Fading Victory: The Diary of Admiral Matome Ugaki, 1941-45 - Paperback

Never before available in English, the diary of Admiral Ugaki is the only candid and personal account of World War II by a major Japanese military leader. Revealing of the Japanese mind and analytical about Japan's conduct of the war, Ugaki's diary begins in October 1941 and includes detailed entries covering virtually every day of the war in the Pacific. A career naval officer, Ugaki was appointed chief of staff of the Combined Fleet on 10 August 1941. He served Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto until Yamamoto was killed and Ugakai was seriously wounded when both were shot down by an American fighter pilot over Bourgainville Island on 18 April 1943. On 19 February 1945, Ugaki was entrusted with command of the Fifth Air Fleet on Kyushu. The diary gives the reader intimate glimpses of the Imperial Navy at war and into the mind of a ranking Japanese admiral. We follow Ugaki to a staff conference of the Combined Fleet and stand beside him aboard the flagship "Yamato" when he describes the sinking of her sister ship "Musashi" in the battle of Leyte Gulf. We overhear him plan the last-ditch kamikaze attacks against US forces on Ikinawa from a bunker on Kyushu. Not only is the diary full of strategy, tactics, combat operations and domestic politics, it also contains critical and historically valuable postmortems of Japan's conduct of the war and is suggestive about the role of Emperor Hirohito. Its appraisals of the Americans - their methods, decisions, weaknesses and strengths - are revealing and intelligent. From February 1945, as commander, Fifth Air Fleet, Ugaki lived through the terrible days of the B-29 raids, Iwo Jima, Ikinawa, and the atom bomb. The loss of the war was the end of his world. On 15 August 1945, he decided on a suicide mission against US forces on Ikinawa. Taking with him only his binoculars and the small sword Yamamoto had given him, Ugaki boarded the dive bomber "Comet" for his final flight.