The Japanese, alert at last, are prepared to face down a resurgent China attempting to gain control of the navigation channels of the Western Pacific. They are prepared, knowing the Obama administration will leave them to their fate. They do, however, have one going for them. History. Or rather, the ghosts of history, the ghosts of the Kido Butai, the powerful carrier force that sailed from the Inland Sea to attack Pearl Harbor and was destroyed six months later at Midway.

Cold dawn breaks on the Inland Sea
At anchor dim shapes lie
The frost rimmed sun begins to rise
On the Kido Butai
Bestirred at last from long past years
Of leaning on the man
Japan now looks to East not West
With mem’ries that began
So long ago that none recall
The origins of fate
But know the man won’t come again
Though knowing it too late
The sun reveals the Inland Sea
Lays empty to the sky
With shadows shaping in the sun
The ghost Kido Butai