Memoirs of No Battle at Leyte Island (by Katsumi Morita)

　
At the beginning

"Memoirs of No Battle at Leyte" is reproduced by Katsumi Morita belonged to the 13th infantry regiment of Izumi Corps, with permission of the publisher.


(1) Memoirs of No Battle at Leyte

On 20th of October in the 19th year of the Showa (1944), the US forces, which had waited until the time was ripe, began to land to invade the Island of Leyte.
On the landing by the US forces, the response by the Imperial Headquarters, the South General Forces and the 14th Area Forces covering the Philippine Islands, had been described with various opinions after the War, to be well known in the world.


Anyway, the 26th Division (Izumi) which I belonged to, was relieved of the task for the decisive battle on the Island of Luzon, and was given the new task for the decisive battle on the Island of Leyte. We, together with the 1st Division (Tama), were to move to the new island which had been already occupied by the US forces. For the Imperial Headquarters in Tokyo, our movement from Luzon to Leyte might be ordered as if a piece was moved one block on Japanese chess play.


But it was not so simple and easy on the scene, even if the Imperial Headquarters might write down on a military note paper with one sentence of the 26th Division: from Luzon to Leyte. The distance between Manila and Leyte is about 700 km. The air supremacy was already taken by the US forces. The difficulty to transport one division over the sea, where numerous US war planes flied around wildly, was beyond all our imagination. And besides, the two conditions of In quantity and quickly must be satisfactory.

Still and yet, if we had many ships, it might be possible. But our transports were sunken one after another by daily air attack. Any ships named a ship, even if they were of small capacities　 or in low speed, must leave the Port of Manila.


I may be scolded The expression is not good or too bad. Dont you know the hardship of the headquarters? But the situation in Manila looked just so at the time.


After the US forces landed Leyte on 20th of October, Izumi Corps were decided to move to Leyte and we, the 1st battalion of 13th infantry regiment, left port in Manila Bay on 3rd of November.

At the time, I have no exact record about the 2nd battalion. But the 3rd battalion was transported by a high speed ship and arrived at Olmoc of Leyte in about 40 hours and could develop the first battle at the first 10 days of November. Headquarters of the battalion and five companies went board on 8 small boats. Slow and only night navigation by a hot-bulb engine took more than 10 days to arrive in the goal Leyte.

Our navigation was limited at only night to avoid attack of enemy planes. We in boats used to sounds of engine. It rhythmically sounded like a cradle song according to the tire of daytime. We devoured a short time of sleep without knowing hardship of the sailor.

Before sunrise we found an island, and hide the boat under trees of seaside. We took pains to avoid enemy planes attack in awful embarrassment.

In spite of five days navigation after departure of Manila, we could not find Leyte. We could throw a fishing thread and caught nameless fishes at one day time when we could not navigate. We had a peaceful daytime as if we forgot a war.

This peaceful navigation suddenly changed at the 9th day. A big crisis attacked us. In the afternoon of the day, the wind began to blow. When we started to navigate after sunset, it also began to rain.


Being caught in a rainstorm, we could not notice yet that it was due to a typhoon. Our boats had a small capacity filled with 60~70 men, and had no facilities for information or communication by radio. So the isolated fleet could not know the approach of a typhoon.

The boat still continued to navigate, but it increased to rain harder and the wind began to blow strongly. The atmosphere in the boat also began to be abnormal. Although it was midnight, anybody did not fall into sleep. To tell the truth, one of the agreements made at the departure from Manila was that SOS was signed by turning a light in a circle on deck.


The boat rolled and could not go forward. Sakata company commander of Kaｍmon-Maru ordered Someone. Turn a light in a circle on deck. One soldier went out on deck against raining, but soon came back. He said Boats on the right and left sides are turning a light in a circle.

The forces had a really suitable word at the time like this. It is No measures. No help could be expected and nobody could come to help. A small boat of the length of 20~30 meters were played by a typhoon in the ocean. In the situation like this, there is no way except trusting to luck. The sailors put the engine at full throttle and steered with all their might. The boat rolled to right and left, and something anxious started to appear in the boat. But here in the boat, it was no use upsetting or struggling.


How long the storm continued and whereabouts we located could not be confirmed. As long as nothing could be known, we spent a long time of anxiety and fright looking each other without talking.

Occasionally we heard the sound of zazzaa, zazzaa from the bottom of the boat. We had no knowledge about a ship, so we thought without any notice and anxiety that it might be possible when attacked by typhoon.

(To be continued)