Naze wakamonotachi wa egao de tobitatte itta no ka (Why did the young
men take off with smiling faces?)
by Hatsuyo Torihama
Chichi Shuppansha, 2014, 186 pages
Tome Torihama ran a small restaurant called Tomiya in the town of Chiran,
where the Japanese Army had an air base used for special (suicide) attacks in
the spring of 1945. Many kamikaze pilots [1] frequented her restaurant as Tome
treated them with affection like a mother. In 1980, Hatsuyo Torihama graduated
from junior college and started to work in Chiran as a nutritionist in a nursing home for the aged. In 1983, Hatsuyo married Tome's grandson Yoshikiyo and lived
together with Tome for four years until she went to a nursing home.
Tome passed away in 1992. During those four years together Hatsuyo come to know
Tome's personality and to hear her stories about the many kamikaze pilots she
knew during the war. She found out that Tome always put priority on other
people rather than herself. This book tells about Tome, her family, and the
kamikaze pilots who she had met before they went to their death.
In 1995, Hatsuyo become the third proprietress of Tomiya Ryokan, an inn next
to Tomiya Restaurant (now Hotaru
Museum), in order to continue Tome's legacy. Tome opened Tomiya
Ryokan in 1952 for families with sons who had lost their life during the war.
Tome's daughter Miako, mother of Hatsuyo's husband Yoshikiyo, was the second
proprietress of Tomiya Ryokan, but she passed away in 1974 due to cancer. Tome's
other daughter Reiko had moved to Tokyo after the war's end. In 1995, Hatsuyo's
husband Yoshikiyo
passed away at the age of 39, so she became the person who would continue to tell visitors
about Tome and the kamikaze pilots who flew from Chiran Air Base. At
that time she struggled over whether she was the appropriate person to continue
Tome's legacy, since she had financial and other issues with her husband's death,
and she did not immediately want to take on the responsibility of running the
inn.
The Prologue tells the story of Katsuo Katsumata, who joked with Tome and
others that he had a beneficial name for battle since both his given name and family
name contained the kanji (Chinese character) of katsu, which means "win." On May
4, 1945, Katsumata took off from Chiran as part of a special attack squadron and
never returned. Chapter 1 tells how Hatsuyo became proprietress of Tomiya Ryokan
and explains how she continues Tome's practice of telling visitors to the inn about
the kamikaze pilots who Tome met and their desire to protect their nation and
family. She is disappointed that many people do not realize that they gave their
precious lives to protect their country but instead think that they died
uselessly, were victims in the war, or were forced to go on their missions of
death
to Okinawa. Hatsuyo believes they gave their lives voluntarily in battle for
peace and for the survival of their families and the Japanese people. She thinks
that their feelings and beliefs can be known from the contents of their last
letters even though some say that they were forced to write a certain way or
they did not express their true beliefs since the contents would be censored.
Chapter 2 tells the history of the life of Tome, who lived with her husband
Yoshitori for about ten years before they became formally a couple due
to opposition to the marriage from his family. Like other books about Tome's
life, almost no mention is made of their married life. In 1929 at the age of 27,
Tome opened Tomiya Restaurant in Chiran. In December 1941, the Tachiarai Army Flight
School in Fukuoka Prefecture announced the opening of a branch flight school in Chiran, which gave
Tomiya Restaurant much more business, especially after being designated as an
eating place for Army personnel. One time Tome was roughed up and questioned by
the secret police for having pilots at her restaurant after curfew began. She
provided meals and drinks for many kamikaze pilots soon to depart toward
Okinawa. She secretly sent letters written by pilots if provided to her to
escape the censors. After the war's end, Tome treated occupying American
soldiers in Chiran with the same kindness that she had shown to the Japanese
pilots. Her petitions to remember the pilots brought about the creation in 1955
of the Special Attack Peace Kannon (Goddess of Mercy) in Chiran. She used to go
almost daily to visit in order to burn incense and bring flowers to remember the
young pilots who died. She also supported the building of stone lanterns in
Chiran, with each lantern to represent one Army airman who died in special
attacks from March 1945 at the end of the Pacific War. These lanterns line the
streets in Chiran and the road to the
Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots,
which opened in 1975.
