Midnight in Broad Daylight by Sakamoto Pamela Rotner

Midnight in Broad Daylight by Sakamoto Pamela Rotner

Author:Sakamoto, Pamela Rotner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-01-04T16:00:00+00:00


20

Taking New Guinea

Harry fumed in the briefing tent at Finschhafen, New Guinea. His next landing would be with the 163rd RCT of the 41st Division. The 163rd members hailed from the Montana National Guard, and they had trained together for years. Harry had been pulled from the 112th just as he was becoming comfortable and trusted and he was now the team leader. Terry had returned to Australia for rest and relaxation, even though he and Harry had discussed waiting for a furlough together. Harry and three rookie linguists faced new bodyguards, officers, and troops who instinctively recoiled at Japanese faces.

Moreover, New Guinea, the world’s second-largest island, which from the air looked like a winged dinosaur in flight, resisted being tamed. The topography was challenging, and the Japanese were heavily embedded. Although the Japanese were engaged in their “sideward advance,” retreating west along the rocky coast, they were receiving reinforcements. Harry would be on their heels, invading Aitape, Dutch New Guinea.

The 163rd was experienced and edgy. In early 1943, they had fought a fierce battle in Sanananda, Papua New Guinea, and discovered evidence of cannibalism perpetrated against their men who had gone missing, their bodies recovered half-eaten. Then as now, the 163rd did not relish taking prisoners.

It was true: on occasion, Japanese troops devoured their own and others. Japanese provisions were running short, in part owing to the vast number of ships sunk. Malaria, dengue fever, and scrub typhus were ravaging the ranks of able-bodied men expected to forage for food and fight. Approximately two-thirds of Japan’s total military deaths in the Pacific would arise from illness or starvation. Cannibalism stalked the troops, and some succumbed. “It’s a matter of survival,” recalled linguist Min Hara, who had taken confessions from wild-eyed POWs.

IN LATE APRIL 1944, THE 163RD LANDED on Aitape. This time, to his relief, Harry touched ground in shallow water. The team’s typewriters, dictionaries, and folding chairs had been loaded separately on a jeep trailer. Armed with their carbines, the linguists waded to shore, free of enemy fire. The 163rd’s mission: to seize a Japanese airdrome to aid Allied operations at Hollandia, 124 miles up the New Guinea coast. They accomplished their goal within hours. By the end of D-Day, only two men from the 163rd had been killed and thirteen wounded. At least one evaded friendly fire. “I saw a yellow man moving parallel at a crouch, so I slipped off the safety,” recalled Hargis Westerfield, a soldier with the 163rd. The soldier behind him recognized the nisei as one of theirs. “Take it easy!” he grunted.

Harry focused on the prisoners: three had been taken in the first two hours. In the course of two weeks, more than half of the thousand-odd Japanese troops in the Aitape area would be killed; only twenty-five were captured. Sometimes, Harry would interrogate two or three prisoners a day, other times none, but he was heartened.

Harry talked to the POWs in hospital tents, where, often wounded, they lay bandaged, bleary-eyed, and bewildered.



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