World Battlefronts: Japan’s Heroes

Japan awarded its highest military decoration—the Order of the Golden Kite—to 955 officers and men for feats in the Pacific, to 3,031 more who had fought in China. The list included such ranking officers as Vice Admiral Yukichi Yashire, Rear Admirals Yukio Kato and Toshio Otake, Major Generals Chikegi Usui and Tateo Kato. The interesting thing was not that Japan had so many heroes, but that the heroes were dead when they received the Order of the Golden Kite.