No Surrender Read Online Free PDF Page B

liable by the army for having been captured. Instead we would gain merit for having carried out our duty properly. Only insiders, however, would ever know that we had been engaged in secret warfare, and we would have to face the taunts of outsiders as best we could. Practically no one would be aware of our service to our country, but that is the fate of those engaged in secret warfare. It is not rewarding work, in the ordinary sense of the term.
    In what, then, can those engaged in this kind of warfare place their hope? The Nakano Military School answered thisquestion with a simple sentence: “In secret warfare, there is integrity.”
    And this is right, for integrity is the greatest necessity when a man must deceive not only his enemies but his friends. With integrity—and I include in this sincerity, loyalty, devotion to duty and a sense of morality—one can withstand all hardships and ultimately turn hardship itself into victory. This was the lesson that the instructors at Futamata were constantly trying to instill in us.
    One of them put it this way: “If you are genuinely pure in spirit, people will respond to you and cooperate with you.” This meant to me that so long as I remained pure inside, whatever measures I saw fit to take would eventually redound to the good of my country and my countrymen.
    At this time we already knew that research on the atomic bomb was being carried on in the United States. It was being carried on in Japan, too, but the reports we received indicated that America, which had far greater wealth and far more scientists, was considerably ahead of Japan. Although our reports were little better than rumors, we foresaw that eventually an atomic weapon would be used against Japan.
    In October, 1944, the American forces landed on Leyte, and the overall situation was so grim that people were beginning to talk seriously of an invasion of the homeland. We felt that every minute was bringing us closer to the time when we would be called into action. And yet we were not seriously disturbed. We were sure that even if the enemy did land in Japan, in the end Japan would win. Like nearly all of our countrymen, we considered Japan to be the invincible land of the gods.

    In early November, we carried out a graduation maneuver to show how well we had learned our lessons. The problem was posed to us as follows: “An enemy force has landed in Japan.Enemy troops have occupied the airfield at Hamamatsu. As fighting progresses, the enemy commander is preparing to fly from Hamamatsu to Atsugi Air Base. You are to move into action immediately. Your mission is to kidnap the enemy commander and blow up the Hamamatsu airfield.”
    Each of us had to draw up a plan for carrying out the mission. The best plan was then selected, and the manueuver was put into simulated operation.
    Since I was assigned to the kidnap group, I wore my uniform, minus insignia. The demolition team dressed up as farmers and day laborers. An advance lookout was dispatched, but as he crept toward the airfield, he sighted an “enemy” force approaching. He hastily dived into a side road, but by this time his movements had aroused the suspicion of farmers working in the nearby fields, who then closed in on him. Instead of making a futile attempt to escape, he gave himself up to the “enemy.” Later he told me, “I saw there was no use resisting, so I decided to get caught and then grudgingly give the enemy a lot of false dope.” It struck me that he had learned the “Sado Okesa” lesson well.
    Other than the capture of the lookout, the maneuver, which lasted four days and three nights, went off without a hitch. Observers from Army General Headquarters gave us high marks. Not long after that, I heard that while the maneuver was going on, a rumor spread among the people in the neighborhood that an army officer in Futamata named Kumagawa had organized a rebellion and was about to send a task