きけわだつみのこえ

Letter & diary of Students.   Listen to their voices.

"Kike wadatsumi no Koe" (Listen to the voices of Sea Gods) is a collection of manuscripts of Japanese students (soldiers) who died in battle at the end of World War II. 

In 1947, it was published on October 20, 1949, with the collection of notes of war dead soldiers only at the University of Tokyo edited and published by the University of Tokyo's Cooperative Publishing Department. Later the posthumous works of war dead students from universities and technical colleges (old system) nationwide were widely solicited. It also includes the wills of students who were put to death as BC-class war criminals.

Ryoji Uehara

was a student of the Faculty of Economics at Keio University. He was accepted into the company in December 1943. On May 11, 1945, he was killed in a U.S. mobile unit in Kadena Bay, Okinawa, as an Army special attack officer. He was 22 years old.

I feel deeply honoured and privileged to have been chosen to become a member of the Army's "Special Assault Unit," which embodies the glory of Japan. Having read logic and philosophy through my somewhat extended student life, I am sure that, based upon the idea of reason, triumph of liberty is inevitable to me, although I might sound like a liberalist. As stated by Croce in Italy, it is a universal truth that it is absolutely impossible to exterminate freedom, which is a fundamental human nature, and it will eventually win even though it seems to be temporarily oppressed.

It is a clear fact that authoritarian and totalitarian regimes may sporadically prosper, but they ultimately will perish. We can see the truth of that in the Axis governments. As manifested by the defeat of Italy under Fascism, not to mention Germany under Nazism, authoritarian governments are disappearing one after the other, crumbling like buildings without a foundation.

I believe that the universality of truth will eternally and permanently prove the greatness of liberty as is now being verified by reality and just as history has shown in the past. I will be more than delighted to find that my belief has been proven right even though that turns out to be a disaster for our nation. The current struggle, whatever it is, stems from ideology; and the result of a struggle can readily be predicted by the belief systems upon which the struggle is fought.

The ambition of making my beloved Japan become as mighty an empire as Great Britain has faded away. If the leading positions in Japan had been held by those who truly love Japan, my country would not have been driven into the situation it faces today. I have been dreaming of the Japanese people proud of themselves no matter where one may be in the world.

What a friend of mine once said is true: a pilot of the Special Assault Unit is merely a machine. He just steers the apparatus. He is only a molecule within a magnet that sticks fast to an enemy aircraft carrier, possessing neither personality nor emotions.

If one thinks about it rationally, this act is incomprehensible and, to try to put it in a plain expression, these pilots are, as they say, simply suicidal. Since I am nothing more than a machine, I have no right to put my case forward. However, I only wish that the Japan that I dearly love will someday be made truly great by my fellow citizens.

In such an emotional state, my death may probably lead to nothing. Nonetheless, as I stated at the outset, I feel very honoured to have been chosen to be a member of the Special Assault Unit. It is true that, once inside an aircraft, I am mere hardware, but once disembarked, I do have emotions and passion as I am also a human. When the woman for whom I cared so dearly passed away, I emotionally died with her. The idea that she waits for me in Heaven, where we will be reunited, makes death not particularly frightening for me, since it happens only on my way to Heaven.

Tomorrow is the day of the assault. My idea is too highly extreme to be made public, but I just wanted to express the true feelings inside me, so please forgive me for my disoriented thoughts. Another liberalist will depart from this earth tomorrow. Although he may appear forlorn, he is in fact very content.

Once again, please forgive my selfish ranting.                                                       wikipedia

May 11, 34 Tokko soldiers flow out from Chiran Army base including Ryoji Uehara.  In addition, from Navy bases, 103 Tokko soldiers made sortie.

It is recorded on the same day that Aircraft Carrier Bunker HIll (CV-17) was attacked by two Navy Kamikaze of students and lost  402 soldiers

May 10, 1945, destroyer Evans DD-552 got underway with Hugh W. Hadley for a radar picket station northwest of Okinawa. During the first night on station, 10-11 May, enemy planes were constantly in evidence; more than a hundred attacked the two destroyers and the two LCSs with them. Evans fought determinedly against this overwhelming assault, shooting down many of them, but in quick succession, four kamikazes struck her. After engineering spaces flooded, and she lost power, Evans' crew strove to save her, using portable fire extinguishers and bucket brigades. They succeeded, though 32 were killed and 27 wounded, and the ship was towed into Kerama Retto on 14 May for repairs.               "The Sacred Warriors"

 In a mass kamikaze attack on May 11, 1945, the destroyer Hugh W. Hadley (DD-774) shot down 23 planes including three that crashed into the ship at Radar Picket Station #15 to the northwest of Okinawa. The number of planes shot down by Hadley's gunners was a naval record for a ship in a single action. The kamikaze attacks over a period of one hour and 40 minutes resulted in 30 deaths and 121 wounded among the Hadley crew. The destroyer Robley D. Evans (DD-552), which fought with Hadley at the same picket station, shot down another 19 Japanese aircraft during the mass kamikaze attack.

As the kamikaze with 40mm shells streaking into it dove towards the ship's deck, he released a small bomb. The bomb made a direct hit on the portside 40mm (44 mount) and the plane crashed into the deck just aft of the quad 40mm (43 mount) on the starboard side. When the bomb hit the base of the 44 mount, the entire gun just disappeared out to sea. Nothing was left of the mount or most of the men manning it. The plane penetrated the after deck house of the starboard quad 40mm and destroyed the officer quarters below. Flaming gasoline sprayed crewmen on nearby guns. Fires raged and magazines were exploding sending shrapnel through any man who was in the way.       amikaze Destroyer: USS Hugh W. Hadley (DD774)