Yamaguchi Special Attack Corps Monument
Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture
The Special Attack Corps Monument at Yamaguchi Prefecture Gokoku Jinja is the
15th one erected nationwide with support from the Tokkōtai Commemoration Peace
Memorial Association and the Association to Pass On the Japanese Spirit
(Nihonjin no kokoro o tsutaeru kai). The bronze figure of the front half of a
kamikaze pilot standing on a stone pedestal honors young men who died in battle
while carrying out special (suicide) attacks during the final part of the
Pacific War.
The large characters on the plaque on the front face of the pedestal say "Ā
tokkō" (Ah, Special Attacks). The plaque on front also has in small characters
the following statement: "We certainly will never forget you."
A gokoku jinja is a Shinto shrine dedicated to persons from a prefecture or
other area who died to defend the country of Japan. Each gokoku jinja has
several monuments to remember those persons who died in wars.
Replicas of the standing kamikaze pilot have been erected at other shrines
such as Fukui Gokoku Jinja,
Miyagi Gokoku Jinja,
Fukuoka Gokoku Jinja, and
Ehime
Gokoku Jinja. The monuments have the same bronze figure of the front half of a
kamikaze pilot standing on a stone pedestal, but the monument arrangements and
the explanatory plaques or inscriptions differ between locations. Unlike most
other shrines, the Yamaguchi Special Attack Corps Monument has no explanation
other than the front plaque.
The left side of the pedestal has a small plaque with information about the
monument's erection. The Yamaguchi Special Attack Corps Monument was unveiled on
April 29, 2015, 70 years after the end of the Greater East Asia War. The first
Special Attack Corps Monument supported by the Tokkōtai Commemoration Peace
Memorial Association was erected in 2007.
Yamaguchi Gokoku Jinja, constructed in 1941, honors over 52,000 persons from
Yamaguchi Prefecture who died in wars.
The following last letters were written by Special Attack Corps members from
Yamaguchi Prefecture who died in special attacks:
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