A few days earlier, when Smith had broached the idea of creating this airport in the middle of nowhere, Almond had failed to understand. Why was it necessary? Smith answered that, among other things, he imagined that Hagaru would become a triage hospital, with the wounded being brought in from the battlefields to the north. With a big airstrip, Smith could use large planes to haul out the casualties to hospitals on the coast or in Japan. An airstrip might save a lot of lives. Almond was puzzled by this. “What casualties?” he said. He hadn’t given the matter any thought.
