Korean Kamikaze 

Chiran Base 

Mrs. Tome Torihama

Ensign Kobayashi

In 1942, the Army flight school was established in Chiran, Kagoshima Prefecture. At that time, the cafeteria called Tomiya Shokudo became a military-designated cafeteria. The hostess of the cafeteria was Tome Torihama, a hard worker who was carefree and trusted by the townspeople. At the flight school, a child soldier under the age of 20 was still devoted to rigorous training. Tome of Tomiya, who is bright and kind to them, was a substitute for his mother. On March 28, 1944, Ensign Kobayashi, a flight school instructor, suddenly visited Tome. Like the child soldiers at the flight school, the second lieutenant, who was kindly taken care of, thought that Tome was his real mother. According to Reiko Akabane , Tome's second daughter, and Hiroshi Ishii, authors of "Going back to the firefly"

"My mom, I am Kobayashi. I've never seen you in a long time." Tome made and offered various dishes that Kobayashi liked, but Kobayashi said that nothing would pass through his throat. When I asked "Which direction are you going to go next time?" And answered "Don't ask, Mom," Tome remembered just yesterday when she heard that a special attack unit base had been established in Chiran. 

"Let me give a letter to your dad to tell him your last appearance." 

Kobayashi said, "Please let him know after a while." 

She could not stop writing to his father just after Kobayashi flown out on the next day, 29th,  writing  "Please allow me just to ask you to read a newspaper everyday to know about your son."

Ensign Takeo Kobayashi was unable to reach Okinawa due to an engine failure and crash landed on the way, so he was recorded "accidental death in the direction of Oita" and was not added to the list of special attack unit member in action. When Tome heard that, she persuaded the people concerned, "I sortie as a kamikaze member, and his heart is the same as that of a kamikaze member, and why do I discriminate against those who sortie with such a noble heart?"  

It is said that Lieutenant Kobayashi's name is now added to the list of kamikaze war dead. 

40th Shinbu Squadron, Lieutenant Takeo Kobayashi from Tokyo, Showa 20.3.29 Sortie 

(When quoting this,  the official record,  the army special attack sortie on March 29 shows only the "Makoto 17th Squadron, Makoto 41st Squadron" sortie from the Okinawa base. There are only 5 soldiers dead.) 

However, other than this, the personality of Tome can be easily imagined from many stories. 

Many episodes of Tome and the kamikaze members were featured on television, in movies, and in books. Tome, on the other hand, didn't say much to journalist questions, especially in her later years. It is said that the truth was not written. 

While the special attack is an inhuman attack that abandons young lives with harsh death, it is a self-sacrifice for family members and loved ones, leaving voices of mourning for loved ones and unfaithful death prior to parents. Many people are still moved because they are able to balance the extreme situations of demonstrating noble humanity.

However, if the excitement simply ends with easy simple praise for Tokko, there is a danger of repeating the history that led to their undesired and harsh fate. That is what the kamikaze members never wanted for the Japanese who had recovered from the defeat. In this regard, we need to be careful.

Ensign Fumihiro Mitsuyama graduated from Kyoto Pharmaceutical College and got a temporary job, but in 1945, he volunteered for a special pilot apprenticeship  and entered the Tachiarai Army Flight School, Chiran Branch School as a first-year student. After receiving a month of quick training, he became a pilot. When he was a student of Chiran, Mitsuyama came to restaurant Tomiya  every Sunday and became friends with Tome and her daughters. After half a year, he left Chiran and went around the troops in different area, but everywhere he went, he sent a postcard saying, "How are you, Chiran's  mother?"

Then, at the beginning of May 1945, there was a man who opened the sliding door on the front of Tomiya and called  "Mom!". When Tome looked at him, her face was stiff. "Well, it's not Mitsuyama-san?" It must have been Mitsuyama, who left Chiran a year and a half ago. Tome was shocked because the only aviation soldiers appearing in Chiran at this time were kamikaze members, so she immediately realized that Mitsuyama had become a kamikaze member. 

Tome guided Mitsuyama away behind the cafeteria. It was Mitsuyama's "reserved seat" and has been his favorite place since he was a student at flight school. He lay down and stretched out on tatame mat. At first glance, the appearance seems to be carefree, but the profile  seems to be more lonely than before. 

