Last Letter of Lieutenant Junior Grade Seizō Ishikawa
On January 12, 1945, Lieutenant Junior Grade Seizō Ishikawa died in a special
(suicide) attack at the age of 21 when submarine I-58 launched his kaiten manned
torpedo at Guam Island's Apra Harbor. On December 30, 1944, submarine I-58 made a sortie from Ōtsushima Kaiten Base in Yamaguchi
Prefecture with four kaiten pilots who were members of the Kaiten
Special Attack Corps Kongō Unit. Ishikawa was from Ibaraki Prefecture and graduated in the
72nd Class of the Naval Academy at Etajima. He received a
promotion to Lieutenant Commander after his death by special attack.
He wrote the following last latter with a death poem at the end:
The date for decisive action has come. We four crewmen are in high
spirits. We will terrify Apra Harbor. The
form of Guam Island, with the pale moon and scattered starlight in early
January, floats like it is sleeping. Who knows the mayhem in a few hours?
For the Emperor, with our lives as they are, we have come to the place
where we had to come.
My life of 22 years is just like a dream. Today will show life's meaning.
As the peak in the decisive battle between Japan and America, we will stop
our declining fortunes in one stroke and defend forever the Empire's
glorious 3,000-history. Japan is a divine country. Shinshū [1]
is indestructible. After us there will be very many stalwart youths. We
offer our lives to defend the Empire.
Now we go to the world of eternal splendid righteousness where we will
get away from the realm of human existence.
Prosperity for descendants from gods shining in heavens
I pray for, a flower going to fall in Pacific Ocean
Letter and poem translated by Bill Gordon
August 2018
The letter and poem come from Matsugi (1971, 69-70). The biographical information in the first paragraph comes from
Matsugi (1971, 69) and Mediasion (2006,
46, 48, 80).
Note
1. Shinshū refers to Japan and literally means
"divine land."
Sources Cited
Matsugi, Fujio, ed. 1971. Kaigun tokubetsu kōgekitai no isho (Last letters of Navy Special Attack Corps).
Tōkyō: KK Bestsellers.
The Mediasion Co. 2006. Ningen gyorai kaiten (Kaiten
human torpedo). Hiroshima: The Mediasion Co.
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