I went topside for the first time in two months and half. It seemed strange and I was greeted like Rip Van Winkle.
While I was walking, for the first time in three years I saw the red, white and blue! A plane came suddenly over the hill, passing over us quite low so that I caught sight of it through the thin veiling cloud against brilliant blue—all combining to make aluminum paint hard to see. There was a red circle on the left wing and I thought “Oh, a fried egg.” Then my heart did a flip-flop as my eyes spotted on the right wing a dark blue and red stripe with dim white. At the same time I saw a dark star-outline within the circle. “That looks like the Navy insignia,” I said out loud.
One of the Japanese staff came to ask for a blood count and says he wants an operation of some kind—anything to put him into retirement for the next three weeks. He doesn’t want to go into the Army. They all have to fight, civilian or not, and they want to stay here. We have undermined all except Yamato and Oura. Even Yamato finds us interesting. Only Oura withstands. Only he does not like us. But into the maw they all go.