The circumstances surrounding the sinking of USS Indianapolis (CA-35) and its aftermath have fascinated and horrified the public for more than 70 years. This evolving saga has played out in the media through thousands of newspaper articles, hundreds of magazine features, almost 30 books, and a dozen documentaries. After all, the story consists of not one but a series of tragedies that went unredeemed for decades. The events would be unbelievable if they weren’t true, but attempts to dramatize the captivating story of the ship for mass audiences have struggled. Events in the near-future may soon help write the final chapter of the history of the Indianapolis and allow for the entire story to be told.
In the Shadow of War’s End
News of the sinking of the “Indy” in 1945 received little immediate attention from the public when the Navy announced the disastrous loss of the Portland-class heavy cruiser. The official 25-word statement was released on 14 August, two weeks after the ship had been torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-58. Even though the Indianapolis had suffered a casualty rate of 100 percent—every one of her 1,196 crewmen was dead, missing, or wounded—the news was overshadowed by President Harry S. Truman’s announcement that Japan had surrendered earlier that day. The nation was too busy celebrating to take much notice of the ordeal of the 317 surviving sailors who just a month prior had delivered crucial components of the atomic bomb that helped speed the end of the war.
When the euphoria of victory began to fade, the media as well as the families of the sailors forced the Navy to address questions about the Indianapolis. People demanded to know how a ship could possibly sink with such a great loss of life at the end of the war. The service had already secretly conducted a court of inquiry and issued letters of reprimand for negligence to Captain Charles Butler McVay III and two other officers. The court found that the captain’s failure to zigzag as he sailed the Indianapolis from Guam to the Philippines left the ship vulnerable to submarine attack. The court further cited him for not sending a distress message when the ship was sinking. The letter of reprimand probably should have been the end of McVay’s story, as far as the public was concerned.
