Chiran high school girls wave kamikaze pilot

The airbase at Chiran, Minamikyūshū, on the Satsuma Peninsula of

Kagoshima , abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...

, Japan, served as the departure point for hundreds of Special Attack or

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending t ...

sorties launched in the final months of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. A

peace museum A peace museum is a museum that documents historical peace initiatives. Many peace museums also provide advocacy programs for nonviolent conflict resolution. This may include conflicts at the personal, regional or international level. Peace m ...

dedicated to the pilots, the , now marks the site.

Airbase

The

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

airbase at

Chiran, Kagoshima was a town located in Kawanabe District, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Chiran is famous for producing Japanese tea. As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 13,667 and the density of 113.71 persons per km². The total area was 120.19 ...

, with its two runways, was the principal base of the kamikaze pilots during the Battle of Okinawa. Of the 1,036 army aviators who died in these attacks, 439 were from Chiran. Of the total number, 335 were classed as "young boy pilots" (少年飛行兵).

Peace Museum

In 1975 a museum was built to commemorate the lives of the pilots and document their "

patriotic Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...

efforts for peace". Enlarged in 1985, exhibits include four planes: a Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa, a 1943 Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien, a 1944 Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate, and a

Mitsubishi Zero The Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" is a long-range carrier-based aircraft, carrier-based fighter aircraft formerly manufactured by Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and was operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 19 ...

recovered from the seabed in 1980. On a personal level, the exhibit includes letters, poems, essays, testaments, and other artefacts; as well as photographs of the 1,036 pilots, arranged in the order in which they died. There is also the grand piano on which two of the pilots played the ''

Moonlight Sonata The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, marked ''Quasi una fantasia'', Op. 27, No. 2, is a piano sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven. It was completed in 1801 and dedicated in 1802 to his pupil Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. The popular name ''M ...

'' the night before their final mission.

Other monuments

The is a

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

dedicated to the "Special Attack Goddess of Mercy". The image enshrined within is a 1.8m replica statue of the Yumechigai Kannon (夢違観音 Dream-Changing

Kannon Guanyin () is a Bodhisattva associated with compassion. She is the East Asian representation of Avalokiteśvara ( sa, अवलोकितेश्वर) and has been adopted by other Eastern religions, including Chinese folk religion. She w ...

), a

National Treasure The idea of national treasure, like national epics and national anthems, is part of the language of romantic nationalism, which arose in the late 18th century and 19th centuries. Nationalism is an ideology that supports the nation as the funda ...

Hōryū-ji is a Buddhist temple that was once one of the powerful Seven Great Temples, in Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture, Japan. Its full name is , or Learning Temple of the Flourishing Law, the complex serving as both a seminary and monastery. The temple was ...

. The names of the kamikaze pilots are written on paper within her

womb The uterus (from Latin ''uterus'', plural ''uteri'') or womb () is the organ in the reproductive system of most female mammals, including humans that accommodates the embryonic and fetal development of one or more embryos until birth. The ut ...

. It was erected in 1955 thanks to donations collected by Tome Torihama, who ran the Tomiya Inn frequented by the pilots, and who sought to redeem their

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered ...

after the war. Stone lanterns dedicated to the pilots line the approach to the museum.

Anecdotes

* Second Lieutenant Fujio Wakamatsu wrote: "Mother, I have nothing to say. In my last moment, and my first act of

filial piety In Confucianism, Chinese Buddhism, and Daoist ethics, filial piety (, ''xiào'') (Latin: pietas) is a virtue of respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors. The Confucian '' Classic of Filial Piety'', thought to be written around the lat ...

, I will smile and conquer. With dry eyes and knowing I have done well. Please offer some rice dumplings at our

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

mortuary tablet." * Pilot Hayashi Ichizo wrote in his diary: "I will do a splendid job sinking an enemy aircraft carrier ... I read the Bible every day ... I will sing a hymn as I dive on an enemy vessel." * Major Hajime Fuji, a training instructor, presented his petition to serve as a kamikaze pilot written in blood; his wife drowned herself and their children so that he should have no conflicting ties. * After the war, "Two or three American soldiers jumped up on the planes and kicked them with their military boots. They ridiculed the planes with the following scornful words, 'Look! So those kamikaze fellows came against us with these piddling worn-out planes. Did they think they could win with these toys? How stupid!'"

Film

''The Firefly'' (ホタル ''Hotaru''): popular

Japanese film The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2021, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. In 2011 Japan produced 411 feature films that ea ...

of 2001, directed by

Yasuo Furuhata was a Japanese film director. He was a director of Toei film company and he often worked with Ken Takakura in such films as '' Eki'' and ''Shin Abashiri Bangaichi''. He won the 2000 Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year and 31st Internat ...

and centered around the character of Tome Torihama, who ran the Tomiya Inn in Chiran and treated the young kamikaze pilots as if they were her own sons. ''I go to die for you'' (俺は、君のためにこそ死ににいく ''Ore wa, kimi no tame ni koso shini ni iku''): 2007 film with screenplay by Tokyo Governor

Shintaro Ishihara was a Japanese politician and writer who was Governor of Tokyo from 1999 to 2012. Being the former leader of the radical right Japan Restoration Party, he was one of the most prominent ultranationalists in modern Japanese politics. An ultra ...

, based on his conversations with Tome Torihama, who died in 1992.

Reception

On 15 August each year, the anniversary of the date on which

Emperor Shōwa Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

announced the

Japanese surrender The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ( ...

, right-wing groups drive through Chiran in trucks blaring

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

messages and

songs A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetition ...

. Over the rest of the year, up to a million visitors come to pay tribute to the fallen.

References

External links

Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots

Who became kamikaze pilots, and how did they feel towards their suicide mission?
( IB essay published by

The Concord Review ''The Concord Review: A Quarterly Review of Essays by Students of History'' is an academic journal dedicated to publishing the history research papers of high school students. Established in 1987 by William H. Fitzhugh, a Massachusetts educator di ...

, with select bibliography)
Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots
- article on Kamikaze Images web site {{Authority control Japan in World War II World War II memorials in Japan Monuments and memorials in Japan World War II museums in Japan Peace museums Museums in Kagoshima Prefecture Kamikaze