March 28, 1946, Manila, Philippines. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

In front of the Japanese Military Governor's Mansion in the Philippines, Mitsumi Shimizu, commander of the 2nd Sentai Squadron of the Southern Fleet, hurriedly walked down the steps and quickly got into a car with closed curtains. The black car then drove to the dock, escorted by a group of three-wheeled motorcycles and military trucks. As the convoy walked through the downtown area, Mitsumi Shimizu reached out to the corner of the curtain and looked at the Filipinos around him with a stern gaze, although most of them avoided the Japanese convoy with an expression of awe, but the Japanese vice admiral sensed resentment and even hatred in the eyes of many people, which made his heart even heavier.

It has been almost 13 full years since the Japanese army occupied Manila, and propaganda slogans for the establishment of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and the establishment of a new Asian order can be seen on the streets and alleys, but this kind of hypocritical slogans flaunting "liberation," "respect," and "independence" cannot stand the test of time at all, and Japan has wantonly plundered resources from colonial countries such as the Philippines, causing most of the living standards, medical conditions, and even the degree of freedom of the people in these countries and regions to regress, and the dissatisfaction of the people from all walks of life is constantly breeding. The previous wave of uprisings in the South Asian subcontinent was undoubtedly a warning to the Japanese leadership, and although the governors and puppet regimes stationed in various places made some improvements to the living conditions and public facilities of the local people, the greedy nature and profit-seeking nature of the vested interests did not fundamentally change, and the grassroots people in the Japanese-occupied and Japanese-controlled areas were still living in dire straits. Mitsumi Shimizu had never held the position of military governor or anything like in any place, but he had led a fleet to garrison many ports, and he had witnessed and heard all kinds of events that had happened in those places, and even if he had a ruthless and hard-hearted heart for the enemy on the battlefield, he could not help but feel angry and sad about the tragedies that had been man-made, so when he learned that there was a nationwide uprising in the Philippines, he did not feel that it was a natural disaster for no reason, but a man-made disaster that had accumulated over time, and what made him deeply helpless was that as a dedicated admiral, When his superiors ordered him to lead a fleet to maintain order and suppress the uprising, he had no choice. In Bangalore, in Karasuri, he twice ordered the opening of fire on civilians armed with rudimentary weapons, which has also become a memory that has haunted him in recent years......

After the convoy arrived at the dock, Mitsumi Shimizu went straight back to her flagship, the Izumo. This "Izumo" is not an old armored cruiser that participated in the Russo-Japanese War, but a new generation of heavy cruisers with a displacement of 20,000 tons, and a total of 6 ships of its class were built, which is the largest number of heavy cruisers built in a single class of the Japanese Navy, so it received the title of "Iron Rider of the Imperial Army". According to the standards of the early 40s, this kind of heavy cruiser equipped with 12 60 times diameter 280 mm main guns, main and auxiliary guns all adopt semi-automatic loading technology and is equipped with Japanese-made radar detection and radar fire control system, which can be called the top configuration, and its single-ship combat performance and fleet command ability have been greatly improved compared with traditional heavy cruisers, but when the Japanese side learned that the United States was ready to fight against Japan again, the pace of time had come to 1946, and the appearance of nuclear bombs overshadowed any kind of conventional weapons. Rumors that the U.S. military would use atomic bombs on the front lines had caused panic among the Japanese military, considering that it was a terrible weapon enough to flatten half of Tokyo to the ground, and that it was not powerful enough to destroy an entire fleet.

For the purpose of stabilizing the morale of the military, Mitsumi Shimizu hinted to his subordinates that Japan also has the atomic bomb as a new weapon, but the operation technology is too complicated, so it is directly controlled by the Japanese army base camp, and is not attached to the front-line troops and naval fleets. He was still a fellow countryman at Tokyo Imperial University who was engaged in high-tech weapons research, and he was vague about his private inquiries and did not answer them directly, and this unusual behavior made him feel that the Nagano cabinet was covering up the truth with lies. If this is the case, then the Japanese Navy is facing a very different situation from the Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and World War II, and the Japanese ships may be like Saigo Takamori's samurai, fighting the opponent's machine guns and cannons with cold weapons!

Before returning to the flagship, the officer on duty on the ship hurriedly came to report that his ground-based radar had detected an unidentified group of planes in an area about 200 kilometers east of Luzon, and the preliminary judgment was that its size was about 600 planes. Mitsumi Shimizu's eyes widened suddenly, clenching her fists, what is the concept of 600? According to the calculation of the limit value of an aircraft carrier carrying 100 aircraft and dispatching half of the aircraft in one attack, this means that the enemy has thrown at least 12 aircraft carriers in one go to launch a surprise attack on the Japanese army on Luzon! Moreover, although there is news that the US Congress has authorized war, so far the United States has not officially declared war, should a democratic country like the United States follow the example of Japan to carry out a sneak attack that goes to war first and then declares it?