Miako Torihama (second from left),
Tome Torihama (second from right), and
Shintaro Ishihara, author and politician (far right)
The stories of five kamikaze pilots from Chiran are included in Chapter 3:
- Fumihiro MItsuyama - Korean pilot who sang Korean song Arirang to Tome on the
night before his kamikaze mission on May 11, 1945
- Saburō Miyagawa - promised Tome that he would return as a firefly after his
kamikaze mission on June 6, 1945, and a firefly did appear at 9 p.m. that day at
Tomiya Restaurant
- Toyozō Nakajima - flew from Chiran on June 3, 1945, even though his right arm
was injured, and on the evening before went to Tomiya and took bath where Tome cried
when she thought of his not being there any more
- Masaya Abe - first flew from Chiran on April 29, 1945, but was stranded on Kuroshima
Island, and after returning by small boat made final sortie on May 4 when he
dropped medicine and supplies over Kuroshima before continuing on to Okinawa
area for special (suicide) attack
- Tadamasa Itatsu - took off from Chiran Air Base on May 28,
1945, but crash landed at Tokunoshima, and in 1975 became first director of
Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots
The stories about kamikaze pilots and Tome Torihama can also be found in other
books about Tome including the two books listed as Sources at the end of this
book: Hotaru kaeru (The firefly returns) (2001) by Reiko Akabane (Tome's
daughter) and Hiroshi Ishii and Hana no toki wa kanashimi no toki: Chiran tokkō
obasan Torihama Tome monogatari (Flower season, a sad season: Story of Tome
Torihama, aunt of Chiran's kamikaze pilots) (1992) by Masako Aihoshi.
Tome Torihama with Tadamasa Itatsu,
first director of Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots
Hatsuyo Torihama never answers or directly addresses the question in the book's
title: Naze wakamonotachi wa egao de tobitatte itta no ka (Why did the young men
take off with smiling faces?). Based on the book's content, it might be more
appropriately titled Guidance for Today from Tome Torihama's Life and Her
Experiences with Tokkō (Special Attack) Pilots. Hatsuyo believes that her life,
philosophy, and sayings can provide guidance for persons who live in today's world. Some
of Tome's sayings that Hatsuyo presents in Chapter 4 include the following:
- "Desire only good things. Surely good things will come."
- "A person should not live and judge by appearances."
- "Every person is born good."
- "There are things more important than life. That is keeping one's goodness."
- "Since I received life from these youths [pilots], in this way it allowed me to
live long."
The final chapter presents more lessons that can be learned from Tome Torihama's
life with emphasis on how she had a simple lifestyle where she treated others
like family especially when they were in a difficult situation such as the kamikaze pilots
before they departed Chiran. A puzzling section in Chapter 5 describes that many residents of
Chiran Town did not think good about Tome even after she became famous
throughout Japan. Hatsuyo does not say what were the specific allegations
against her, and she just has some speculations as to why people may have felt
that way.
Hatsuyo Torihama, proprietress of Tomiya Ryokan,
with Bill Gordon, creator of Kamikaze Images web site
(June 2004)
Hatsuyo Torihama provides a unique perspective by her living with Tome Torihama
for four years and not knowing her prior to meeting her husband. Although mostly
told before by others, Hatsuyo's stories both in this book and in her talks to
Tomiya Ryokan visitors add to Tome's legend, which already reached a high level with the release of two movies about her relationships with
kamikaze pilots: Hotaru (Firefly) in 2001 and Ore wa kimi no tame ni koso shini
ni iku (I go to die for you, English title: For Those We Love) in
2007.
Note
1. The word kamikaze was not used by the Japanese
Army to refer to pilots who carried out special (suicide) attacks. The Japanese
Navy had the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps. This review uses the word kamikaze
to describe the Army pilots who went on suicide attacks, since this is the
common name used outside Japan for both Japanese Navy and Army airmen in the
Special Attack Corps.
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