2 job: Chief of Naval Staff. His successor: Admiral Koshiro Oikawa, wealthy aristocrat and former mentor of the Emperor (1915-22).

The meaning of all this, so far as outsiders could divine, was that the new Jap Cabinet and new Supreme War Council had thrown ex-Premier Tojo's China-first policy out the window. With high hopes for Oikawa as a brilliant strategist, they were preparing to meet the U.S. threat from east and south.

Strike One on Oikawa. Before Oikawa, who self-consciously calls war an art, had time to prove his artistry, the U.S. Pacific Fleet had humiliated him even more than his predecessors had been. A fast carrier task force bored into the Bonin Islands--closer to Tokyo than ever before--destroyed a Jap convoy and plastered Empire military and naval works less than 600 miles from Imperial Headquarters.

Carriers stood off the Bonins to send off aircraft which swooped upon the big, heavily escorted convoy. They sank four cargo ships, three naval escort craft, four barges. Then, for the first time in the new island campaign, U.S. surface ships closed in for the kill with their guns. They sank a large destroyer, a cargo ship, other miscellaneous items of Oikawa's auxiliary navy.

Then the airmen struck again, sank one more escort vessel, two small craft, and fired a light cruiser, which they left burning satisfactorily. U.S. losses: 16 planes, 19 airmen.

Guess Which, Oikawa. On the Bonin strike, Jap shore establishments caught it, too. From Muko Jima, 580 miles from Tokyo, all the way down the 80-mile chain, cruisers and destroyers thoroughly and thoughtfully shelled every Jap base that looked worthwhile.

Admiral Oikawa could try to figure it out. Was this just a raid? Or did it mean that Americans were dropping their plan to take the Philippines in favor of a drive up through the Bonins? Or were they going to fight both ways at once?

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