Prologue
1 
The predeployment party at Alameda is drawn from Roy D. Erickson’s memoir Tail End Charlies! 69–71, and from interviews of VBF-10 and VF-10 pilots.
2 Descriptions of Rawie and Hyland are based on official biographies in the CAG-10 1945 cruise book, The History of Bomber Fighting Squadron Ten, and from multiple VBF-10/VF-10 interviews October 31, 2008.
1 The Next Island
1 Spruance, Nimitz, King aboard Indianapolis: Thomas B. Buell, The Quiet Warrior: A Biography of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, 321.
2 “You did a damn good job”: Buell, Master of Sea Power: A Biography of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, 466.
3 The Japanese would fight back with every weapon: ibid., 441.
4 Vice Adm. Ohnishi and the tokko warriors at Mabalacat drawn from Rikihei Inoguchi and Tadashi Nakajima, The Divine Wind: Japan’s Kamikaze Force in World War II, 3–11.
2 Tail End Charlies
1 Erickson profile and the descriptions of flight training at Pasco, Washington, Corpus Christi, Texas, and Atlantic City, New Jersey, are from Erickson’s Tail End Charlies! 19–40 and 49–63.
2 Details of carrier qualification aboard USS Core are from interviews with James South, Charles Schlag, and Wesley Hays, and Erickson recollections in Tail End Charlies! 54–61.
3 Partying was as much a part of squadron life as flying: interviews with VBF-10/VF-10 pilots, and Erickson’s Tail End Charlies! 51.
3 You Are Already Gods
1 “You are already gods without earthly desires”: Inoguchi and Nakajima, The Divine Wind, 19.
2 Lieutenant Seki’s unconventional weapons: ibid., 57–60.
3 The kamikaze attacks of November 25, 1944, are drawn in part from the excellent online study at www.dayofthekamikaze.com.
4 Intrepid’s hangar deck is a scene of horror: Ray Stone, My Ship! 167–79; White and Gandt, Intrepid, 113–20.
5 Intrepid is headed back to San Francisco: USS Intrepid War Diary, November–December, 1944.
4 Tiny Tim
1 Holy shit: Interviews with VBF-10 pilots.
2 The war news [for Japan] is all bad: Vice Adm. Matome Ugaki, Fading Victory: The Diary of Admiral Matome Ugaki 1941–1945, 536.
3 the “Golden Mask,” label for Ugaki, from Evan Thomas, Sea of Thunder, 9.
4 “My thoughts ran wild seeking ways to save the empire”: Ugaki, Fading Victory, 531.
5 Your Favorite Enemy
1 From the lavatories come a steady litany of gagging and retching: Erickson, Tail End Charlies! 71–72.
2 Description of kamikaze attack on USS Randolph: interview with Radioman 2/c V. J. Verdolini, Randolph crewman.
3 The Frances bomber plunges straight into the uninhabited islet: David Sears, At War with the Wind, 284.
4 Halsey: “It was hard on the horses, but it was effective”: E. B. Potter, Nimitz, 294.
5 “We welcome Intrepid to the Okinawa area”: Erickson, Tail End Charlies! 76.
6 “he [R. K. Turner] is known as a ‘mean son of a bitch’ ”: Time, February 7, 1944.
7 “whose head could conceive more new ideas … than any flag officer in the Navy”: Samuel Eliot Morison describing Turner in Victory in the Pacific: 1945, 89.
6 First Blooding
1 Scenes of first strike, March 18, 1945, based on interviews with William Landreth, Felix Novelli, and Wesley Hays, and recollections of Roy Erickson in Tail End Charlies!
2 “Erickson, turn off those goddamn lights”: Erickson, Tail End Charlies! 80–81.
3 “From horizon to horizon the ocean was covered with the might of the United States Navy”: interview with Landreth.
