I graduated with honor
from Etajma Naval Academy.
In the family tradition
I joined the naval service,
which filled my father with pride.
He was not as happy
when I applied for flight training,
hoping I’d follow in his footsteps
and serve on a battleship,
as his father did before him,
who won great distinction
at Tsushima Strait.
Nothing is better than flying
and in the cockpit of my Zero
I was emperor of the world.
But the only war we had
was in China, far inland
with no role for naval aviation.
How I longed to meet
the Flying Tigers,
become an air ace, win renown.
But it was not to be.
For the first time in my life
I envied the infantry.
At least they were winning glory.
So we trained and trained,
take-offs, landings, dogfighting,
and I was assigned to a squadron
on our best carrier, Akagi.
The topic in the wardroom
was who would we test our skills on.
Then rumors spread through the fleet
of growing tensions with America,
threatening to cut off our oil supply.
When I went home on leave
my father, the admiral,
well aware of my lust for action,
hinted about something in the wind,
but would say no more.
Back on the carrier
training intensified
and we daily practiced
take-offs and landings
with extra fuel tanks on our wings.
Wild rumors spread through the wardroom
that we would attack San Francisco,
but we dismissed that
because it was so far away.
Then we were called to the ready room
and the Air Commander
told us our mission:
we would attack Pearl Harbor
in the Hawaiian Islands.
We went mad with excitement,
some officers waving their swords,
while we all yelled: Banzai.
Once we settled down
the briefing began.
We would launch before dawn,
attack air, ground and naval targets,
especially the carriers.
Fighters would escort
bombers and torpedo planes
in a surprise raid
that would catch them unprepared.
The day finally came.
I bowed to my brothers,
got into my plane,
started the engine,
took off and joined up
with a great air armada
that flew west in the darkness,
a divine wind blowing us
to destroy the enemy.
My heart was pounding with joy
as I dreamed of the P40’s
that I would soon shoot down
when we came out of the rising sun.
our guns showing America
Nippon is a great power.