Profound Forgivenesses
August 27, 2008
At my
Rotary Club today we had a special presentation by one of my fellow
What was profound about Jack Morehead's
presentation was his relating the encounter between Japanese captain Hashamoto and the representative of
the survivors of the USS Indianapolis disaster, Dr. Giles McCoy, at
Pearl Harbor's 50th anniversary on the USS Arizona..
Rotarians. Captain Jack Morehead is a retired naval captain.
He is a board member of the USS Indianapolis Exhibit here in
Indianapolis and told quite a story about a ship that had a special mission and soon
afterwards was sunk by a Japanese submarine just east of Leyte Gulf in
the Philippines.
Captain Jack
Morehead
The history of the USS Indianapolis is told in the scanned bookmarks (below) that were passed out at the meeting. In the 1930's the vessel was the Ship of State and was to the President of the United States what Air Force One is today. It was a heavy cruiser and when World War II started it was sent to serve in the Pacific Fleet.
In the Battle of Okinawa it was badly damaged by a Japanese Kamikaze attack. It was sent back to the United States for repair and for upgrading with radar and then returned to rejoin the fleet. But, it had an ultra secret mission to carry a deadly cargo: the components for the atomic bombs that would destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It dropped the cargo off at Tinian Island and continued to sail west towards the Philippines.
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In the middle of the night a Japanese submarine spied the USS Indianapolis and Captain Hashamoto ordered the firing of six torpedoes. Two torpedoes hit the ship. One ripped off the bow. The other hit the powder magazine under the bridge. The ship went down in 12 minutes. There was no time to send an SOS. It was the worst single ship naval disaster in US history. Of the nearly 1200 men more than 300 went down with the ship. About 900 were cast out into the sea.
The US Navy had lost track of the ship and did not send help until the fourth day. Only about 300 survived. Many of the rest were eaten by sharks or died of exposure. The story is told at http://www.ussindianapolis.org
Captain Jack (as we call him in Rotary) went on to tell about the meeting of Captain Hashamoto and Dr. Giles McCoy who met at the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor on the USS Arizona.
Before going Dr. McCoy was determined not to shake hands with the Japanese submarine captain. It was a terrible tragedy and so many lives were lost. But, as the days got closer to the meeting, he softened and on the Arizona was able to walk up to Captain Hashamoto and tell him, "I forgive you."
To this the Japanese captain replied, "And I forgive you, too."
Dr. McCoy then exclaimed, "What in the h**l do you have to forgive ME for?!"
To this Captain Hashomoto said, "Because the atomic bombs that your ship brought over completely wiped out my entire family."
Bookmark that was passed out giving the history of the USS Indianapolis