World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF THE PACIFIC: Ruin in Two Phases

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When Shimada was recalled from China, the Emperor gave him a special purse. He used it with scrupulous correctness to buy 70 memorial swords for his staff.

He had been named to the soft berth of commandant, Yokosuka Naval Station. But soon General Tojo called upon him to take the Navy Ministry in the new War Cabinet. "The right man in the right place," said a s uperannuated Taisho (admiral).

Although a disciple of the violently anti-foreign Admiral Nobumasa Suetsugu, Shimada refrained then, as usual, from rattling his tongue. He sedulously avoided embroilment in domestic Jap politics. He won the confidence of Jap Army leaders because he had the reputation of being "regular Navy"—only more so—and minding his business.

It was a safe and, for a Jap, a sane, solid way to build a reputation. The only trouble was that, no matter how safely an officer tried to set his course, there were obstacles—like calculating Spruance and wizened, air-wise Marc Mitscher. And they were not passive obstacles: they were closing around him like a tightening clamp. They were closing inexorably on the Empire where Shimada had worked so hard and dully to be a great naval captain.

Shimada Taisho's brow was furrowed. He looked more than ever like a puzzled little man about to whistle.