[Fiji Hill]

Other than a few commanders, the Japanese Navy did not demonstrate the same aggressive spirit.

One of those more aggressive commanders was Tanaka Raizō, who commanded destroyers. Known as "Tenacious Tanaka," he ran the "Tokyo Express," as the convoys that supplied the Japanese at Guadalcanal were called, and defeated the US Navy in the Battle of Tassafaronga in 1942. But he was less successful when it came to Japanese naval politics, and found himself assigned to shore duty shortly after the Guadalcanal campaign.

[lapsus calami]

 

 

Another example of gross misuse of talent and resources. Tanaka had been leading the same battle group with the same personnel from the time it was formed in the summer of 1941, training all the time and honing their coordination & tactics – they were very good and quite dangerous – only to be utilized as armed freighters to make milk runs in support of flawed strategy decisions. Tanaka hated it as an indignity, but suffered it because orders are orders. His downfall came when he made reports about all the stupid crap going on and criticized the overall strategy – up-talking to Imperial Headquarters was a no-no. Even though he was right, that wasn’t seen as his place to be doing – he was supposed to shut up, follow the orders, do what he was told no matter what he felt personally. And consequently ended up sailing a desk until the end of the war.