Chapter 21 6. Anan Weiji's regrets in his life

On the night of January 18, 1942, Anan locked himself in his room, put on his military uniform, lit a candle, and then extinguished the electric light.He took out a photo of his youngest son from his coat pocket and put it by candlelight, knelt on the floor, and began to meditate. Changsha was defeated in the battle. At the battle summary meeting, he assumed the main responsibility for the command error to Hata Shunroku and the generals of the divisions.At the memorial service in the afternoon, he was seen with tears in his eyes. At this time, he wanted to sort out his thoughts in front of his son's portrait.

Anan Weiji had a smooth sailing in the Japanese military circle. He had been an attendant military officer for His Majesty the Emperor for three years. Because of this, even though he failed in the Changsha battle, he was still appointed by the headquarters in July 1942 as the commander of the Second Front Army of the Kwantung Army stationed in Qiqihar half a year later, and was promoted to the rank of general. When he resigned to take up his post, he took away the good luck of the commander of the 11th Army.His replacement, Lieutenant General Tsukada, went to Nanjing for a meeting in mid-December, less than half a year after taking office. The antiaircraft artillery unit of the 138th Division of the 21st Group Army of the Fifth Theater of China stationed there was hit.The plane lost control and crashed into Jinzhuchong near Tianjiatan in Mituo District of the county a few minutes later.It was not until the 25th that the search force of the 68th Division of the 11th Army found the wreckage of the plane and 11 bloody and bloody bodies including their hapless commander.Even though it is winter, it still smells rancid and pungent, and maggots and pupae are like tides.The body of Tsukada Gong was transported back to China by air from Anqing. Since he was the top general of the army killed by the Chinese army in Japan's war against China since the July 7th Incident, the Japanese government simply promoted him to the rank of general of the army.

What makes people laugh and cry is that the artillery of the 138th Division who shot down his plane was unintentional.At that time, the division had just been equipped with a few anti-aircraft guns, and the soldiers had just been selected from the infantry, and they couldn't handle the guns yet. I happened to be practicing essentials on the playground that day, and saw a Japanese plane flying over, loaded live ammunition and fired a random burst.Because the plane did not fall down immediately, the artillerymen never expected to hit it.At the end of the drill, the company commander was reprimanded by the head of the regiment, ordering him not to shoot randomly and waste shells in the future, so no one went to report to his superiors and search for the wreckage, and of course no one was rewarded for his meritorious service.Of course, it is not good for this period of history to appear in such a nondescript manner in military history, so it had to appear in "War Fun Stories".

Poor majestic general of the army, full of knowledge and martial arts, has worked hard all his life, it is not easy for an official to be a commander of the army!In the end, it ended in an ending that can only be passed on as a joke in the world. How could Tsukada Gong die in peace! In October 1943, Anan Weiji led the Second Front Army from Qiqihar, where the water was dripping into ice, to the warm Pacific coast, and stationed in Halmahera Island, south of the Philippines.At this time, the U.S. army had launched a powerful counterattack on the vast sea of ​​the Pacific Ocean, and the "island crossing attack" tactic trapped the Japanese army on isolated islands to starve.Even ordinary soldiers of the Japanese army can feel that they are not far from failure without the need for insightful people.

In April 1945, when the Japanese war of aggression was about to fail, Anan was promoted from the commander of the Second Front Army to the pinnacle of the military position of the Minister of the Ministry of War of the Japanese Government.He has only been in this position for 4 months, but he has left a bright mark in that period of history-with his blood that is really meaningless. On the last day of Anan's four-month tenure, Hitler, the head of state of Japan's ally Germany, held his last military meeting in his basement headquarters, and took his newly married wife, the beautiful Miss Eva, to the bedroom to commit suicide.And two days ago, Mussolini, another leader of Japan's allies, was sentenced to death by the North Italian National Liberation Committee together with his loyal and unswerving lover Betaci.

