Grief, Guilt, Forgiveness, and Exoneration: Lessons from the Sinking of USS Indianapolis

The USS Indianapolis was a heavy cruiser which delivered to the Tinian Island in the West Pacific the last parts and nuclear matter for the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki which helped end the war between America and Japan during World War II. At 1:00 am on July 30, 1945, two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine struck the ship, leading to its sinking just 12 minutes after the torpedoes struck it. More than 800 of the 1,196 men on board the cruiser perished from the sinking of the ship. Three hundred men were killed at the impact of the torpedoes while more than 500 jumped into the sea to face four days of ordeal from thirst, dehydration, exposure to the blistering sun, and attacks by sharks. Only 317 men survived after four days of waiting before rescue arrived as the others died from thirst and dehydration, drinking of sea water, and attacks by sharks. There was a failure by those in charge to respond to the three SOS signals given by the ship before it sank. The survivors bobbling on the sea were accidentally discovered by Lt. Wilbur Gwin on a routine antisubmarine patrol and not by an active search to look for the cruiser which failed to arrive in Leyte Gulf on time.

The sinking of the USS Indianapolis was the worst naval disaster in US history, and this story was made into the riveting and powerful film USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage, starring Nicolas Cage as the captain of the ship by the name of Captain Charles McVay III. For its Philippine release, the subtitle Men of Courage was changed to Disaster at Philippine Sea, obviously to highlight the location of the disaster to appeal to the Filipino moviegoers.

Captain McVay became the scapegoat for the loss of hundreds of lives of young marines, though the tragedy was an act of war. He was the only military officer who was court-marshaled for the sinking of a ship during the war, and the court-marshal convicted him of “hazarding the ship” or making it vulnerable to being attacked by failing to take a zigzagging course one hour after midnight.

Considering that the ship was on a top secret mission to deliver parts and nuclear material for the atomic bombs that helped to end the war and considering that Captain McVay’s request for a destroyer escort for the cruiser was denied, the court-marshal’s decision to convict the captain of failure to take a zigzag course to avoid enemy attacks was unjust and can be considered a way of scapegoating for the negligent acts of the US navy, particularly of the officials above Captain McVay. Blame was placed on him unjustly because he was ordered to zigzag at his discretion and was not informed of the presence of Japanese submarines in the waters the ship was plying through. The commander of the Japanese submarine, Mochitsura Hashimoto, also testified in court that the torpedoes they launched would find their mark even if the ship was zigzagging.

Captain McVay never recovered from his ordeal and the grief mixed with guilt over the loss of hundreds of lives under his command and the sinking of the cruiser that he took his own life on November 6, 1968. But he was later exonerated from his guilt when a young American lad named Hunter Scott (born in 1985) who was then doing a high school history project did extensive research on the naval disaster by interviewing 150 survivors of the USS Indianapolis and poring through 800 documents. Scott gave a testimony before the US Congress of the unjust conviction of Captain Charles McVay III. This brought national attention to the case of the captain more than 50 years after his death. On October 25, 2000, the United States Congress exonerated Captain
McVay of all convictions for the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. President Bill Clinton signed the exoneration resolution while the Secretary of the Navy, Gordon England, ordered that the records of Captain McVay be purged of all records of wrongdoings.

Several lessons can be drawn from this worst naval disaster and the injustice done to Captain McVay. The obvious lessons are the transience of life and the evil of war while the less obvious lessons are: the truth will always come out; forgiveness can free nations from discord and individuals from the weight of shame and humiliation; vindication should be given to a man made a scapegoat for the failures of the higher authorities; and peace is much better than war.

The death of more than 800 sailors, most of whom were very young, and the sinking of a mighty cruiser show the transience or temporary nature of our existence in this planet. Nothing is permanent in this world. We will all pass away. Things keep on changing. At the same time, the film shows the evil of war, which turns men against men, nation against nation, leading to so much death, destruction, discord, and loss. More than 800 American men perished in the sinking of the USS Indianapolis but hundreds of thousands of Japanese died from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

That the truth will always come out is implied in the story of USS Indianapolis and Captain McVay after many years have passed. It took a boy aged 12 on a history project to pave the way for the exoneration of Captain McVay with the help of Indianapolis survivors and Mochitsura Hamimoto, the commander of the Japanese submarine which torpedoed USS Indianapolis. On Nov. 24, 1999, a year before his death, Mr. Hashimoto wrote to Senator Warner. ”Our peoples have forgiven each other for that terrible war,” he said. ”Perhaps it is time your peoples forgive Captain McVay for the humiliation of his unjust conviction.” Mr. Hashimoto who became a Shinto priest after his military career prayed for the souls of the men whose death he caused and helped exonerate Captain McVay through a letter he addressed to Senator John Warner, who was among those who pushed for the exoneration of Captain Charles Butler McVay III.

America and Japan had indeed forgiven each other for the terrible war, and examination of the circumstances that led to the sinking of USS Indianapolis in the Philippine Sea revealed that the court-martial was contrived at the very beginning. The latter points out to the principle that the truth will always come out and no secret will be hidden, if not in this life, then on Judgement Day.

At present, we should work to maintain peace between nations and peoples because war is very costly and destructive, as shown by what happened during World War II. War is evil, a sign of the fallen condition of humanity. It brought untold grief to those who were bereaved of their loved ones; it also brought untold grief and a feeling of guilt and inadequacy to Captain McVay which lasted throughout his life. The same thing was true for Commander Hashimoto who did his duty to kill the enemy but who later regretted the loss of lives of hundreds of young men.

May this naval disaster remind us of these obvious and not too obvious lessons in life: that we are transient in this world, that change is the only permanent thing in this world, that we are all just passing by and fulfilling our missions in this life, that we need to forgive ourselves and one another, and that peace is so much better than war.