Since then Ensign Mitsuyama visited  Tomiya almost every day. Reiko and her people will know after decades that there was a special reason for Mitsuyama's specially lonely expression at that time.

 Mitsuyama's mother had died at the end of the previous year. On the night of May 10th, he said, "Mom, I am  finally going to sortie tomorrow. Thank you for everything for a long time. I've never seen a good person like my mom. I almost forget that I'm a Korean. For a long time, you are really kind and caring. Thank you for receiving it. It was beyond my real parents. "

" That's not true. I couldn't do anything. "

" Mom, can I sing a song? "

" Okay, please, please. "

" Then, I I'll sing the song of my country. "

Mitsuyama sat cross-legged leaning on the floor pillar, and lowered the eaves of his patrol cap. Mitsuyama's eyes were hidden under the eaves. Tome and his two daughters sat right next to him. Mitsuyama, who had been meditating for a while, suddenly started singing in a surprisingly loud voice. 

Arirang, Arirang, Arirang 

You're going over the Arirang pass and throwing me away 

I can't even go to only a mile with aching foot

Even though Mitsuyama's singing voice stopped, Tome's screaming throat was still in the room. The four were crying with their shoulders crossed.

Before saying goodbye, Mitsuyama took out his yellow cloth wallet. The cloth was from Korea. Mitsuyama borrowed a brush and inkstone and wrote "Mrs. Torihama Tome, present from ensign Mitsuyama" on his wallet. "Mom, Aviation soldiers do not have anything expensiv. So I don't have anything to give you a keepsake, but if you like, can you think this is a keepsake and save it for me?" 

Tome silently recieved the wallet with her hands. Mitsuyama stood up. There are doll mascots made by Tome and her daughter hanging around the flight suit. The doll made by Tome had a big head and looked like a shining shaven, and the daughters thought they did not look good, but both Tome and Ensign Mitsuyama were satisfied. Tome handed over a photo of Tomiya's three people when he broke up. "Take this ..." 

"Thank you, Mom. I've never been so happy to be able to sortie out with everyone of you." Mitsuyama waved his hand and disappeared into the darkness of the dark night under the blackout. 

After Ensign Mitsuyama sortie, Tome wanted to write a letter to his father as usual to inform him of the sortie, but she realized she didn't know his address. Since then, she asked various people about the whereabouts of Ensign Mitsuyama's father, but in vain.

 Tome continued to search even after the war was over. 

"I was the only one who knew about the days before the sortie, so I wanted to tell his father a word about it." However, when she searched for someone who had some kind of connection, not just Ensign Mitsuyama's father, no one came out. Tome was often broadcast on NHK's "Inquirer" time to find out about the whereabouts of Ensign Mitsuyama's bereaved family. However, she couldn't find out.

At one point, Tome's second daughter, Reiko Akabane, discovered that Ensign Mitsuyama's aviation clothing and a bag filled with the last relics were displayed in a corner of Yasukuni Shrine. Normally, bags of relics are to be returned to their parents by the military. The fact that it is stored at Yasukuni Shrine means that the whereabouts of the bereaved family, including the father who should have been the recipient of the luggage, were unknown at the time of the death of Ensign Mitsuyama. 

Despite Tome's efforts, the task of searching for Ensign Mitsuyama's officials remained frustrated, and in 1992, Tome died at the age of 89. If she had any regrets in the world, it would have been that she did not know the whereabouts of Ensign Mitsuyama's bereaved family.

 However, fate came to light three years later, that is, fifty years after the death of Ensign Mitsuyama. One day, a Korean TV station interview team visited Reiko Akabane with about ten people. They came to Tokyo in search of someone who knew about "the special attack soldier who sang Arirang before the sortie." So Reiko talked about the night scene like the one on the right and actually sang Arirang. Then all the members of the interview team began to sing, and they all shed tears while singing. The program that covered Reiko's recollection was broadcast in South Korea and impressed those who saw it. Among the viewers, there were three relatives, including Ensign Mitsuyama's cousins.

The next day, Reiko received a phone call from the oldest cousin, who immediately flew to Tokyo. He was in Japan until just before the end of the war, and of course he had contact with Ensign Mitsuyama, so he brought a lot of photographs and a family register of Ensign Mitsuyama. 

He had one sister. However, the battlefield became severe, and when Ensign Mitsuyama's application for special attack was accepted around March, Ensign decided to send his father and sister back to Korea. Then he went to ask his cousin who worked for the railway. 

