Syonan-to, The Hard Landing (Part 1)
Hey everyone, Mercury here. Working on this series on World War II, and it is told from a Japanese point of view, so don't get offended if you see unpleasant comments on Westerners in general. Otherwise, enjoy, rate and comment! Constructive criticisms are always welcomed.
My name is Daisuke. I am a wolf and was member of the Japanese 5th Infantry Division, Squad 5. My squad-mates are Daichi-kun, a stallion, whose role is a rifleman. Isamu-kun, the rabbit, and Hideaki, another wolf, were our squad's sub-machine gunners. Tadashi-kun was the biggest of us, being a sun bear; he was trained to be our support gunner, carrying a Type 97 Machine Gun to provide cover and suppressive fire. Our squad was lucky enough to have a sniper in it. He is a fox and his name was Mamoru-kun. Finally, there is me of course, the Sergeant of the squad. All of us came from different parts of Japan, but training under the Imperial army had allowed us to foster bonds stronger than friends, perhaps even family. We had stayed, ate, slept, trained, ran, panted and sweated together for months. We were very close, especially Hideaki and I. He's the one who would pitch in a little extra money for me to send home every month due to my mother's medical bills. We comforted each other when we are down, shared whatever goodies we managed to save up for and even went hang out together every time we had time off our training. And we talked, of course, a lot. Each and every one of us had a very different story to tell, our family, our love interests and why we became soldiers. For me, I had signed on in the military, thinking that life in the army would bring me excitement and adventure, as well as honour and glory to my family for having one of their males serving the Emperor.
Our orders, as given by our superiors, were to liberate South East Asia from Western dominance and tyranny. My squad was posted as part of the forces sent to Syonan-to, meaning "Island of the Light from the South", or Singapore, as the enemy call it. Those Westerners were arrogant all right; they announced to the world that Singapore was the "impregnable island fortress", and actually dared us to try and invade. Ha! They barely lasted 15 days before they fell under our Imperial might. We had their troops scurrying like ants before fire. Those poorly trained and inadequately supplied soldiers were no match for our army, once we broke through their frontline defences. Nevertheless, the initial landing was hard.
-- 8st February 1945, 8.30pm --
The moment the first of our boats touched the shoreline of Sarimbun Beach, they opened fired on our men. Australian machine gunners, easily a hundred of them, were barricaded in sandbags, foxholes and bunkers, rained lead and death onto us without hesitation. They were relentless. Entire boats, filled with 20 of our men, were sprayed with bullets, leaving only a handful of survivors by the time it unloads. Some of our men were totally covered in the blood of their fallen squad mates who had stood in front of them when they took the full blast of machine gun fire. Inside my boat, I ducked, praying for a miracle that somehow we would make it through. Metal was whistling over my head, and never did I dare to straighten up and see how close the shore is, even though how tempting it was. The idiot in front of me did, however, and instantly my eyes stung from his blood. He fell backwards, giving me a good look at, or what was, his face.
Holy fuck! His entire left eye is gone, and his eye socket had extended approximately 6cm towards his left in jagged edges. Needless to say, I was terrified, but I shoved his body off me and unceremoniously onto the floor of the boat. No time to worry about the dead. Wiping my face with my sleeve, I peered behind. I could see Hideaki hugging his rifle as if it was his passport to heaven. His eyes met mine, and he gave me a little thumbs-up to show me he was all right. I just nodded, ever so slightly, lifted my head to see if the rest of my squad mates are all right. Daichi had one palm on top of his head, and he was tearing uncontrollably. Mamoru and Tadashi were gripping each other's shoulders tightly, and Isamu was in some kind of trance; his eyes were glossed over and he was staring at the same spot on the floor. _At least they are still aliv_e; I mused, and returned to facing forward. Just then, we felt a small bump as the boat touched the beach.
"Let's go!" Shouted the driver. "Everybody get the fuck out or you'll be sitting duck out- "
Whatever he wanted to say was cut off as bright crimson shot out his forehead.
In the mad rush to get out, everyone forgot that the boat were light and made of wood. The combined momentum of all of us stepping on the sides and leaping caused the boat to capsize, sending equipment, ammunition and men toppling into the dark water. I stood up, grabbed the lamp belonging to our boat and smashed in on the side of the boat, plunging us into darkness. Hopefully this would reduce the chances of their spotters noting our position. All around me was the sound of gunfire and muzzle flashes as Japanese troops began opening fire on the Australian positions to provide some cover for us. Thankfully, the men already on the beach proved to be a greater distraction than us, and I managed to drag myself onto dry land, but my uniform and rifle weighed me down significantly, making my progress slow and extremely tedious. Just then, something large lifted me out of the water and carried me inland. It set me down beside a boulder and I felt paws running all over my limbs.
"Daisuke-sempai!" Cried a rather familiar voice. "Are you hurt? Any bullet wounds?"
My vision cleared somewhat and Tadashi-kun's face came into focus.
"No, I'm fine." I mumbled. "Just a few scratches."
"You were the last," came Hideaki's voice, somewhere from my right. "Mamoru-kun and Daichi-kun arrived here first. I found Isamu-kun when I came ashore, and Tadashi-kun came next. We thought you didn't make it."
I reached upwards and grasped his paw.
"We made it."
"Yeah well, don't get all sentimental about it. We still got a war to fight."
I got up slowly, shaking my head to remove some of the sand from my face. From what I can see, the region on which we landed had been relatively cleared, but there were still machine gun nests pining our soldiers down on our right. More men could be seen struggling to find cover under the hail of bullets, using anything they could get their paws on. Barricades, stones, wreckage of boats, trees - absolutely anything they could find on the shore. Hell, even the bodies of their friends were used. Those who were not unlucky enough to find cover literally had their bodies shredded by the sheer amount of lead hitting them.
"We've got to get behind their line of fire and clear the MG nests!" I ordered. "Follow me!"
Grenades exploded, and rounds whizzed as we dashed across the beach, beyond the MG's line of fire. We advanced, using the barricades as cover as we headed for the tree line to take the MG's right flank. Kneeling behind a palm tree, I loaded a clip into my Arisaka rifle, and took aim at a badger manning a .50 caliber machine gun. I squeezed the trigger, and with a crack like a whip and a flash of bright light, blood shot out from the hole at the side of his neck as he collapsed.
"Nice one Sempai," grinned Mamoru. "If I die, you could take my role as sniper with that aim."
"Shut up, dude. C'mon, next one."
Slowly and cautiously, we cleared the nests, using our Arisaka rifles and their grenades. The Australian machine gunners were backed up by the British 22nd Brigade, and even though we had superior equipment, they had advantage in numbers and terrain. Clearly, they were familiar with the place. Their machine guns are placed at some of the hardest positions to flank, and their troops ambushed our squads as we swept through the beach and the surrounding jungle. Mortar shells from both the British and Japanese exploded all around us in the dark, never giving a damn whether they hit friend or foe and artillery rounds from our army in Malaya rained on enemy positions, shaking the earth as they met their target.
I lost count of how many men I've killed. Maybe 12? But it does not matter. All I know is that every Westerner I've killed is one less arrogant, domineering son-of-a-bitch to worry about. I'm doing my part to make the world a better place, under Japanese rule, under our Emperor's benevolent rule. I'm bringing freedom and hope to these oppressed people by my actions, even if they are brutal now. Haven't they always say, the ends justify its means? After all, we were coming in to save these people.
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