Yatabe Naval Air Group Pilot Statue and Guard Gate
Tōkamachi City, Niigata Prefecture
Ken'ichi Watanabe became a member of the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps Shōwa
Unit from Yatabe Naval Air Group in March 1945. He and only 13 other Shōwa Unit
members survived the war. In the postwar period he served as chief priest
for many years at Entsūji, a Buddhist Temple in Tokamachi City
[1], Niigata Prefecture.
Entsūji has three items together in one area in order to remember Yatabe
Naval Air Group: a pilot statue, a column from the guard gate, and a stone
plaque that lists the names of the 54 men of the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps
Shōwa Unit.
A metal plaque on the pedestal of the pilot statue has engraved the following
words:
We humbly dedicate this monument to those men in our air group who died
in battle during the Greater East Asia War. Here are reminders of our
friends who gave their lives during the dawn of their youth. Our prayer is
that their spirits may rise up and forever bear witness to their sad
history.
April 1979
Yatabe Naval Air Group Supporters
A separate stone plaque on the left side of the area dedicated to Yatabe
Naval Air Group explains how a column from the former Yatabe Air Base guard gate
ended up at Entsūji:
In April 1979, a memorial service took place at Entsūji Temple for the
erection of the statue of an airman, which had been the deep desire of Ken'ichi Watanabe for
35 years after the war's end. Three years later an abandoned old stone
column on a street corner in Yatabe Town [2] was confirmed to be part of the
guard gate of our air group. It was moved to this location, and its
commanding appearance revived as it stands together side by side with the
statue.
Yūji Naitō
Yūji Naitō, one of the Kamikaze Corps Shōwa Unit members who survived the
war, was instrumental in the transfer of the column of the former Yatabe Air
Base guard gate. After the end of the war, he started work at Eisai, now a large
Japanese pharmaceuticals company. He became President of Eisai in 1966 and
Chairman in 1988. He passed away in 2005 at the age of 85.
The Kamikaze Corps Shōwa Unit plaque at the right side of the guard gate
column lists the names of the 40 men who died during World War II and 14 men,
including Ken'ichi Watanabe, who survived to the war's end. A pamphlet on the
Kamikaze Corps Shōwa Unit, available from the temple, lists the names of the 40
men who died during the war as follows:
- 35 men died from April 14 to May 11, 1945, in special attacks as members
of one of the seven Shōwa Squadrons
- 2 men died on June 22, 1945, in special attacks as members of the 1st
Jinrai Bomber Squadron (apparently they were reassigned after originally
being part of the Shōwa Unit)
- 3 men died for other reasons
-
one died at airfield when his own bomb fell and exploded while taking off
-
one died after crash landing at Kikaijima when his plane developed engine
problems after takeoff
-
one died at airfield
Yatabe Naval Air Group
Pilot Statue
The Yatabe Naval Air Group
Monument was erected in 2013 on the grounds of the former Yatabe Air Base in
what is now Tsukuba City in Ibaraki Prefecture.
Notes
1. Entsūji used to be located in Nakajō Village,
which was part of a 1954 merger to became the old town of Tokamachi.
2. Yatabe Town is now part of Tsukuba City in
Ibaraki Prefecture.
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