"Whether or not he will be in the mainland decisive battle, Japan is in a very dangerous state with no guarantee of life. If I die as a special attack as it is, my father and sister may lose the person who takes care of them and get lost on the road. Fortunately you are working on the railroad and would get a ticket for the railroad and the ferry. So please return my father and sister to their hometown of Busan, which is safer than Japan."

In this way, Ensign Mitsuyama's father and sister moved to Busan, South Korea without knowing Ensign's death. And since his cousin himself left Japan before the end of the war, at that point, Ensign Mitsuyama's relatives had disappeared from Japan. And the end of the war. At the same time that South Korea was released from Japan, it strengthened its anti-Japanese stance and all the threads connecting Japan and South Korea were cut. No matter how much Tome broadcasted on NHK's "inquirer," the radio waves did not reach. Soon after, Ensign Mitsuyama's father and sister died.

Now, more than half a century after its liberation, South Korea is finally weakening its hostility towards Japan. Imports of Japanese books and software, which were once a national ban, have begun to be lifted. After the war, according to his cousin, he couldn't say that his relatives worked for Japan-especially as a special attack soldier-. if he could say that, he said he didn't know what happened. 

The above is the 2001 issue of "Firefly Return", which is highly credible because it is the dictation of Tome's second daughter Reiko.

 The following is based on "Special Attacks of Others". According to it, above story was first written by Toshiro Takagi in "The Bereaved Family" in 1957. However, there is no scene that sings Arirang. It seems that the episode that sang Arirang was first introduced in 1984 in the feature film "Japanese Symphony, Complete Edition" written by Jo Toyoda, but the content is a fiction based on Toyota's hearsay. In October 1944, as the Army's first special attack unit, the Banda Corps was formed at Hokota Base in Ibaraki Prefecture, and the Fugaku Corps was formed at Hamamatsu Base in Shizuoka Prefecture. At that time, Hokota base strongly opposed the ramming operation, saying that it was only exhausting the force and had no effect. The upper army ordered the formation of the Army's first kamikaze unit at this Hokota base. Then, Masuomi Iwamoto (Captain), who was the opposite pioneer, was appointed as the captain. Tak u Kyung Hyun(Fumihiro Mitsuyama), who was at the same Hokota base, would have known the reality that those who opposed it would be the first member of special attack.

On May 11, he became a member of Okinawa's 7th aviation all-out attack and left Chiran. About 80 kamikaze planes took off, and many planes turned back due to poor aircraft, and in the end, only 33 planes continued to fly. Many old machines were used as special attack machines. The upper army did not give a satisfactory plane, and accused the members who had returned due to engine troubles as "disloyal" and "coward", and housed and quarantined them in the Shinbu dormitory. However, if we limit ourselves to life and death, the special attack soldiers who encounter a poorly-crafted airplane have the possibility of living. Even though more than half of the sorties on that day got it, the planes of Taku Kyung Hyun (Fumihiro Mitsuyama) were among the 33 planes that could fly properly.

Ensign Mitsuyama wrote a waka poem in his notebook. The life of this person's family has reached the limit of misery. Without money, they couldn't eat for days, and mother, the ensign, and his sister hugged each other and cried. Finally, the mother stole food and gave it to her children. Ensign Mitsuyama told me the facts, and even cried with tears. It was the unjustified contempt of the indigenous people and the insane domineering of the Koreans. The song left by Ensign Mitsuyama was a tribute to his mother. 

Tarachine no haha no mimoto ze shinobaruru yayoi no sorano haragasumi kana

longing  mother's place now  warm haze in spring sky

 (Toshiro Takagi, Bereaved Family, 1957, Publishing Cooperative, 90 pages)

Evaluation of kamikaze members in South Korea 

In South Korea, Koreans who died after being mobilized in the Japanese war for a long time after the war are considered to be "Chinilpa" who cooperated with Japan  and are criticized. However, due to the progress of democratization, they were positioned as victims of the war in Japan, and legislative measures have restored their honor and compensated them. However, the social evaluation of the kamikaze killed in action has not changed from the previous evaluation, and it is still said that "cooperators with Japan who actively cooperated in the war in Japan = pro-Japanese faction". Instead of being forcibly mobilized, the point of "volunteer", that is, "volunteer and special attack" was emphasized, and as a result, it was understood that he voluntarily chose death for Japan. 

