Can somebody please check their older paperback version of Hara's book. The quotes come from the final chapter.
This brand new version I have was supposed to have corrected any mistakes in his text.
If someone can compare what the original translation says to what mine does above that would quash one idea.
I have found nothing out-of-place in the rest of the book.
Surely such a glaring mis-translation from two well respected authors/researchers as the two gentlemen are isn't likely in my opinion.
On the books new duscover it says this about them:
'Fred Saito translated and expanded the original manuscript, after spending more than 800 hours interviewing Captain Hara, to make the book as full and accurate an account as possible. Saito was a journalist with the Tokyo office of the Associated Press from 1948-1960 and later served on the staff of the Japan Broadcasting Company. He also translated Samurai!, the story of one of Japan's greatest fighter pilots by Saburo Sakai and Martin Caidin'.
Roger Pineau served in the U.S. Naval Reserve during WW2. After the war, he became a member of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey in Japan and later assisted Rear Adm. Samuel Eliot Morison in preparing the authoritative History of the United States Naval Operations in WW2. Pineau added the footnotes to Captain Hara's memoir, including the names of U.S. ships and commanders that engaged the Captain's forces, and checked the accuracy of the battle accounts. He also assisted with the writing and fact checking of two other books by Japanese authors about war, The Divine Wind and Midway'.
With all of this above in mind I really doubt this is a translation error.
We have an excellent operational guy and someone who spent all those hours interviewing him.
I'm sure the homing torpedoes would have cropped up in the conversation.
I still believe when Yahagi sortied she had them along with the weaponry stated, as I've not come across any clear evidence to the contrary.
Just because there is little information on these late war toys, in print, in my mind, doesn't mean they didn't exist and were not rushed to the front line due to the IJN's desperation.
