Posted on: Wednesday, May 30, 2001
Our Honolulu
Getting the inside war story
By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Staff Writer
Movies and TV shows broadcast so many versions of history and so much fiction that it's refreshing to meet somebody who was privy to the secrets they argue about.
Were people really spying for Japan in Hawai'i before Pearl Harbor? What's the truth about why the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima?
The most super-secret outfit in Our Honolulu before and during World War II began as the Combat Intelligence Unit in one basement room of the 14th Naval District Administrative Building.
It grew into a legendary code-breaking, enemy-analyzing crew that supplied Adm. Chester Nimitz with the information that helped win the Battle of Midway.
These intelligence whizzes provided President Harry Truman with data on enemy troop strength, new weaponry and defense preparations for the final battle of Japan.
One of them was Lt. Mac Showers, now Adm. Donald Showers, retired, in Hawai'i to memorialize his old outfit at a ceremony Friday.
As for Japanese spies in Hawai'i, he said, he didn't arrive until just after the war started "but I heard all the stories. If there had been sabotage, I'd have known about it. I'm convinced now that there was no subversive activity among local Japanese.
"A naval officer was sent from Tokyo undercover as a Japanese consulate official. He sent messages to Tokyo about the arrival and departure of warships and where they were berthed at Pearl Harbor."
Toward the end of the war, an entire section of the intelligence unit was sent to Guam to gather data for the final invasion of Japan. The group coordinated with Gen. Douglas MacArthur's team based in Manila.
Showers worked with the Guam staff. They decoded and read Japanese operational military messages. They monitored Japanese government broadcasts that informed citizens about the progress of the war.
From the start, it was obvious that the Japanese were concentrating heavy defenses on the southernmost island of Kyushu where U.S. planners had decided to make the first assault.
Showers said the island is mountainous with few good amphibious landing beaches. At these beaches, the Japanese were placing artillery, troop facilities, and a new weapon, short-range rockets to be launched from caves.
"From 'Home Radio' broadcasts we knew that citizens were being urged to defend Japan to the last man, woman and child," said Showers.
While making up his mind about whether or not to drop the atomic bomb, the president asked for casualty estimates (killed and wounded) in an invasion of Japan.
As Showers remembers, the intelligence units on Guam and in Manila agreed on an estimate of about 800,000. He said the casualty list after the bombing of Hiroshima came to some 100,000.
