Matsuru mono ga matsurareru 2: Rikugun tokkōtai
1036 eirei to tomo ni (Those who honor others will be honored 2: With
1,036 spirits of war dead in Army Special Attack Corps)
by Ōtarō Tanigawa with drawings by Masaki Yamato
Furusato Nihon Purojekuto (Homeland Japan Project), 2021, 40 pages
This well-researched manga book depicts the life of Tadamasa
Itatsu, who served as first director of the
Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze
Pilots, which opened in 1986. As a member of the Army's 213th Shinbu Special
Attack Squadron, he took off from Chiran Air Base toward Okinawa on May 28,
1945, to make a special (suicide) attack on the Allied fleet, but he had to make a forced landing
on the island of Tokunoshima when his fighter developed engine problems. He
returned to Chiran on June 6 and received orders twice more for special attacks,
but they were cancelled due to weather.
The manga story begins with a trip to Chiran Town in
Kagoshima Prefecture in September 1987 by Masatoshi Itatsu, Tadamasa Itatsu's
son who lives near Nagoya City in Aichi Prefecture. When Masatoshi arrives in
Kagoshima, he first visits Mount Kaimon, nicknamed Satsuma Fuji, which was the
last place on the Japanese main islands that Special Attack Corps pilots from
Chiran Air Base saw as they headed toward Okinawa. The taxi driver, who does not
realize Masatoshi's relationship to Tadamasa Itatsu, praises his father's work
to open the Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots in 1986, which revitalized
the economy of the area with a marked increase in tourists.
Masatoshi's father is quite surprised and happy to see his son
arrive at the museum on his unexpected visit, since he had been working away
from home as the museum director. His son asks his father, who was 62 years old at
the time, to relate his wartime experiences and how he became involved with the
museum. Tadamasa Itatsu tells about his experiences as a Special Attack Corps
pilot when he was 20 years old. At the war's end before returning home to
Nagoya, he goes to the restaurant of Tome Torihama, who became close to many
Special Attack Corps pilots who took off from Chiran Air Base since many
considered her to be like a mother to them. Itatsu (whose name was Ogura at the
time, since he changed it to his wife's family name Itatsu when they married)
thanks Tome for everything that she had done for him during his time in Chiran.
In August 1961, Itatsu returns to Chiran for a memorial service,
and he meets Tome Torihama. He explains to her that he suffers each day since he
did not die with his squadron members at Okinawa and cannot be together with
his comrades where they are at now at Yasukuni Shrine. Tome says that he
survived in order that the pilots who gave their lives can be remembered if he
can gather together their photographs and tell future generations about their
honorable deeds.
Spurred on by Tome Torihama's words, Tadamasa Itatsu begins a
nationwide search for bereaved family members of Army Air Special Attack Corps
members who died in the Battle of Okinawa. He spends most weekends,
holidays, and vacation days in visits to these families, and he gathers together
many photographs, last writings, and other items. Because so many years have
passed since the Pacific War, he has great difficulties in contacting bereaved
families with only addresses that he had obtained from a listing prepared by the
government agency for demobilization.
In 1975, Chiran Tokkō Ihinkan (Chiran Special Attack Items
Museum) opens with more than 1,500 photographs, last writings, and other items
from 550 of the 1,036 Army Air Special Attack Corps members who died in the
Battle of Okinawa. In 1979, he leaves his job with several years remaining until
retirement in order to dedicate himself totally to the task of gathering
information and historical artifacts related to the Army Air Special Attack
Corps. When the Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots opens in 1986, Itatsu
serves as the first museum director. At that time, photographs of 756 pilots had
been obtained, In 1988, Itatsu resigns as museum director in order to
concentrate on finding photographs of the remaining men. In 1995, he succeeds in
getting photographs of all 1,036 Army Air Special Attack Corps members who died
in the Battle of Okinawa, and the museum displays about 14,000 photographs,
writings, and other artifacts.
The last part of the manga story is the most touching when
Tadamasa Itatsu and his wife visit Chiran in December 2014 for the last time
before his death in 2015. As his son and daughter were growing up, they
sometimes asked why their father was never together with them to do activities
and to take photographs since he almost always was traveling alone on
free days to visit families of comrades who had died in the war. Itatsu thanks
his wife for all of her support during his life as he had spent so much time
away and had used much of the family savings and his retirement money for his
many trips to visit bereaved family members. His wife says his dedicated effort
for his dead war comrades had been a source of strength for her.
Takamasa Itatsu tells Tome Torihama that he
did not have the courage to commit suicide
at war's end. Even now (1961) he always is
overcome with thoughts that "it would have been
good if I had died then" and "I want to go
where my war comrades went when they died."
The publisher, Furusato Nihon Purojekuto (Homeland Japan Project), is an
organization formed in 2002 to introduce Japan's heroes through manga. Both
paper and electronic manga stories have been published, including the following
two about Special Attack Corps members: Shinjuwan kyū gunshin irei hiwa
(Secret stories of memorial to nine war gods of Pearl Harbor) and
Ten
megurishi ya: Oshige-san to kaiten tokubetsu kōgekitaiin (Turn heaven:
Oshige and kaiten special attack corps members). Other manga books published by
Furusato Nihon Purojekuto (Homeland Japan Project) include ones about Japanese
marathon runner Shizō Kanakuri (1891-1983), Saigō Takamori (1828-1877) who led
the Satsuma Rebellion against the Meiji government, and Kodama Gentarō (1852-1906) who
was instrumental in establishing a modern Imperial Japanese military.
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