After being shot, their bodies hung upside down from a pillar in Piazza Loreto to rot. On July 26, the leaders of the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom held a meeting in a small town called Potsdam near Berlin.Only Japan is left, write an announcement and ask him to surrender as soon as possible to avoid trouble. Because the Soviet Union had never declared war on Japan, it was not easy to sign the document, so it had to temporarily tell Chiang Kai-shek that since the main battlefield of the war against Japan was in China, China should be one of the countries that issued the announcement.Although it was a bit of an overreach, Chiang Kai-shek happily agreed, so the "Potsdam Proclamation" appeared in history.

On July 28, the Japanese government expressed its rejection of this imposing announcement, so the United States dropped a newly tested atomic bomb on Hiroshima.After waiting for a few days to see if Japan still did not let go, the United States dropped the last atomic bomb it had at that time on Nagasaki.Two atomic bombs were enough to destroy even the most stubborn will of a rational nation. In addition, the Soviet Union also declared war on Japan, and Japan's war decision-making center had sharp differences on whether to surrender. At the beginning, Prime Minister Anan Lu did not approve of surrender.At a cabinet meeting held on August 9, the day the second atomic bomb was dropped, Anan shouted petulantly, "Enough! Enough! Everyone knows this situation. No matter how unfavorable the situation is, we must fight to the end!"

At 11:50 p.m. on August 9, His Majesty the Emperor came to the meeting room in the low air-raid shelter to decide the fate of the country.Wen dies to remonstrate, Wu dies to fight, you can't just listen to them.Who will be the emperor if the Japanese are really dead?The Emperor agreed with the opinion of Minister of Foreign Affairs Togo, and accepted the "Potsdam Proclamation" without touching the existing imperial system.The Japanese do not know that the United States only has these two atomic bombs, and it will take a year for the next one to be produced. At that time, it was generally believed that the next one would bomb Tokyo the day after tomorrow.

Anan is a soldier who is truly loyal to the emperor. Out of allegiance to the emperor, he immediately deployed a stable army after the meeting and obeyed the holy order.When the decision of the imperial meeting was conveyed, an officer of the young and strong faction suddenly stood up and shouted: "Could it be that Your Excellency, Minister, also wants to surrender to the enemy?" Anan slammed the table with a short stick in his hand, and said coldly: "Anyone who dares to disobey, please kill me first." !" And as a real Japanese soldier, Anan knew where he was going at the end of this failed war.

On the evening of August 14, he drank hot rice wine and ate spicy dishes with his wife's younger brother Masahiko Takeshita at home, with a very calm expression. Takeshita Masahiko used to be a flag guard when he was in the division. He was a young officer with radical thinking.When drinking late into the night, he asked his brother-in-law, "Are you ready?" While sipping his wine, Anan said in a homely way: "After midnight, it will be the 15th. At first I thought it would be on the 20th, because it was my second son's birthday. But I was worried that the 20th would be too late, the Emperor. The recording will be broadcast at noon tomorrow and I can't bear to hear it. The 14th is the anniversary of my father's death and I chose it."