4 Within seconds the Corsair vanishes, and so does Rob Harris: Air Group Ten Action Report, March 18, 1945.
7 The Mood in Boys’ Town
1 Frances bomber hits the water 50 feet from Intrepid’s starboard bow: USS Intrepid War Diary, March 18, 1945.
2 A few minutes past 1300, it is Yorktown’s turn: Morison, Victory in the Pacific: 1945, 94.
3 Incident of ships’ gunners firing on Japanese airmen in parachutes recalled by Lt. (jg) Fred Meyer in Erickson’s Tail End Charlies! 83–84.
4 “we were no longer virgins”: ibid., 85.
8 Shoot the Son of a Bitch
1 Landreth still adrift in his raft: interview with William Landreth.
2 Encounter with the elite IJN 343rd Kokutai described in Henry Sakaida and Koji Takaki, Genda’s Blade, 42–45.
3 “I heard it might not be a good thing to do, as it didn’t help the treatment given to our POWs below”: Erickson, Tail End Charlies! 88.
4 “Shoot the son of a bitch, Eric!”: Erickson’s Tail End Charlies! 87.
5 The thirty-four-year-old Hyland gets his first air-to-air kill: Air Group Ten Action Report, March 19, 1945.
9 We Will Save the Ship
1 “If you save us from the Japanese, we will save the ship”: David H. Lippman, article in World War II magazine, March 1995.
2 Franklin suffers the greatest damage inflicted on any aircraft carrier without being sunk: Morison, Victory in the Pacific, 95–98.
3 Japanese high command detached from reality: ibid., 100.
10 Thunder Gods
1 The Ohka carries enough explosive power to devastate virtually any warship: Bernard Millot, Divine Thunder, 140.
2 “Bees die after they have stung”: Albert Axell and Hideaki Kase, Kamikaze: Japan’s Suicide Gods, 35.
3 “We are ready to launch the attack, sir”: Millot, Divine Thunder, 142–43.
4 “All right, you little gods, you’ve had the balls to come this far”: Hatsuho Naito, Thunder Gods: The Kamikaze Pilots Tell Their Story, 44.
5 “Is it, sir, that you lack confidence in me?”: Inoguchi and Nakajima, The Divine Wind, 144.
6 Dick Mason disappears after air-to-air action: Air Group Ten Action Report, March 21, 1945.
7 “I am going to ram a carrier”: Ugaki, Fading Victory, 559–60.
11 Three Seconds to Die
1 Loss of Al Hasse recalled by Erickson in Tail End Charlies! 101.
2 Ziggy South ditches after midair collision: interview with James “Ziggy” South.
3 Silently they toss Al Hasse’s love letters into the Pacific: recalled by Lt. (jg) Fred Meyer in Erickson’s Tail End Charlies! 101.
4 Windy Hill goes down off Kyushu: ibid., 106.
12 And Where Is the Navy?
1 Hirohito description, his reign called “Showa”: Max Hastings, Retribution, 39.
2 Adm. Oikawa and his staff have only a few days to decide: Russell Spurr, A Glorious Way to Die, 86–87.
3 Adm. Toyoda signs off on his last operational order of the war: ibid., 97.
4 “Preparations for getting under way completed”: Mitsuru Yoshida, Requiem for Battleship Yamato, 5.
5 “Kamikaze Yamato, be truly a divine wind!” ibid., 8.
13 Gimlet Eyes and the Alligator
1 “His fame may not have gone to his head”: Spruance’s nuanced observation of Halsey, quoted in William Tuohy’s America’s Fighting Admirals, 345.
2 “I wish that Spruance had been with Mitscher at Leyte Gulf”: Adm. William Halsey, in Theodore Taylor’s The Magnificent Mitscher, 165.
3 “I am lazy, and I never have done things myself that I could get someone to do for me”: attributed to Spruance, Buell, The Quiet Warrior, xxxi.
