Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt Wiser
Colonel Ichiki sums up the Japanese attitude: "Spirit" can overcome everything. Even being outnumbered and outgunned, and lacking tanks and heavy artillery, "Japanese spirit" can overcome all obstacles.
According to John Toland's The Rising Sun, Ichiki burned his colors just as one of the tanks found him and a small group of soliders. Before he could be mown down with the others, he killed himself.
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The exact cause of Ichiki's death is unknown. The Japanese Self Defense Agencies' official history states that he burned his regimental colors (but his detachment was a reinforced battalion group, so why would he have the regiment's colors?) and then committed suicide; so Toland is simply repeating part of the line. There is a Marine Corps monograph that states that a high ranking officer killed himself as a tank was approaching him, again possible.
But there is also a story from one of the Japanese survivors that states that Ichiki went forward to rally his men and never returned. Of all the stories, I find this the most plausible because it jives with Ichiki's character, AND it explains why his remaining troops fell back to the coconut grove and underwent their odd paralysis. The next morning as 1st Bn, 1st Marines were making their attack, the Japanese defense was disjointed and had little, if any, central direction, exactly the situation a unit that had lost its higher officers would have reacted.
All respect to John Toland, he's a great author, but I believe that Ichiki met his death in the early morning hours before the Marine counterattack.