Small Ship, Big War - The Voyages of the Hibiki

Post descriptions of your brilliant successes and unfortunate demises.

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tocaff
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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by tocaff »

This is where the value of a good opponent shines.  Japan is lost and virtually helpless before the Allied juggernaught, yet CF soldiers on.  Kudos to you for that CF.
Todd

I never thought that doing an AAR would be so time consuming and difficult.
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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by kaleun »

Yes. Good opponents are worth their weight in gold.
Appear at places to which he must hasten; move swiftly where he does not expect you.
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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by Cuttlefish »

March 24, 1945

Location: Inch'on
Course: None
Attached to: None
Mission: Disbanded in port
System Damage: 0
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Await further orders

---

The lack of a Japanese response to their boldest carrier incursion of the war encourages the Allies. Their carrier groups spread out, seeking prey. And they find it, here and there, in small convoys and ASW groups that were caught out of port. These ships have been scurrying away from the carriers that are suddenly roaming around in what used to be safe waters and not all of them make it. More than a few are hunted down and destroyed by the relentless carrier planes.

But the slaughter does mean that the umbrella of air cover over the carrier groups thins a bit. Escort carriers are left to cover the landings at Amami and early in the morning on the 24th they come under sudden and concentrated attack by G4M2 bombers flying out of Nagasaki. The bombers are escorted by experienced A6M5 daitai recently recalled from garrison duty on Mindanao. The fighters do their job effectively enough that a number of bombers break through.

Three escort carriers each suffer a single torpedo hit. All manage to control the damage and begin to retire towards Guam under their own power but it seems that the Japanese tiger might still have a few teeth left after all.

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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by Cuttlefish »

March 25, 1945

Location: Inch'on
Course: None
Attached to: None
Mission: Disbanded in port
System Damage: 0
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Await further orders

---

Shiro Kuramata stumbles back into his hammock after yet another air raid alert. He has gotten to the point where he can make it to his combat station in the forward 25mm gun tub without really waking up. More than once, in fact, he has found himself in position, checking the ready ammunition, without remembering how he got there.

So far all the alerts have been false ones. The Americans seem intent on attacking targets on the open sea and have not yet sent any scouting missions over Inch’on. Right now Shiro does not really care if they attack or not. Let them come, he thinks muzzily, as long as they do it after he has had some more sleep.

But it seems as though he has only just dropped off again when he is awakened by an insistent hand shaking his shoulder.

“Wake up, Great-Grandfather,” says Riku, shaking him again. “Please wake up, it is time to eat.”

“What?” says Shiro, opening his eyes. “What is it, Ariga?”

Standing in front of him is his great-grandson, Jomei. Jomei is a good boy, but what is he doing aboard Hibiki? Shiro blinks in confusion.

Jomei smiles. “Mother says to tell you that she has made octopus dumplings, your favorite,” he says. He speaks loudly and clearly. He knows that Shiro does not hear very well, not any more, and since reading the book Shiro wrote long ago he knows why; the roar of the 25mm gun his great-grandfather manned was excessively loud, even by the standards of the time.

“She says that if you do not come to dinner soon she will feed your share to the koi,” continues Jomei. Shiro blinks. Ah, yes, this is not Hibiki, this is his house in Tendo. The threat about the koi is a jest but he knows that as the eldest member of the family no one will eat until he has been served. Best to get a move on, then, and not keep everyone waiting.

Jomei assists him out of the rocking chair. Shiro smiles gratefully at him.

“Were you dreaming about the war again, Great-Grandfather?” Jomei asks. Shiro nods.

“Yes,” he says. “I…I was back at Inch’on, I think. Yes, it was Inch’on.”

“I remember reading that part in your book,” says Jomei. “It must have been very exciting!”

“Exciting?” says Shiro. He halts his shuffling pace and looks up at Jomei. Up? When did the boy get so tall, he wonders. “Perhaps it seems that way, if you were not there. I think that before I tell you any more war stories you and I need to take a trip, Jomei-san.”

“A trip, sir?” says Jomei, his eyes alight with interest.