4 Loss of USS Indianapolis as described in Dictionary of American Fighting Ships.
5 Windy Hill rescued by USS Sea Dog: Erickson, Tail End Charlies! 106.
14 Love Day
1 “I felt miserable, and an awful weight was on my heart”: Ernie Pyle, Last Chapter, 99.
2 “And yet we couldn’t see a bit of firing ahead. We hoped it was true”: ibid., 102.
3 “ ‘This is the finest Easter present we could have received’ ”: Time, April 9, 1945.
4 Zeke fighter pilot lands at Yontan, jumps from the cockpit with his gun drawn: Morison, Victory in the Pacific, 171.
5 “Please send us a dead Jap. A lot of my men have never seen one”: “Buck’s Battle,” Time, April 16, 1945.
6 Nimitz vetoes choice of Lt. Gen. Holland Smith and picks Buckner to command at Okinawa: Hastings, Retribution, 376.
15 Bourbon and Puddle Water
1 “May you walk in the ashes of Tokyo”: Buckner quote in Time, April 16, 1945.
2 Col. Yahara clashes with Lt. Gen. Cho. Keith Wheeler, The Road to Tokyo.
3 “They were obviously scared to death …”: Ernie Pyle describing Okinawa natives in Last Chapter, 108–9.
4 Windy Hill learns that he will be aboard Sea Dog another five weeks. Hill recollection in Tail End Charlies! 107–8.
16 Ten-Go
1 “Yamato and the Second Destroyer Squadron will sally forth”: Yamato’s orders and the preparations for her last sortie are drawn from Yoshida’s Requiem for Battleship Yamato, 3–17, and Spurr’s A Glorious Way to Die.
2 Impressions of Yamato crewmen are drawn, in part, from the Nova PBS series “Sinking the Supership.”
3 “We are fine. Please do put your best effort into your duties”: Kunai Nakatami, quoted in Yoshida’s Requiem for Battleship Yamato.
4 “It is a great opportunity as well as a great honor to be skipper of a ship in this sortie to Okinawa”: Capt. Tameichi Hara, Japanese Destroyer Captain, 268.
17 Divine Wind
1 Ugaki is opposed to the Yamato mission: Ugaki, Fading Victory, 575.
2 Bush and Colhoun under kamikaze attack: Morison, Victory in the Pacific, 187.
3 Ordeal of survivors from Bush: Spurr, A Glorious Way to Die, 146.
4 Leutze and Newcomb heavily damaged but still afloat: Morison, Victory in the Pacific, 185, and article by John B. Penfold, Our Navy magazine, January 1, 1946.
5 Emmons ordered sunk by friendly gunfire: Morison, Victory in the Pacific, 195.
6 U.S. losses in kikusui No. 1 and ordeal of survivors: Sears, At War with the Wind, 326.
7 Kikusui No. 1 regarded as a resounding success: Ugaki, Fading Victory, 573–74.
18 Breakout
1 Scenes of Yamato under way: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/novasupership.
2 Yamato’s passage through the Bungo Strait: Yoshida, Requiem for Battleship Yamato, 45–47.
3 Threadfin and Hackleback tracking Yamato task force: Spurr, A Glorious Way to Die, 185.
4 “I do believe we learn about our position faster from their side than from ours”: Yamato’s navigation officer, quoted in Yoshida’s Requiem for Battleship Yamato, 43.
5 Floatplanes catapult from Yamato: Spurr, A Glorious Way to Die, 203.
19 Race for Glory
1 Mitscher profile: Taylor, The Magnificent Mitscher, 189; Tuohy, America’s Fighting Admirals.
2 Asashimo falls behind task force: Yoshida, Requiem for Battleship Yamato, 54.
3 “He looked like hell”: Burke’s appraisal of Mitscher’s condition drawn from Potter, Admiral Arleigh Burke, 250.
4 “You take them”: ibid., 250.
20 First Wave
1 Scenes of preparation for Yamato strike based on interviews with Felix Novelli and Wesley Hays, and recollections of Roy Erickson in Tail End Charlies!