In addition, it cannot be ignored that the law on "Chinilpa" enacted in South Korea affects the evaluation of Korean kamikaze dead. In South Korea, "past clearing" was started in the 1990s through the law, and 18 "past events (historical events)" have been revealed by a government committee. These were recognized as inevitable tasks in talking about the future, and their main purpose was to elucidate the sealed national crimes. It was a "review of history" work that not only revealed the truth of the case, but also compensated the victims, restored their honor, and memorized the revealed facts as a society.

 The "Act on the Truth about Anti-Japanese Acts Under the Empire of Japan" enacted in 2004 is one of the constituents of this trend, and the purpose of this law was to govern the colonies by Japan between 1904 and 1945. It was to identify the person who cooperated with (pro-Japanese actor). In order to identify it, it is necessary to specify what the pro-Japanese act is, and in the items listed there was one concrete example, "an officer who is a second lieutenant or higher of the Japanese army and who actively cooperated in the war of aggression."

 (Note: According to Wikipedia on August 7, 2020, "Initially, all former Japanese military officers were accused of being denounced, but the late former President Park Chung-hee, who has a background in the Japanese military, and his eldest daughter Park Geun-hye. Due to consideration for lawmakers, the former president was amended as "from a former Japanese soldier who is a lieutenant or higher".)

If the Koreans died in the special attack, the Japanese army made a special advance to the second to fourth ranks. They are all officers by this. This promotion is a policy "honor" carried out to promote the outcome of the special attack and encourage it to follow, and even if they do not play the role of officers during their lifetime, this provision exists in South Korea. Therefore, there is a possibility that the image that Koreans killed in action are "anti-ethnic actors" will be strengthened. It is "pro-Japan" that the "Pro-Japanese Anti-National Acts Under the Japanese Empire" sets certain standards for that purpose, identifies pro-Japanese actors according to them, and includes those who have become Japanese military officers. It may have been necessary to clarify. However, it would not be appropriate to include special attack soldiers who were promoted to second lieutenants after death and formally became officers.

In February 2010, a South Korean government investigation committee said that he was "damaged" to the bereaved family of one of the Korean victims of the special attack, Park Dong-hoon, because he was "not an officer in his lifetime." Was certified as a "person". However, a student soldier who was an "officer" from his lifetime cannot be recognized as a "victim" according to the logic of the committee's approval. Shouldn't we consider that they were former students, not professional military personnel, and were just-named officers in their lifetime?

May 11, 1945 Special Attack Units 

Navy

Kanoya Base

8th Kamikaze Sakuraka Special Attack Corps, 3 Ohka Issiki rikuko aircrafts total 24 people

 Kanoya Jinrai Squadron 10th Kenbu Squadron 3 aircraft Zero Fighter Bomb 500kg 

5th Tsukuba Corps 9 Same as above 

Seventy-seventh corps 1 Same as above 

6th God Swordsman 4 Same as above 

7th Showa corps 5 Same as above, Seizo Yasunori, Kiyoshi Ogawa affiliation 

Kushira Kikusui Raisakura Corps 10 aircraft (30 people) Tianshan bombing 800 kg 

Miyazaki Base

9th Galaxy Corps 6 aircraft (18 people) Galaxy bombing 800 kg 

Ibusuki Base

No. 2 Kaitai 2 aircraft (5 people) Zero water reconnaissance bomb 800 kg 94 Water reconnaissance bomb 500 kg 40 

Lieutenant Seizo Yasunori (Ryojun Shihan), 

Lieutenant Kiyoshi Ogawa (Waseda Univ.) 

Entered the aircraft carrier Bunker Hill Rush into the water detective destroyer Hadley

Damage to the U.S. military due to a special attack on the day (three ships were wrecked)

1. 1. Aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill           7th Showa Corps Yasunori, Lieutenant Ogawa rushes Killed in action 402 injured 264 ‥ 

2. 2. Destroyer Evans     "Falcon" Killed in action 30 injured 29

3. 3. Destroyer Hugh W Hadley   Killed in action 30 Injured 121 ‥ 4 hits including Ohka and waterplane               (8th Kamikaze Ohka special attack corps and 2nd kamikaze corps waterplane)