Shiro nods. “Yes indeed,” he says. “I will speak with your mother about it after dinner. I have not been there in too long myself.”

“Where?” says Jomei, somehow managing to bounce in place while standing still. “Where are we going?”

“Yasukuni,” says Shiro to his great-grandson. “We will go to Yasukuni Shrine.”

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Hornblower
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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by Hornblower »

Well done, Man, well done..
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Capt. Harlock
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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by Capt. Harlock »

“Yasukuni,” says Shiro to his great-grandson. “We will go to Yasukuni Shrine.”

Ohboy. That would be the one with the war criminals, that Japanese Prime Ministers cause controversy by visiting.
Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?

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Feinder
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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by Feinder »

Shiro Kuramata stumbles back into his hammock after yet another air raid alert. He has gotten to the point where he can make it to his combat station in the forward 25mm gun tub without really waking up. More than once, in fact, he has found himself in position, checking the ready ammunition, without remembering how he got there.

So far all the alerts have been false ones. The Americans seem intent on attacking targets on the open sea and have not yet sent any scouting missions over Inch’on. Right now Shiro does not really care if they attack or not. Let them come, he thinks muzzily, as long as they do it after he has had some more sleep.

But it seems as though he has only just dropped off again when he is awakened by an insistent hand shaking his shoulder.

“Wake up, Great-Grandfather,” says Riku, shaking him again. “Please wake up, it is time to eat.”

Very well done CF.

While it makes an excellent twist in reading, it struck chord with me, that you perhaps may have observed first-hand the gradual "blurring" of reality with our elders (and sometimes much too quickly), esp regarding tramatic war experiences.

In my own Grandfather's case, fortunately it was more gradual, and only became an issue in his final days (at least that we were aware of). He would wake, thinking he was still on Guadalcanal; or sadly the line of dreaming and nightmares and waking were, well, sadly no lines at all. I'm sure my Grandfather had episodes over the previous years that, like Shiro, he kept to himself.

Anyway. It must certainly been a hard thing for our elders to have lived thru. And if you are the obvserver seeing that pain, it hard for the observer as well; to know that your loved one is in pain that has lingered for 60 years, that continues to afflict, and in fact grows in intensity as the lines blur.

Regards to CF, to those afflicted, and tho those who care for the afflicted.

-F-
"It is obvious that you have greatly over-estimated my regard for your opinion." - Me

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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by Historiker »

We are getting prepared for the final chapter. Shiro will remember his fallen comrades...
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T Rav
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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by T Rav »

Feinder,

CF has the way with words. He channels the lonely GI stationed far from home and getting a random thanks from a school kid (my reference 6 months ago). To channeling you and your reference as grandson to a veteran. Countless other references as well.

Amazing stuff.

Best regards to you and your Grandfather,
T Rav
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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by veji1 »

brilliant, sent shivers down my spine... I can't wait and yet somehow don't want to read the next few installments...
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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by NormS3 »

As always, an absolutely incredible read!

You should be charging us!

I definately have waisted too much money on those historical fiction charlatans who write novels! Thanks for sharing all of your continuing briliance!

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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by Cuttlefish »

March 26, 1945

Location: Inch'on
Course: None
Attached to: None
Mission: Disbanded in port
System Damage: 0
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Await further orders

---

Wars end, though war goes on. The guns fall silent. And when the echoes of their thunder die away what remains are the quiet places, the hallowed places, the places where the dead are buried.

Stand at Arlington while the bugler plays “taps” and listen as the last notes echo and fade among the endless rows of headstones. Walk at Flanders Fields amid the neat rows of white crosses, where the poppies still blow. Stand at Groesbeek, at Brookwood, any place where the fallen are honored. There are such places in every nation. Wars end. But the dead remain.

The dead, perhaps, are beyond caring. They have given everything they were, or might have been, in service to their country and passed on. It is given to those of us who remain to honor them, to tend their graves, and to remember who they were and why they died.