2 More than 250 American warplanes spotted heading north: Yoshida, Requiem for Battleship Yamato, 61.
3 “We hope you will bring back a nice fish for breakfast”: Turner to Deyo, as quoted by Morison in Victory in the Pacific, 204.
4 “Commence firing!” Yoshida, Requiem for Battleship Yamato, 64.
5 Downing of Bill Delaney from http://www.ussbelleauwood.com/air_group_30.htm, and Spurr, A Glorious Way to Die, 249–51.
21 Ducks in a Gallery
1 “Corsairs, you’re close. Stand by for my mark”: Description of VBF-10 attacks on Yahagi from interview with Wesley Hays and Erickson recollections in Tail End Charlies! 110–12.
2 Rawie impressions from his own account in Air Group Ten Action Report, April 7, 1945.
3 Herbert Houck’s role in the Yamato operation drawn from his postwar recollection in http://www.yorktownsailor.com/yorktown/battleship.htm.
4 American warplanes strafe Yamato task force survivors: Spurr, A Glorious Way to Die, 285.
22 There She Blows
1 Flooding Yamato’s engineering rooms: Yoshida, Requiem for Battleship Yamato, 82.
2 Seiichi Ito, “Stop the operation”: ibid., 108.
3 Resetting torpedo running depth: http://www.yorktownsailor.com/yorktown/fries.htm.
4 Yamato fighting back at torpedo planes: http://www.yorktownsailor.com/yorktown/battleship.htm.
5 Yoshida marvels that not a single American pilot had crashed into an enemy ship: Yoshida, Requiem for Battleship Yamato, 83.
6 Experiences of escaping Yamato crewmen were vividly described in the Nova series “Sinking the Supership.”
23 Dumbo and Mighty Mouse
1 Rescue of Bill Delaney: Morison, Victory in the Pacific, 208.
2 Return of Intrepid strike group: Jim Clifford correspondence, interview with VBF-10 pilot Wesley Hays, and Air Group Ten Action Report, April 7, 1945.
3 Kamikaze strikes Hancock: http://www.usshancockcv19.com/gallery.htm.
4 Loss of Don Croy and recovery of Clarke: Air Group Ten Cruise Book 1945, and Robin Rielly, Kamikazes, Corsairs, and Picket Ships, 124.
5 Mitscher not his old self: Taylor, The Magnificent Mitscher, 285, and Spurr, A Glorious Way to Die, 312.
6 Nimitz to Turner, “Delete all after ‘crazy’ ”: Morison, Victory in the Pacific, 215.
24 A Ridge Called Kakazu
1 Buckner and commanders are surprised by Japanese artillery: Hastings, Retribution, 377.
2 “I was back again at the kind of life I had known so long”: Pyle, Last Chapter, 112.
3 “One man for ten of the enemy or one tank”: James H. Hallas, Killing Ground on Okinawa: The Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill, 6.
4 Sata Omaichi captured and interrogated: Rielly, Kamikazes, Corsairs, and Picket Ships, 129.
5 “A dead Jap is no longer an enemy”: http://www.ussmissouri.com/sea-stories-kamikaze.
25 Ohka
1 Ugaki misled by kikusui No. 1 reports: Rielly, Kamikazes, Corsairs, and Picket Ships, 128.
2 Attack on Cassin Young: Sears, At War with the Wind, 340.
3 Saburo Dohi profile, flies a Thunder God mission: Inoguchi and Nakajima, The Divine Wind.
4 Ohka attacks described in Rielly’s Kamikazes, Corsairs, and Picket Ships, 142, 145.
5 “No further questions were asked”: recollection by Nakajima in The Divine Wind, 158.
26 Gunslingers
1 Mark Orr profile and night mission tactics based on Air Group Ten Cruise Book 1945 and Air Group Ten Action Report, April 11, 1945, and correspondence with VF-10 night fighter pilot Frank Stolfa.
