Edge of Valor by John J. Gobbell Page B

name?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œFirst name; what do they call you?”
    â€œClive.”
    â€œOkay, Clive. I’m Todd. And yes, I can keep a secret.”
    â€œSee that man back there? Blond American, young looking, in a green suit?”
    Ingram craned his neck a bit and rose on his haunches. There . He spotted a very young man, a near teenager, with white-streaked blond hair that spilled across his forehead nearly to his eyebrows. He was seated next to an Air Force general, and they were engaged in an animated conversation, hands waving. “Young is an understatement. Looks like he should be fishing little red whistles out of Cracker Jack boxes.”
    â€œThat’s Colin Blinde. Don’t let his looks fool you. A wunderkind. He graduated from Yale at the age of nineteen. And yes, he’s our OSS man. Feeds me all this stuff, which he filters from the State Department. Then I translate it into militarese.”
    â€œIf that means he’s smart, I don’t want any part of him.”
    â€œHe knows a lot of people in high places. He’s seated next to General Dexter, Curtis LeMay’s second in command.”
    Ingram whistled.
    â€œSpeaking of high places,” Neidemeier nodded to the Japanese captain across the aisle. “Your Captain Fujimoto over there. Originally, we were to have a rear admiral.”
    â€œAn admiral was bumped by a captain?”
    â€œNo, no. We were supposed have Admiral Onishi.”
    â€œWho is . . . ?”
    â€œLeader of the kamikaze corps.”
    â€œWell, where is he?”
    â€œCommitted hara-kiri. Onishi could have done wonders for us. Instead, he slit open his stomach and his throat. Then, in direct defiance of Hirohito’s peace proclamation, our next choice, Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki, flew off.”
    â€œTo where?”
    â€œNobody knows. Ugaki was a samurai. He couldn’t bear the shame of defeat. So he strips off all emblems of his rank, climbs into the observer’s seat of a B5N, and takes off in glory on a kamikaze attack on Okinawa on the day peace was declared.”
    â€œWhat happened?”
    Neidemeier shrugged. “Don’t know. Ugaki’s plane just . . . disappeared. Conjecture is the combat air patrol got him. Trying to arrange the surrender terms has been just one crisis after another. There was a palace coup. They tried to kill Hirohito.”
    Ingram was shocked. “Who would do such a thing? I thought the emperor was sacrosanct, a god.”
    Neidemeier nodded. “It’s the army. They can’t stand the idea of surrender. If they had their wish, they’d fight to the last bullet . . . the last drop of blood.”
    â€œI thought the atom bomb taught them otherwise.”
    â€œOne would think so. But they stick their heads in the sand. And they’re still all-powerful in Japan. Do you realize that they have more than a million men in the Kwangtung Army in China?”
    Ingram thought about that. “Maybe so. But they’d have to get to the home islands to fight us, wouldn’t they? And without a navy or air force for transportation . . .”
    â€œYou have a point.”
    â€œAnd even in China they need to be supplied, don’t they?”
    â€œYes. But keep in mind that the Kwangtung Army is not just an army. It’s a political system and economic machine and military organization all wrapped into one. They are almost self-sufficient. Prime Minister Tojo came out of the Kwangtung Army.”
    â€œWell, let ’em rot in China,” Ingram said. “Let’s return to the subject. Who staged the revolt on the emperor?”
    â€œKwangtung fanatics—junior officers ranking no higher than major—who tried to kill Hirohito.” He looked back into the cabin. “But it was put down after only a few hours. They never got near him. I’ll tell you,” the major added, “these people are burning up their best and brightest even