Kurita’s staff mocked the presumption of those senior officers, safely tucked away in their underground bunker at home, who dashed off such orders while “ignorant of enemy attacks.” The impression given by this account is that the collective mood on the bridge was mordant, contemptuous, perhaps even a bit mutinous. One officer remarked, “Leave the fighting to us. Not even a god can direct naval battles from shore.” Another translated the meaning of Toyoda’s order: “Believing in annihilation, resume the attack!”