2 Schub and Nickerson actions taken from Air Group Ten Action Report, April 12, 1945.
3 Frank Jackson collision with FM-2 Wildcat: Rielly, Kamikazes, Corsairs, and Picket Ships, 132.
4 Gray, Halbe, and Sweeny actions in Air Group Ten Action Report, April 12, 1945, and Air Group Ten Cruise Book 1945.
27 Black Friday
1 Beauford Anderson earns Medal of Honor during Japanese counterattack: Roy E. Appleman et al., Okinawa: The Last Battle, 134–35.
2 “Attention all hands! President Roosevelt is dead”: Morison, Victory in the Pacific, 231.
3 “The dreadful loss … will make you orphans on this island”: Appleman, Okinawa: The Last Battle, 125.
4 Loss of Mark Orr in night action: Air Group Ten Cruise Book 1945.
5 Feuding between Army and Marine Corps over Howlin’ Mad Smith: Keith Wheeler, The Road to Tokyo, 109.
6 Worst loss of U.S. armored vehicles in the campaign: Appleman, Okinawa: The Last Battle, 203–4.
7 Buckner realizes assault has failed, “Progress not quite satisfactory”: Simon B. Buckner and Joseph Stilwell, Seven Stars: The Okinawa Battle Diaries of Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. and Joseph Stilwell, 42.
8 Ugaki believes air attacks on Kyushu come from Okinawa: Ugaki, Fading Victory, 586–87.
28 Keep Moving and Keep Shooting
1 Lerch, Kirkwood, and Quiel actions described in Norwald Quiel letter to author and in Air Group Ten Action Report, April 16, 1945.
2 “Keep moving and keep shooting”: Purdy skipper to Laffey captain Becton, quoted by Dale Harper in World War II, March 1998.
29 As Long as a Gun Will Fire
1 Ordeal of Laffey described by her skipper, Julian Becton, in his The Ship That Would Not Die.
2 “I couldn’t even hold a pencil”: interview with Laffey quartermaster Ari Phoutrides.
3 “I’ll never abandon ship as long as a gun will fire”: Laffey skipper Becton quoted in Time, June 4, 1945, and from Phoutrides interview.
4 Clarke, James, Farmer, Ehrhard actions from Ray James interview and from Air Group Ten Action Report, April 16, 1945.
5 Laffey endures more kamikaze attacks than any other and stays afloat: Harper, World War II, March 1998.
30 Glory Day
1 Weems and Schlag actions from Charles Schlag interview and Air Group Ten Action Report, April 16, 1945.
2 Pringle and Bryant under kamikaze attack described in Morison, Victory in the Pacific, 237–38, and Rielly, Kamikazes, Corsairs, and Picket Ships, 174–76.
3 Loss of Red Bailey at Kokubu, and actions of Hyland, Cordray, and flight drawn from Air Group Ten Action Report, April 16, 1945, and interviews of VBF-10 pilots.
31 Target Intrepid
1 “One day … one of these bastards is going to hit the bull’s eye”: Radarman Ray Stone in his memoir, My Ship!
2 Fred Meyer watches the Zeke aiming at Intrepid’s stern: Erickson, Tail End Charlies! 121.
3 “There was Old Glory, stiff as a board”: interview with plane captain Felix Novelli.
4 Intrepid repaired, lands her aircraft aboard: USS Intrepid War Diary, April 16, 1945.
5 “It was just like they never existed”: Erickson laments his lost squadronmates in Tail End Charlies! 124.
6 Hays and wingmen, unable to return to Intrepid, make odyssey around Pacific: interview with Wesley Hays.
7 Bitzegaio wounded in seat of pants related in Ed Deutschman correspondence and Air Group Ten Cruise Book 1945.
32 Call Me Ernie
1 “I much prefer a bird dog that you have to whistle in”: Buckner on Maj. Gen. Andrew Bruce, Buckner and Stilwell, Seven Stars, 24.
