I should note that I was prompted to take this action by a footnote in a book I'm currently reading: John J. Geoghegan's Operation Storm: Japan's Top Secret Submarines and Its Plan to Change the Course of World War II, which is about the Sentoku Squadron—that is, the I-400-class submarines and their slightly smaller aircraft-carrying companions, I-13 and I-14, and their never-carried-out mission to attack the United States mainland (later changed to an attack on the Panama Canal, likewise never actually attempted).

It happens that the overall commander of the squadron, Commander Tatsunosuke "the Butcher" Ariizumi, earned his nickname committing the same kind of crime as Morton when he was the captain of I-8, earlier in the war. There is a passage in which Geoghegan notes that while some American submarines' crews killed survivors of ships they had sunk (Wahoo is the only one he specifically names), doing so was official Japanese government policy*—although the Sixth Fleet order Ariizumi was acting under in I-8 says nothing about doing it as sadistically as possible, which was something of a signature of his.

It appears this policy was honored much more in the breach than the observance—if nothing else, most Japanese sub skippers presumably thought there were better uses of their time than hanging around the sites of sinkings to make absolutely certain that everyone involved was dead—but Ariizumi was regarded as a generally unnecessarily brutal man within the IJN at the time, and this was an organization in which "the beatings will continue until morale improves" wasn't satirical. Even his subordinates, as war-hardened and as steeped in the IJN's tradition of unthinking obedience as any Japanese sailors could be, were alarmed and disgusted by the way in which Ariizumi went about it. He didn't just have his men shoot up lifeboats and swimmers; his customary practice was to rescue everyone he could fit topside on his sub, then torture them to death one by one until he got bored. At that point he'd have anyone he hadn't gotten to yet tied to the railings and submerge the boat.

As I said, later in his career Ariizumi was named to command the Sentoku Squadron. I-401 was his flagship—I assume that's why she, not the class boat, was chosen as the main character of Arpeggio of Blue Steel and was the first of the class implemented in Kantai Collection—and Geoghegan notes that even his flag captain, Lieutenant Commander Nobukiyo Nambu (no relation to Kijirō Nambu, the weapons designer), disliked him intensely.

I haven't finished the book yet, but I suspect that before the end, those two men are going to get into some shit, because I can't see Ariizumi ever agreeing to surrender even after the Emperor's "the war is lost" broadcast, and we know Nambu did. (Spoilers?)

As an aside, I'm pleased with Geoghegan's assessment/portrayal of Nambu's character. I didn't know who I-401's captain had been when I wrote Cantata for Warships—this is the first book I've encountered that's even mentioned his name—and it coincides nicely with the (at the time entirely fictional) impression Shioi gives of him in Cantata that the real Lt. Cmdr. Nambu was evidently the kind of captain who cared about his ship and looked after his crew.

He also rocked a pretty great moustache, judging by the photo in the book. I wish the photographic reproduction quality in this book were a lot higher; there are a number of photos and diagrams in here that, judging by their captions, I would very much like to see, but because they're presented in the usual "muddy b&w reproduction in a paperback book" format, they really might as well not be included. :/

--G.
* It will probably not surprise anyone here to learn that this policy was the result of an agreement with Germany. Hitler had this idea that although the Axis powers could never beat American shipbuilding, they could scare American merchant sailors into refusing to work, or, failing that, at least kill them all.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.