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Kōji Kohama (left) and
Shunzō Marume (right)
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Akatonbo (Red Dragonfly) "Production Site" Kanoya: School Girls Responsible
for Assembly (Akatonbo "kyōkyūchi" Kanoya: Joseitora kumitate ninau)
Researched and written by Shūji Fukano and Fusako Kadota
Pages 276-278 of Tokkō kono chi yori: Kagoshima shutsugeki no kiroku
(Special attacks from this land: Record of Kagoshima sorties)
Minaminippon Shinbunsha, 2016
In August 1945, Navy Flight Petty Officer 1st Class
Shunzō Marume (89
years old, Toyonaka City, Ōsaka Prefecture), who was brought up in Nogami
in
West Shibushi Village (now Shibushi City), was assigned to the 1081st Air Group,
which transported fighter aircraft by air.
In May 1942, he entered the 18th Otsu Class of the Yokaren (Navy's
Preparatory Flight Training Program). In January 1945, he finished fighter pilot training at Ōmura Naval Air Group in Nagasaki Prefecture, and
he went as an
instructor to Tomitaka Naval Air Group in Miyazaki Prefecture. In March 1945, he
moved to the 1081st Air Group.
He was ordered to move Type 93 Intermediate Trainers (nicknamed Akatonbo or
Red Dragonfly) from Kanoya Naval Air Base in Kagoshima Prefecture to Hakata
Naval Air Base in Fukuoka Prefecture, which he did five or six times in the latter
part of July and the first part of August.
On August 13 or 14, soon after he departed from Kanoya, his engine stopped
due to poor quality fuel. He made a crash landing and overturned in a paddy
field at Shinjō in Tarumi City. Marume was injured as he broke several front
teeth.
Marume says, "When I returned to Kanoya, I was told, 'There still are
Intermediate Trainers. Take them from here.'" On the 16th at Hakata where he had
delivered an Intermediate Trainer, he officially found out that the war had ended.
"I vaguely had understood that Intermediate Trainers were for use in special
(suicide) attacks," he says.
Kōji Kohama (88 years old, Nagaobaru-chō, Kanoya City) was a worker at
the 22nd Naval Air Arsenal connected with Kanoya Naval Air Base, and in
1944 he was responsible for assembly of Type 93 Intermediate Trainers at the Air
Arsenal.
Intermediate Trainers came to Kanoya after they had been disassembled, packed
in wooden crates, and shipped by rail. In February 1944, students at
Kagoshima Prefecture 1st Girls High School were mobilized and were added to
assembly operations. "When two girl students rode on the horizontal stabilizer, instead of
using weights, in order that the plane body would not rise up in a test flight, an
officer from the General Affairs Section gave everyone a severe scolding, 'Why in the hell
are you letting these girls ride the plane?'"
It was not known for how long assembly of Intermediate Trainers would
continue at the Aircraft Arsenal. However, Marume's testimony suggests that
Kanoya was a key "supply location" for Intermediate Trainers.
There is only one time during the Pacific War when a Type 93 Intermediate
Trainer special attack unit made an actual attack. During the middle of the
night on July 29, 1945, until the dawn of July 30, seven planes of the 3rd Ryūko
Squadron made a sortie from Miyakojima in Okinawa Prefecture and achieved battle
success when a destroyer was sunk off the coast of Kadena on the main island of
Okinawa.
Just before war's end, numerous Intermediate Trainer special attack units
were being advanced secretly to each of the air bases in Kagoshima Prefecture.
Moreover, the war's end was just before some of these aircraft would make sorties.
The military burned and disposed of documents that would provide proof
regarding
the situation at the war's end when the Intermediate Trainers did not go as
far as to make sorties. Only a few persons in veteran associations who were there
in those days know the truth.
Kagoshima Prefecture 1st Girls High School
at Kanoya Aircraft Arsenal during Type 93
Intermediate Trainer assembly production
(provided by Kagoshima Prefecture
1st Girls High School Alumni Association)
Translated by Bill Gordon
May 2026
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