2 Comparing Ie Shima terrain to Iwo Jima: Appleman, Okinawa: The Last Battle, 150. Another enemy-held feature called “the Pinnacle” confronted the 24th Corps in the south of Okinawa.
3 “Their firepower is so great we dared not show our heads”: Japanese soldier’s diary entry on Ie Shima landings, ibid., 157.
4 Ernie Pyle’s death on Ie Shima is drawn from various accounts including David Nichols’s Ernie’s War: The Best of Ernie Pyle’s World War II Dispatches, 32, and Lee Miller, The Story of Ernie Pyle, 419–26.
5 “Base of Pinnacle completely surrounded despite bitterest fight I have ever witnessed”: Andrew Bruce quoted by Appleman, Okinawa: The Last Battle, 177.
6 Japanese lose 4,700 dead on Ie Shima: Gordon Rottman, Okinawa, 1945, 69.
7 Sailors go ashore on Mog Mog: Wheeler, The Road to Tokyo, 88.
33 Counteroffensive
1 Nimitz worries that the Okinawa battle is dragging on too long: Hallas, Killing Ground on Okinawa, 10.
2 “If this line isn’t moving within five days, we’ll get someone here to move it so we can all get out from under these damn air attacks”: Nimitz to Buckner, ibid., 10.
3 Buckner concerned that the proposed amphibious landing could turn into “another Anzio”: ibid., 11.
4 Spruance is “impatient for some of Holland Smith’s drive”: Buell, The Quiet Warrior, 356–47.
5 Col. Yahara believes Lt. Gen. Cho’s counteroffensive is doomed: Hiromichi Yahara, The Battle for Okinawa, 196.
6 Counteroffensive is a disaster from which the 32nd Army will not recover: Rottman, Okinawa 1945, 73–75.
7 “from now on I leave everything up to you”: Lt. Gen. Ushijima to Col. Yahara, in Yahara, The Battle for Okinawa, 41.
34 Bottom of the Barrel
1 Hitler’s death lamented by Ugaki: Ugaki, Fading Victory, 603.
2 “Carriers That Way” sign, cited by Vice Adm. C. R. Brown in foreword to Inoguchi and Nakajima, The Divine Wind, vii.
3 Morrison attacked by biplanes: Rielly, Kamikazes, Corsairs, and Picket Ships, 213.
4 Ingraham receives full attention of kamikazes: Morison, Victory in the Pacific, 255.
5 Actions of the British Task Force 57 and effects of kamikazes on armored flight decks described ibid., 264–66.
35 Gone with the Spring
1 “When I start inhaling these, I don’t want to waste time reordering”: Windy Hill in Guam, quoted in Erickson’s Tail End Charlies! 126–27.
2 Nimitz is frustrated by the continuing losses to radar pickets. He asks Adm. Forrest Sherman whether he didn’t think the kamikazes would lay off the pickets in search of bigger game. Sherman didn’t think so. “You could get a man down quicker by hitting him on the same tooth than by punching him all over.” Morison, Victory in the Pacific, 256.
3 Ugaki is sure that “when our troops can see enemy vessels sunk and set on fire in front of their very eyes and observe planes with the Rising Sun mark fly overhead, their morale will soar.” Ugaki, Fading Victory, 604–5.
4 Reaction in Japan to the surrender of Germany: Robert Sherrod, History of Marine Corps Aviation in World War II, 389.
5 Turner orders full gun salvoes to salute the troops in Europe: Morison, Victory in the Pacific, 268.
6 Robert Klingman chops off the Japanese Nick’s tail: “Strangest Dogfight Ever,” Leatherneck, January 2007, and http://www.f4ucorsair.com/vmf312/312.html.
7 “Flowers of the special attack are falling”: poem by Ugaki lamenting the loss of tokko airmen, Fading Victory, 610.
36 Change of Command
1 “Alert! Alert! Two planes diving on the Bunker Hill!”: Taylor, The Magnificent Mitscher, 290–91.
