Army & Navy - COMMAND: Such Grotesque Proceedings

On awkward sea legs, a stubby (5 ft. 2 in.) Japanese shambled last week into a white-walled ordnance classroom at the Washington Navy Yard. He wore a poor-quality, ill-fitting blue suit; there was nothing in his bearing or his sagjawed face, as expressionless as a teak deck, to show that he had been a commander in the Imperial Japanese Navy, commanding officer of the submarine I-58. He had left a wife and three small children at his house in bomb-battered Kure.

Captain John P. Cady, U.S.N., had already protested the Jap's admission to the courtroom, protested "calling one of the officers of a defeated enemy who, as a nation, have proved guilty of every despicable treachery ... to testify against one of our commanding officers. . . ." Cady had fought against "any such grotesque [and unprecedented] proceedings." The court had overruled him. Now Cady rose again, demanding: "Does he know the meaning of truth and falsehood?"

"He says he is fully aware of the difference between truth and falsehood," an interpreter replied.

Prosecution's Pal. The witness was sworn, squeaking his answers in Japanese. His name was Machitsura* Hashimoto, his "present occupation is the pleasure of the court."

Among the silent spectators in the silent courtroom was a woman whose only son had been lost in the sinking of the heavy cruiser Indianapolis in the Philippine Sea last July 30. Another woman who listened was the wife of Captain Charles Butler McVay III, captain of the Indianapolis. McVay had spent four days bobbing in the oil-covered, sun-seared Philippine Sea after the "Indy" went down. It was McVay who was now on trial, charged with negligence and inefficiency in the loss of his ship. He also sat there, listening to the man who had humiliated him.

Floor-Gazer. Iko Hashimoto testified. He had sighted the Indy at a range of 11,000 yards (in such visibility, the prosecution charged, the cruiser should have been zigzagging); her straight course had given Hashimoto an easy torpedo solution —so easy, he said, he had not bothered to use "human torpedoes" (guided by suicide pilots). He had scored three hits—Hashimoto was very professional and calm. The Indy had gone down with the loss of 880 American lives.

The testimony ended, a Marine guard led Hashimoto to Navy Yard quarters "commensurate with his rank of commander." Reading matter was offered the commander, but he spent most of his waiting hours simply sitting and looking at the floor.