This article is published with the permission of the public account "Memory Islands"
On the night of August 21, 1942, in front of the 28th Infantry Wing Battalion of the 7th Division of the Asahikawa Division in Hokkaido, Japan, the guards on duty at the gate were figuring out how to spend this boring summer night. Although the summer in Hokkaido is not very hot, there are still many mosquitoes, and the guards cannot move around at will, and it is still extremely hard to stand on duty for a night.
By this time, as it had entered a state of war, Asahikawa City had stopped power supplying at eleven o'clock in the evening, and the whole city was plunged into darkness, except for a lone electric light at the guard at the gate of the barracks. It was in the midst of this quiet and dark summer night that the guards on duty heard the sound of military boots "clicking" on the street in the distance.
The 28th Infantry Wing was returned late at night
In the dark night of Asahikawa, the sound of this "click" became louder and louder, and the guards at the camp gate listened carefully and found that it was not a small unit, but a large force of more than a thousand people. But at this moment it was dark, and he couldn't see exactly how many people there were, only to hear the sound getting closer and closer, and the sound was getting louder and louder.
The guards muttered in their hearts: the 28th Infantry Regiment, under the leadership of Wing Commander Kiyono Daisa Ichiki, had already set out for the Pacific Theater, and the 28th Infantry Wing Supplementary Team that remained behind did not have the task of night exercises at this time, and should all rest in the barracks. So where did this force come from?
But the sound was getting closer and closer, and soon it had reached the vicinity of the gate of the barracks, and the guards did not have time to hesitate, and subconsciously shouted: "The troops are approaching!" The guards are lined up! ”。 This is the rule of the Japanese army, whenever a large army passes by the gate of the barracks, the guards must shout these eight words to inform the other guards in the guard booth to go out of the guard booth and collectively carry out the gun salute.
The other guards who were snoozing in the booth heard the shouts of the camp guards and hurried out of the booth and lined up to organize the military appearance, preparing to meet this mysterious force.
Just as the guards at the camp gate opened their eyes and prepared to take a closer look at the troops that had arrived at the camp gate in the dark, what appeared in the guards' eyes was first of all a tattered military flag.
Stills from "Letters from Iwo Jima"
When it comes to the flag of the Japanese army, there are many stories. In the Japanese system, the flag is the most sacred presence, because it is issued by the emperor himself, and each infantry company has only one. The Japanese army believes that the military flag is the emperor's doppelganger and must not fall into the hands of the enemy, and whenever the troops encounter setbacks in battle, the Japanese army will take out the military flag to guide the charge, just as the emperor directs the battle on the front line. So the older the history and the more battles the troops have experienced, the more the flag of the ministry is broken.
The 28th Infantry Regiment repeatedly raised its flag to guide the charge in the Lushun Offensive battle of the Russo-Japanese War, so the flag had long been beaten by the Russian army, but the Japanese army did not repair the flag, but believed that the flag was about to be broken, proving that the more bitter battles the unit experienced. Therefore, the battalion gate sentry was surprised to find that the first row of this dark unit was actually a flag bearer holding the flag of the 28th Infantry Regiment.
The flag had not returned to the barracks since May 1942 with Wing Commander Kiyono Ichiki in the Pacific Theater. According to the regulations of the Japanese army, if the flag returns to the barracks, the duty officer of the headquarters of the remaining guard of the ministry needs to personally greet it. Seeing that the flag bearer with the military flag had reached the door, the guards hurriedly shouted at the barracks: "The military flag is entered!" Get started with the flag! "Notify the officer on duty to come and greet you.
The guards did not finish speaking, the flag bearer and the military flag had already entered the gate, followed by the flag bearer was wing commander Kiyonaga Ichiki. The guard at the door "clicked" and stood upright, performed a gun salute, and shouted at Ichiki Daisa, "Report: The camp gate guards are all right!" However, at this time, something strange happened, and under normal circumstances, the wing commander would return the salute and say: "Hard work!" However, at this time, Ichiki Daisaku did not say a word, did not return the salute, and silently walked through the camp gate into the barracks. The entire unit behind him was also silent, and the four columns entered the camp door in silence, only the sound of the "click" of the military boots on the ground.
The strange things did not stop there, the camp gate guards found that the soldiers who passed through the gate had bayonets on their shoulders, and the light of the electric light at the door emitted a miserable white light. According to Japanese regulations, rifles were not allowed to carry bayonets while marching through the camp gates. And the uniforms worn by these soldiers were all tattered, especially the pants and leggings on the lower body were wet, as if they had just participated in the Transitional River Operation. Just when the guards were amazed, the unit had already passed through the camp gate and walked toward the soldiers' dormitory.