2 Mitscher evacuates flag plot, observes a third kamikaze diving on Bunker Hill: ibid., 291.
3 Bunker Hill’s agony continues: Morison, Victory in the Pacific, 263.
4 “Flatley, tell my task group commanders that if the Japs keep this up they’re going to grow hair on my head yet”: Taylor, The Magnificent Mitscher, 297.
5 The service for Shunsuke Tomiyasu was one of the rare occasions when the remains of a kamikaze were given a dignified burial. For years after the war, Tomiyasu’s name was incorrectly reported as “Tomi Zae”; http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/stories/tomiyasu/index.htm.
6 Enterprise becomes last carrier of the war to be struck by a kamikaze: http://www.cv6.org/1945/1945.htm.
7 Longshaw is lost with eighty-six crew: Theodore Roscoe, U.S. Destroyer Operations in World War II, 480–81.
8 Kikusui No. 7 details: Morison, Victory in the Pacific, 279.
9 USS Braine crewmen lost in kikusui No. 8: Rielly, Kamikazes, Corsairs, and Picket Ships, 279.
10 Okinawa now the costliest naval engagement in U.S. history: Morison, Victory in the Pacific, 272.
11 “A less serene man and courageous man might, before reaching this point, have asked, ‘Is this island worth the cost?’ ”: Morison describing Spruance’s tenacity, ibid., 272.
12 Mitscher and his staff look “like a parade of scarecrows”: Taylor, The Magnificent Mitscher, 300.
37 Ritual of Death
1 Ushijima buys time with the “offensive retreat”: Yahara, The Battle for Okinawa, 88–89.
2 “It’s all over now but cleaning up pockets of resistance”: Buckner quote in Appleman, Okinawa: The Last Battle, 422.
3 Journalists Bigart and Lawrence criticisms of Buckner from Bill Sloan, The Ultimate Battle: Okinawa 1945, 312.
4 MacArthur accuses Okinawa commanders of “sacrificing thousands of American soldiers”: “The Trouble I’ve Seen: The Nils Andersen Story,” http://notorc.blogspot.com/2007/07/lest-we-forget-sacred-grove-at-montrose.html.
5 MacArthur will see to it that Buckner does not play a role in the invasion of Japan: Cole C. Kingseed, Old Glory Stories, 73.
6 “If we’d scattered our forces, we might have got licked”: Buckner quote from Seven Stars, 80.
7 Japanese gunners fire five rounds from their concealed position: George Feifer, The Battle of Okinawa: The Blood and the Bomb, 378–79.
8 The circumstances of Simon Buckner’s death are covered in multiple sources, including Appleman’s Okinawa: The Last Battle, Sloan’s The Ultimate Battle, and Feifer’s The Battle of Okinawa.
9 Ushijima rejects Buckner’s urging to surrender: Yahara, The Battle for Okinawa, 136.
10 Ushijima and Cho commit ritual suicide: ibid., 156.
38 Setting Sun
1 Thoughts and impressions of the Tail End Charlies aboard Intrepid returning to the Pacific are drawn from multiple interviews and correspondence with pilots of VBF-10 and VF-10, including James South, Wesley Hays, Ray James, and Charles Schlag, and the published memoir of Roy D. Erickson.
2 “if there is anything that sounds unreasonable to a pilot, it is the idea that he should practice encountering fire from an anti-aircraft gun”: Hyland, Air Group Ten Action Report, August 6, 1945.
3 Ugaki will “follow in the footsteps of those many loyal officers and men”: Ugaki, Fading Victory, 664–65.
4 Ugaki intends to “ram into the arrogant American ships, displaying the real spirit of a Japanese warrior”: ibid., 666.
5 Truman dreads “an Okinawa from one end of Japan to the other”: Feifer, The Battle of Okinawa, 413.
6 “Did I really do my part?” Yoshida, Requiem for Battleship Yamato, 150.