At this time, there were more than 120 Japanese warships anchored in Manila, most of which were alert patrol ships stationed in the Philippines for a long time, and their frontal combat strength was basically negligible, and the main ones of sufficient grade were the ships belonging to the 1st Squadron of the Southern Fleet under the command of Mitsumi Shimizu, including 2 light aircraft carriers, 3 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers, 9 destroyers, 12 minesweepers, and 7 auxiliary ships of various types.

Putting such a fleet on the sea has no chance of winning in the face of 600 carrier-based aircraft, but Manila is different, it is a colonial fortress that the Japanese Navy focuses on operating, and has built a large number of coastal defense and air defense fortifications, not counting the carrier-based aircraft brought by Mitsumi Shimizu, there are more than 500 army and air force fighters stationed at nearby airfields alone, and a complete land-based radar early warning system has been established. More than three weeks ago, Mitsumi Shimizu led his team to Manila, and the first thing he did was to meet with the Japanese military governor stationed in the Philippines and senior officers of the army and air force, and quickly established a cooperative relationship of mutual trust and mutual support with them.

After hesitating for a moment, Mitsumi Shimizu ordered all ships to guard their battle positions and respond to the battle with all their might. Such a decision involves taking a certain amount of risk, because the aircraft carrier is a vulnerable target when it is anchored in still water, and an enemy plane, a bomb, and a successful dive bombing may seriously damage it, but at the same time, the mine protection nets laid around the berth can resist the torpedo attacks of enemy aircraft to the greatest extent, and if the hull is seriously damaged, there is a chance to run aground for reinforcements.

As the Japanese crews rushed to their respective combat positions, muffled air raid sirens sounded in downtown Manila, and Japanese fighter jets stationed at nearby airfields took off, hovering over the harbor and then flying east in groups. Mitsumi Shimizu took his subordinate officers to the open bridge and looked solemnly at the direction of the rising sun, but the scene of enemy planes appearing in groups did not appear, and after about half an hour, news came from the garrison headquarters that the previous enemy report was a false alarm caused by technical problems, and there were only seabirds and no enemy planes east of Luzon......

Hearing this, Mitsumi Shimizu did not burst into a rage, nor did she sneer at the army, but he was entitled to conduct a reaction drill that was close to actual combat, and the officers and men of the ships behaved as calmly and capably, as always, and this was the magic weapon of the Japanese Navy to defeat the enemy.

Manila Bay was quiet again after some tossing, but later that day, a reconnaissance ship sent by Mitsumi Shimizu sent back an enemy report that their radar had spotted a large number of enemy planes in the waters southeast of Luzon, numbering about 700-8,000, 600 kilometers from Manila......

With the army's "lessons from the past," Shimizu Mitsumi did not hastily order preparations for war, but ordered the alert ship to eject a water reconnaissance plane to confirm it, but only 20 minutes later, the enemy situation alarm was again verified to be a false alarm, but the army and navy radars appeared one after another false alarms, which made Shimizu Mitsumi vigilant, whether the Americans had any way to interfere with their own radar, thus disrupting their own line of sight. If this is indeed the work of the Americans, it means that their attack may be close at hand.

Thinking of this, Mitsumi Shimizu hurriedly sent a telegram to his superior, Keno Kurita, commander of the Japanese Navy's Southern Fleet, reminding him that the Americans might be in trouble in the near future, suggesting that he ask the Navy General Staff Headquarters to send reinforcements, and that the fleet headquarters and the 1st Sentai with three main aircraft carriers be deployed to a more defensible position.

At about 9 o'clock that night, the Japanese garrison headquarters in the Philippines again sent an enemy attack warning to Mitsumi Shimizu, and their ground-based radar detected a large group of planes in the northeast of Luzon Island, and the preliminary judgment was that the number was about 800. Apparently feeling that the credibility of this figure is not high, the garrison command stressed in the telegram that the possibility of another technical problem with the radar equipment cannot be ruled out.

Mitsumi Shimizu did not take chances, but unequivocally ordered all officers and men to prepare for war against the enemy, but it didn't take long for the garrison command to once again confirm that this was a "regrettable technical malfunction", Shimizu Mitsumi said in a reply telegram that it is beneficial and harmless to maintain a high degree of vigilance, even if there are a few more false alarms, but the officers of the garrison headquarters severely reprimanded the personnel on duty at the land-based radar station, accusing them of making the army "lose face", and it was this bureaucratic practice that caused their land-based radar station to hesitate to report when it really detected the enemy's situation, The result was a catastrophe......

(End of chapter)