THE VERDICT

Robert Gardner

I spent two years of World War II in the Pacific Theater of

operations. During those two years I was shot at, strafed, bombed, and a

ship I was on was hit by a kamikaze. I did absolutely nothing to

retaliate. That was because I was a staff officer, serving on the staffs

of several admirals, not to mention a couple of generals. As a staff

officer, my only weapon was a pencil. However, I did have a moment of

glory. It occurred on the Yokosuka navy base on the first day of the

occupation of Japan.

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki nudged the emperor of Japan into standing

up to his military leaders, peace negotiations began. Obviously, the

occupation of Japan was near. However, there developed quite a rivalry

between the navy and Gen. MacArthur as to just who would be the first

American to touch Japanese soil. I know this sounds silly, but it was

very real. And so, just to be sure that neither would be “first,” it was

agreed that there would be simultaneous landings. The Navy would land at

the Yokosuka navy base via a regiment of Marines, and at that same moment

MacArthur would land some airborne troops at a nearby landing strip. That

was the plan.

However, the Navy cheated. Adm. Halsey ordered a battalion of Marines to

land at a beach called Futtu Saki across Tokyo Bay from Yokosuka at 6

o’clock in the morning of the agreed upon day. Ostensibly they were to

spike some 16-inch guns located in a fort on that beach which could blow

our fleet out of the water.

The 6 o’clock landing took place, and I was with those Marines. Just why

I, a naval officer, was with them, is a long, convoluted and not very

interesting story.

We made the landing only to discover that there weren’t any 16 inch

guns to spike. There weren’t any guns at all. There wasn’t even a fort.

It was a public park complete with trees and flowers and cute little

Japanese bridges over cute little Japanese streams -- but no guns. It was

a sham, a phony excuse to land before MacArthur’s men did.

The Navy cheated. However, when you cheat, always be careful that the

guy you are cheating isn’t cheating you. MacArthur did. He had landed

some airborne troops on the agreed upon landing strip the night before.

He was a bigger -- and better -- cheater than the Navy.

Be that as it may, after our landing at Futtu Saki we climbed back into

our landing craft and chugged across the bay to Yokosuka to take part in

the 10 o’clock landing. When we arrived, the rest of the Marines had

already landed. However, a problem had arisen. They couldn’t find a

Japanese officer who could formally surrender the base.

The Marine colonel was mad and getting madder by the minute. Finally a

couple of Marines came up with a Japanese man wearing a black uniform

with gold shoulder boards. With those gold shoulder boards, they said, he

had to be an admiral. The colonel began to yell at the man with the gold

shoulder boards, telling him to surrender the base. The man with the gold

shoulder boards just stood there, saying nothing but looking scared. The

colonel was rapidly building up to what might be charitably called a

towering rage.

I was just standing there watching the whole affair, but finally I

spoke up. “Colonel, sir...” I said.

The colonel glared at me. “Who the hell are you?”

“Lt. Cmdr. Robert Gardner, sir. Cincpac staff.” Cincpac staff meant I

was on the staff of Ad. Chester Nimitz, commander in chief of the Pacific

fleet.

The colonel was unimpressed. “What the hell are you doing here?” he

demanded.

“It’s a long story, sir,” I said.

“I don’t want to hear it,” the colonel said. He turned to the man

wearing the gold shoulder boards and again demanded he surrender the navy

base.

I screwed up my courage and interrupted the colonel again. “I really do

hate to interrupt, sir, but I used to live in Japan, and this man you are

trying to get to surrender this base is not an admiral. He isn’t even in

the navy. This man is a Japanese policeman.”

When I said that, the colonel turned his anger away from the policeman

and transferred it to the Marines who had brought before him a man they

thought was an admiral. However, before he could order them shot, some

more Marines arrived with some badly hung-over Japanese officers who

formally surrendered the base to the colonel.

So that was my most shining hour, keeping a Marine colonel from

accepting the surrender of a Japanese navy base from a policeman. Perhaps

it wasn’t worthy of a Navy Cross or even a Silver Star, but it was my

moment of glory.

JUDGE GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and former judge. His column

runs Tuesdays.