June 21 44
While preparing to withdraw to the hills, the whereabouts of the platoon commander became known, so we joined up with him.
A half of the Mayeda Unit also withdrew.
June 22 44
We received no food.
A large formation of enemy planes circled overhead.
Today we marched without food or water.
June 23 44
Shortage of food is acute.
Our only hope is to wait for the rescue ships to come.
In the meantime our fate is in the hands of Commander Makda.
We passed the night in the rain.
June 24 44
Our senior officer communicated with us, but nothing has come of it.
Men are dropping out every day.
I don’t know where they went. [?, 4]
Spent the night in a cave.
June 25 44
We decided that today we would move to a point 10 kilometers west.
The purpose is to see whether the enemy has landed on the west coast.
June 26 44
Heard that Rear-Admiral Senda [1, 2] is now somewhere on the north coast.
He escaped from the cave on the 20th.
We set out to join him.
We met his messenger on our way and retraced our way.
Notes
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3.
Books by James LaFond
link › jameslafond.blogspot.com
Tossed Koyama Kiwiwojo's name into Google and came up with only links to you. I thought maybe there was a book floating around out there. There isn't. Keep them coming. Great stuff. One of the roadies for the Strangler's has his grand or great grandfather's unit history for WW2 and it's interesting stuff as well. I just read a volume from John Toland which was the Pacific Theatre in Japan's view and words. I mentioned before you hear of these horrific battles and the Marines taking tens of thousands of casualties only to find out the island was held by 5000 fry cooks and janitors. For every American service man killed in WW2, 4 were taken prisoner. For every 120 Japanese soldiers killed, 1 was taken prisoner. The US lost 40,000 men in training, stateside, and 52,000 in accidents, having left the mainland but before engaging in any sort of combat. They lost a hundred thousand planes that never fired a shot. After hearing all this b.s. about them being the "greatest" generation, I am pleased to find them as hubristically stupis and inept as the rest of us.