On the Spot

Only the bare fact that Japan's U.S.-hating Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander in Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, had died "in combat with the enemy" was admitted by Tokyo two years ago (TIME, May 31, 1943). U.S. military sources admitted nothing. Last week a Jap war correspondent, captured in northern Luzon, told more of the story: In a twin-engined Jap bomber escorted by 30 fighters, Yamamoto and half a dozen other bigwigs were inspecting Jap-held Pacific islands. Over Kahili airdrome on southern Bougainville, the bomber circled to land and the escort headed back toward Rabaul. At that moment U.S.

fighters dove out of the noonday sun.

Yamamoto's riddled plane crashed in the jungle and burned. The Admiral's charred body was found crouched in a seat, both hands holding his sheathed sword between his knees -- the same sword he intended to wear when he dictated the terms of peace in the White House.

Correspondent Shuzio Sugiura said that the Japs wondered how U.S. planes happened to be on the spot at just the right time. The Japs, he added, suspected that the Americans must have had advance information.

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