At this time, the officer on duty rushed forward with a flashlight, and learned that the wing commander and the military flag had just walked through the gate to the dormitory, and the officer on duty was confused, and he said to the sentry: "Strange, if the wing is triumphant, it should be sent in advance to inform the contact officer of the time to return to the camp, but before I had no idea that the wing was coming back, and unless it was a night exercise, there was never a precedent for the troops to return to the camp in the middle of the night." ”
At this time, the officers on duty and the guards all looked at the soldiers' dormitory, and generally the dormitories would turn on the lights after the soldiers returned to the camp, and there would always be a noise before returning to the dormitory. However, the dormitory area was dark, and there was neither a light nor a sound.
Stills from Hacksaw Ridge
The astonished officers and guards on duty hurried to check the dormitory area with flashlights, and to their horror: the dormitory area was empty, all doors and windows were closed, exactly as it was before the 28th Infantry Wing set out in May! Horrified, the officers and guards on duty hurried back to the duty room to report the terrible events of the night to the captain of the 28th Wing.
The Ichiki detachment was wiped out in Guadalcanal
Why did the 28th Infantry Wing go out in May 1942? In the spring of 1942, the Japanese army won a victory in the Pacific Theater and seized most of the islands in Southeast Asia. In order to completely crush the American army, the Japanese launched the Battle of Midway, and the 28th Infantry Wing was urgently mobilized, with a part of the artillery to form a wooden detachment, which, as the occupation force of Midway, set off from Japan on May 19 on the "Zenyo Maru" transport ship to Midway Island.
However, due to the deciphering of the Japanese secret telegram by the U.S. army, the Japanese suffered an unprecedented defeat at the Battle of Midway on June 5, all four aircraft carriers were sunk, and the illusion of capturing Midway island had vanished. So Ichiki's detachment had to go to Guam to wait and prepare for other battles. Shortly thereafter, reports of American landings came from Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, and the Ichiki Detachment was the only Japanese mobile unit in the southeast Pacific at the time, and naturally became the preferred force for reinforcements to Guadalcanal.
The Ichiki detachment arrived at Truk Island on August 12, and after receiving ammunition supplies, marched to Guadalcanal on the 17th, at this time the Ichiki detachment had completed the landing on Guadalcanal, captured Henderson Airfield, and the troops and supplies were continuously transported to the island, and the US army reached more than 3,000 troops, and was equipped with a series of heavy weapons such as 105 mm howitzers.
Late on the night of August 18, 916 men from the first echelon of the Ichiki detachment landed on Guadalcanal, and the only heavy weapons of the Japanese at this time were two Type 92 infantry guns and several heavy machine guns. People with a little military knowledge know that taking such a little bit of a weak force to attack 3,000 U.S. Marines with various heavy weapons is tantamount to hitting a pebble with a pebble.
However, the Japanese commander Kiyono Ichiki had no idea that the U.S. army already had such a strong strength on the island at this time, and on August 20, he first sent a reconnaissance team to find out the bottom of the U.S. army on the island. However, the reconnaissance team did not touch the US position, it was discovered by the US army, and only a few members of the reconnaissance team fled back to the Japanese position after a battle. The U.S. army found many documents from the killed Japanese troops, and the American army realized that Japanese reinforcements had arrived and began to prepare to meet the Japanese army.
The scouts who fled back to the Japanese position reported the situation of the US troops to Ichiki Kiyono, but after learning of the strength of the US troops, Ichiki Kiyono did not intend to ask for help, but thought that since it had been exposed, it was better to simply take the US position directly tonight. Why is Kiyono Ichiki so bold?
On the night of July 7, 1937, Ichiki Kiyono, then commander of the 1st Infantry Regiment of the Chinese Garrison Infantry, provoked the Lugou Bridge Incident under the pretext that a soldier had disappeared during an exercise. This Japanese officer, who single-handedly led to the outbreak of the all-out War of Resistance, has always been known for his boldness, daring to attack thousands of Chinese defenders in Wanping City with a single brigade. At this time, he made this decision, which was almost equivalent to suicide, because he despised the combat capabilities of the US military, believing that instead of waiting for reinforcements, it was better to play the "fearless spirit of the imperial army" to catch the US army off guard.
So in the middle of the night on August 20, Kiyono Ichiki commanded more than 900 Japanese troops to start attacking the US positions, and as a result, they fell into the fire net that the US army had already prepared. By the morning of the fierce battle, the losses of the Us army were slight, and the Japanese army was completely destroyed. Kiyono Ichiki committed suicide by raising a gun after burning the flag of the 28th Infantry Regiment. Since then, the entire army of the Ichiki detachment has been destroyed, and the 28th Infantry Regiment, which constitutes the main force of the detachment, has burned the flag, and all the "jade fragments" below the squadron leader have been burned.
The Battle of Guadalcanal was the first time the Japanese army was defeated after the start of the Pacific War, and then the American army turned to the offensive, and the Japanese army was gradually defeated, and finally declared defeated on August 15, 1945.