Masahiko Takeshita, who always thought he had the heart of a Japanese samurai, suddenly felt tears dripping from his cheeks into his wine glass.He found himself far worse than his brother-in-law as a soldier. A maid came in with a small tray sliding the door. Anan had to take a vitamin shot every day before going to bed, and he still stretched out his arm to let the maid finish the injection. After the maid went out, Anan said that he had done his best for the army he was in charge of and the country he swore to defend, and he was satisfied with everything he had done, except for the Battle of Changsha in the seventeenth year of Showa (1942) However, due to improper judgment and poor planning, the troops suffered undue losses. Thinking about it, it is the biggest regret in my life. Anan took out the pen and paper, and wrote a short Japanese haiku poem on the first piece of paper: This is another poem that the author read after Anan wrote "Don't be frightened today, victory or defeat is normal for military strategists" to comfort his staff during the third Changsha battle.It is really painful to be a poet.However, the battle was defeated, and poetry was difficult to write, which was regrettable and helpless. That night, Anan wrote two lines on the second piece of paper, and after thinking about it, he added another line: I have committed a serious crime, and I would like to repay it with my death. Anan Weiji, Minister of the Army Ministry. On the night of August 14, 1945. I firmly believe in the sanctity of Japan. After writing the suicide note, Anan took out two exquisite daggers from the cabinet, which were heirlooms of his family.He took out one of them, tried it on the blade with his hand and said, "I want to use this one." He handed the other one to Takeshita Masahiko and said, "Keep it as a souvenir." Fill the glass with wine. At this time, Takeshita’s colleague and friend, another diehard (the Japanese ruling and opposition parties call it the radical faction) officer Ida came to Takeshita. He witnessed Anan hanging all the medals on the military uniform, folding the clothes, and folding the never-to-be-separated badge. A photo of his youngest son was placed on the military uniform. Anan said to Takeshita and Ida: "After I die, can you put it on me?" Takeshita nodded, unable to speak, Ida burst into tears. Finally, he took out a white shirt from the cabinet, put it on and said, "This is what the emperor gave me when I was a military attache beside the emperor. It was worn by the emperor himself. Nothing is more precious than it. To die in it." The place of suicide was chosen in the corridor, because according to the Japanese tradition, if you commit suicide in the yard, it means that you think you have committed a heinous crime; while bleeding in the house means that you think you are innocent. Anan takes the mean, between the yard and the house, between guilt and innocence. After rambling on for a long time, it was past midnight, and Lieutenant General Ogaki, the head of the secret police, came to Lu Xiang's mansion.Anan asked Zhu to go down to the door to ask what was going on. Ogaki reported that there was a rebellion in the guard division, and they searched for the recording of the emperor announcing his surrender and killed people indiscriminately. Please ask for instructions on how to deal with it. Anan asked Takeshita to reply, because he was going to commit suicide at home, so he was sorry that he didn't want to meet the guests. Anan arranged Takeshita and Ida to serve as guards near the door of the room. He straightened his upper body and knelt in the corridor with his shoulders folded back. He pulled out the dagger from its sheath, and thrust the blade inward toward his abdomen. According to the rules of Japanese Bushido, to commit suicide by caesarean section, the knife should be inserted first, and then the knife should be extended to the left, right, and upward. About 20 minutes later, Zhuxia came to the corridor and saw that Anan was still kneeling there with a very painful expression. His abdomen had been cut open and blood flowed all over the floor. He pulled out his sword and searched for arteries in his neck.The fitness brought by his usual exercise and maintenance has now become his burden and obstacle. "Do you want me to help?" Takeshita asked softly. "No!" Lu Xiang's voice seemed to be answering an ordinary question. Takeshita retreated to the door and saw Ida was crying on the wall. About 10 minutes later, Takeshita saw Anan lying in a pool of blood, his body twitching in pain. He said to Takeshita in a very weak voice, "Please help me." Takeshita picked up the blood-stained dagger and stabbed Anan's heart from behind.The sword got stuck on the rib, he pulled it out, found the gap in the rib, stabbed it again, and stirred it a few times after stabbing. At dawn, Takeshita received a call from his elder sister, Mrs. Minister, who asked calmly, "Is the matter over?" Then he said: "I'll go home and cook right away." After a pause, he added: "He is 57 years old this year." The voice was still very calm, like talking to himself. It was noon when the wife of the Minister of War, Takeshita, returned to the mansion. She unexpectedly discovered that a young maid who had been with their family for many years had also committed suicide in her bedroom.The suicide note said: I heard that the American soldiers wanted to rape all the Japanese women after the occupation of Japan, and committed suicide because they did not want to be insulted. Wednesday, August 15, 1945.Since the morning, the excellent announcer Tateno Morio, who is very familiar to the Japanese, announced over and over again on the radio: "His Majesty the Emperor has issued an imperial edict, which will be broadcast at noon today. Let us listen to the Emperor's voice!" At 11:30 noon, when the music of the Japanese national anthem "The Generation of Kings" stopped, the Japanese people heard for the first time the sound of the crane from His Majesty Hirohito, the 124th Emperor of the Great Japanese Empire-unconditional surrender.