The True Story of the USS Indianapolis — the Enemy Captain the Navy Flew In to Testify

In December 1945 the U.S. Navy flew Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto, the Japanese officer whose submarine I-58 sank the USS Indianapolis, from Tokyo to Washington to testify at the court-martial of her American captain, Charles Butler McVay III. Fifty-four years later Hashimoto wrote to the U.S. Senate: "I would have been able to launch a successful torpedo attack against his ship whether it had been zigzagging or not." This film follows both men: the priest's son at the periscope and the admiral's son on the bridge. It covers the secret run that carried the parts and uranium for the Little Boy bomb to Tinian, the six torpedoes fired at 1,500 meters, the twelve minutes it took the ship to sink, the four days about 890 men spent in the water while nobody in authority knew they were missing, the rescue by Chuck Gwinn's patrol plane and Adrian Marks's Catalina, the court-martial, the letters McVay received for years, the meeting at Pearl Harbor in 1990, and the 2000 Congressional resolution that exonerated him. In "The File Today" we separate what the record shows from what is still disputed: whether distress calls were received, how many men the sharks killed, how clearly Hashimoto's testimony reached the court through a translator, and why the Navy tried McVay at all. This documentary is based on historical records. Some scenes are illustrated, and any dialogue not on record is clearly described as such. Archive photos are public domain (credits below). Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 2:45 The Priest's Son 4:49 The Captain 8:11 Six Torpedoes 10:42 Four Days 15:12 The Court 19:18 The Letters 24:03 The File Today Sources: Record of the court-martial of Capt. Charles B. McVay III, Washington Navy Yard, December 1945 Naval History and Heritage Command: Interrogation of Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto; USS Indianapolis (CA-35) loss records Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS): Indianapolis U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, 14 September 1999 (incl. Hashimoto's letter) National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (Public Law 106-398): the resolution on Captain McVay Mochitsura Hashimoto, "Sunk: The Story of the Japanese Submarine Fleet 1941–1945" (1954) Richard F. Newcomb, "Abandon Ship!" (1958) Dan Kurzman, "Fatal Voyage" (1990) Wikipedia: USS Indianapolis (CA-35), Charles B. McVay III, Mochitsura Hashimoto, Japanese submarine I-58 Archive images (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons / Wikipedia): Mochitsura Hashimoto; USS Indianapolis at sea (1939, 1943–44, 1944) and off Mare Island, July 1945 (U.S. Navy); chart of the last voyage; Indianapolis survivors, August 1945 (U.S. Navy); Capt. McVay at a press conference after the sinking (U.S. Navy); Adm. Charles B. McVay Jr. (U.S. Navy); submarine I-58 on trials, 1944, and her torpedo room, 1946; kaiten mission; Little Boy on Tinian (U.S. War Department); Enola Gay; atomic cloud over Hiroshima (George R. Caron); PV-1 Ventura and PBY Catalina (U.S. Navy); USS Cecil J. Doyle and her war diary, 1–5 August 1945 (U.S. Navy); Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz; King, Forrestal and Nimitz, 1945; James Forrestal (Abbie Rowe); Washington Navy Yard, October 1945 (U.S. Navy); surrender in Tokyo Bay, 1945. Full list in photos/credits.txt. Music (YouTube Audio Library): "Keys To Unravel" and "Fact or Friction" by The Soundlings, "Monument" by TrackTribe, "Somnia" (Variations 1-10) by Reed Mathis. Sound effects: YouTube Audio Library. New files every week — subscribe to Sealed Orders for true missions of World War II, opened one file at a time. #USSIndianapolis #WW2 #PacificWar