Hokkaido ghost riot incident
On the morning of August 21, when the 28th Wing led by Kiyonaga Ichiki was completely destroyed, a farewell telegram was sent to the superiors, and the Japanese base camp at that time believed that the matter was extremely demoralizing and absolutely could not be disclosed to the country. However, late that night, the commander of the 28th Wing left behind reported what appeared to be the return of the ghost of the 28th Wing, and the Japanese base camp that received the report of the incident was extremely shocked and ordered the headquarters of the 7th Division in Hokkaido to thoroughly investigate the matter.
Just as the Japanese military leadership was wondering about the matter, in the early morning of August 22, many citizens of Asahikawa rumored that they had seen a strange ghost the night before. Most of the testimony of these citizens was the same, that is, they were awakened at night by the sound of military boots, and when they opened the window, they saw strange troops marching on the street, most of these soldiers were disheveled, but their steps were neat, and they were all moving towards the 28th Wing barracks.
It is even more eloquently described seeing the bloodied, naked soldiers entering the Hokkaido Gokoku Shrine next to the barracks (which enshrines the spiritual seats of Hokkaido soldiers who died in previous wars). Japan is a country that generally believes in Shintoism, and most of the Japanese people believe that everything has a soul, and this kind of remark quickly fermented in Asahikawa City, and the streets and alleys were talking about the ghost troops on the night of the 21st, and many people thought that the 28th Infantry Regiment that went out on the expedition must have encountered a miserable situation of total annihilation.
As rumors spread, soon the entire city of Asahikawa was in a state of panic, and the remaining units of the 28th Infantry Regiment became the center of panic, and all the soldiers began to resist the night watch. As a result, the headquarters of the 7th Division urgently issued the "Ghost Prevention Countermeasures". Senior officers were also invited to explain to the public that the ghost troops on the evening of the 21st were completely virtual, and that it was a rumor made up by ulterior motives that the 28th Infantry Wing was completely destroyed, and that in fact the unit was under the command of the wing commander in successive battles in the Pacific Theater. The so-called witnesses were seduced by anti-war organizations with the intention of creating panic and sabotaging the Great East Asian War.
However, the rumors did not dissipate with the Japanese military's explanation, but intensified, and the families of several officers of the 28th Infantry Regiment who went out on the expedition claimed to have seen their bloody families return home on the night of the 21st. These families begged for explanations at the gate of the 28th Wing barracks, and the Japanese army could only be reassured by kind words.
Stills from "Finding the Dragon"
In the current Hokkaido Gokoku Shrine, there is a diary of the son of a soldier who went out at that time, which records that on the night of August 21, the father stood outside the window wearing a military uniform and bandages on his head and shouted for his son to open the window. A year later, the son received the notification of his father's death, and only then did he realize that it was the day his father died in battle.
At this time, the Japanese army headquarters realized that this matter was not trivial, named the matter "Hokkaido Ghost Riot Incident", carried out strict public opinion control, and ordered all citizens and officers and soldiers to strictly prohibit talking about this matter. In 1944, all the guards and officers on duty were sent to Okinawa, and with the capture of Okinawa by the American Army in 1945, all the guards and officers involved were killed. The Hokkaido ghost riots became even more puzzling as witnesses died.
Supernatural events or collective psychological cues?
Although the so-called "yin soldiers borrowing the road" and "ghost army returning home" have no shortage of precedents in the world, most of them are difficult to withstand strict scrutiny. However, the ghost riot in Hokkaido was witnessed by many witnesses, and the officers on duty and the guards also wrote detailed reports of the situation. Moreover, the time of "ghost return" and the time of the Ichiki detachment's jade fragments were more than ten hours apart, at this time the Japanese mainland did not know that the unit had been killed, and even the headquarters of the 7th Division regiment that received the report on the 22nd was also asking the base camp a few days later to learn that the 28th Wing was really all jade fragments on the 21st. This makes the event more like a real supernatural event.
However, looking at the details, such incidents are not unheard of in the world, and a large part of them are the reasons for collective psychological implications. Because the Japanese troops went out at that time, the family members and soldiers who stayed behind were worried, and naturally many bad associations occurred, and the guards were on duty at night for a long time, and it was easy to hallucinate, and this hallucination became clearer with the discussion of many people. Until it finally evolved into a collective event. However, this incident coincided with the total annihilation of the 28th Infantry Regiment, and natural rumors spread more and more fiercely.
After the defeat of Japan in 1945 and the complete disintegration of the old Japanese Army, the people of Asahikawa successively learned the exact time of the total annihilation of the 28th Wing, plus the officers and men on duty at that time were dead. This matter has once again been pushed to the forefront of public opinion. At present, a large number of testimonies collected at the Hokkaido Gokoku Shrine are submitted after the war, and it is inevitable that there will be a suspicion of attachment after the fact.
Whether the incident was really the return of the undead or a collective psychological cue is still uncertain, but on August 22, 1942, Asahikawa did indeed break out a serious commotion. However, the Japanese government's explanation in order to quell the commotion afterwards is an outright lie.