Was he “either a coward or a great seaman,” victim of a ruse concocted by Admiral William F. Halsey’s “Department of Dirty Tricks,” or the fall guy for a war strategy doomed from the start? Or did he simply want to save the lives of his sailors? One of Newsweek ’s top journalists reports from Japan on what possessed Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita to turn away from the fighting at Leyte Gulf on the morning of 25 October 1944—60 years ago.
