Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 (The Pacific War Trilogy Book 3)

by Ian W. Toll

In September 1944, on the eve of the American landing, the greater part of Nakagawa’s garrison force inhabited a great subterranean labyrinth connecting more than five hundred natural and manmade caves. Some of the entrances were fitted with steel doors built flush into the slopes, well hidden by camouflage netting or vegetation. Some were so small that men could enter only by crawling on their hands and knees, but one great underground cavern was large enough to accommodate a thousand men at once. The system had been fitted with wooden stairways, electric lights, telephone lines, storerooms, ventilation shafts, interior decks, mess cooking facilities, hospitals, command posts, and built-in bunks. Freshwater had collected in cisterns, enough to sustain a long siege. The tunnel network went on for miles. Nakagawa could move reinforcements from one part of the hills to another, even over a distance of half a mile, without exposing them to enemy fire. Deep in the rock, the temperature was cool and comfortable, giving the defenders respite from the furnace-like heat outside.