We may judge the cause for which they fought, debate the wisdom of their leaders, and argue about the course of the battles in which they fell. But we should never forget. For in forgetting we diminish not only who they were and why they died, we diminish ourselves. When service and courage and honor are neglected the soul is left threadbare. If there is ever to be a time when we no longer have to dig fresh graves to receive the broken bodies of those who died in war, we should never forget.

---

For the Japanese, the dead have not departed. The spirits of the deceased are ever-present. Yasukuni shrine is more than a memorial, more than a museum. It is the home of the spirits of those who have died in service to the Emperor.

The belief in the spirits of the dead has waned in recent decades and is less powerful for those of Jomei’s generation than it is for men like his great-grandfather. Nonetheless, as Jomei and Shiro walk under the thirty-meter tall steel tori’i that leads onto the grounds Jomei cannot help feeling as though he is in the presence of something powerful. Perhaps it is the somber and grand scale of the place.

As they stop at the massive granite water trough to ritually purify themselves before proceeding further Jomei notices something else. His great-grandfather is wearing his uniform, and though the old man is stooped and the uniform hangs on his bony frame the people here are all treating him with great respect. Jomei knows the old man as a kindly whittler and vaguely knows that he was a successful furniture craftsman but this respect is something new. He has read his book, of course, and talked with him about the war, but for the first time he really begins to connect the old man he knows with the man who sailed with Ishii, with Shun, and who saw so many of the battles of the Great Pacific War.

Having poured water over their hands and rinsed their mouths the two Kuramatas proceed through a wooden gate hinged with a massive pair of doors that would not have looked out of place in a medieval castle. Old and young, walking together, they enter the grounds.

---

It is some hours later. Jomei and Shiro sit on a bench while Shiro rests before they proceed to the railway station and the Shinkansen train that will take them back to Tendo. Though it has been a long afternoon Jomei notes that his great-grandfather seems less tired than he would expect from the exertions of the day. The old man, in fact, seems quite alert as he turns a bright eye towards Jomei.

“Well, Jomei-san, what do you think?” he asks. Jomei pauses a moment, choosing his words.

“I am not sure, Great-Grandfather,” he says. In truth he is delighted and awed all at once. The museum was amazing and Jomei could have spent hours more there. But something of the grandeur and sorrow of the place has seeped into him as well and left him more thoughtful than usual for a fifteen-year-old boy. He struggles to put this into words.

“It makes the stories and the history seem more real,” he says at last. “Less like stories more like something that really happened. I mean, I always knew it really happened but…now I know it more. You know? And it all seems less exciting and more…something else.” He trails off.

“I think maybe you do understand,” his great-grandfather says. He pats the boy on the shoulder with a hand that is still strong and callused. “Come on then, boy, we have to get you home before your mother starts fretting about you.” They get to their feet.

“She isn’t going to worry about me,” Jomei scoffs. “She’s going to worry about you.”

The elder Kuramata gives a chuckle. “I guess you’re right about that,” he says. The two begin to walk away. And whether any fond and familiar spirits bid Shiro farewell as he leaves none can really say.

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tocaff
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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by tocaff »

Now that was powerful.
Todd

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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by BigDuke66 »

And wonderful at the same time.
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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by HarryM »

Beautifully written!
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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by rjopel »

Wow.
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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by whippleofd »

Well written. Thank you.

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kaleun
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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by kaleun »

Brings a tear to my eye.
Appear at places to which he must hasten; move swiftly where he does not expect you.
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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by Capt. Harlock »

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

Having poured water over their hands and rinsed their mouths the two Arigas proceed through a wooden gate hinged with a massive pair of doors that would not have looked out of place in a medieval castle. Old and young, walking together, they enter the grounds.

A simply marvelous post. You have surpassed even your own standard of writing.

But . . . umm . . . (taps forefingers together) . . . isn't Shiro's surname Kuramata instead of Ariga?
Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?

--Victor Hugo
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RE: Small Ship, Big War

Post by Cuttlefish »

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock
A simply marvelous post. You have surpassed even your own standard of writing.

But . . . umm . . . (taps forefingers together) . . . isn't Shiro's surname Kuramata instead of Ariga?

Whoops, yes. Fixed.
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