Last Writings of Second Lieutenant Mitsuharu Gotō
On May 25, 1945, Second Lieutenant Mitsuharu Gotō took off from Bansei Air Base
as the 66th Shinbu Special Attack Squadron Leader and died in a special
(suicide) attack west of Okinawa at the age of 22. He piloted an Army Type 97
Fighter (Allied code name of Nate). After his death in a special attack,
he received a promotion to Captain. He was from Mie Prefecture and graduated
from the Imperial Japanese Army Air Academy in the 57th Class.
He left the following writings:
Day by day the criticality of the war situation is increasing.
The necessity of the country's converting to the highest level of all-out
war is crucial.
I request that you be diligent.
*
I express my gratitude for your guidance when I was young.
I will go to make a taiatari (body-crashing) attack with
supernatural powers through divine protection from spirits of heaven and
earth.
Beginning of May
Shinbu Squadron Commander
Mitsuharu Gotō
*
The first battle will be the last.
Mitsuharu Gotō
*
I want to make a sortie with a perfect plane.
May 1
Mitsuharu Gotō
Writings translated by Bill Gordon
February 2019
The writings come from Takaoka
(2009, 102). The biographical information in the first paragraph comes from
Chiran Tokkō Irei Kenshō Kai (2005, 189), Osuo (2005, 200), and
Takaoka
(2009, 102).
Sources Cited
Chiran Tokkō Irei Kenshō Kai (Chiran Special Attack
Memorial Society), ed. 2005. Konpaku no kiroku: Kyū rikugun tokubetsu
kōgekitai chiran kichi (Record of departed spirits: Former Army Special
Attack Corps Chiran Base). Revised edition, originally published in 2004. Chiran Town, Kagoshima
Prefecture: Chiran Tokkō Irei Kenshō Kai.
Osuo, Kazuhiko. 2005. Tokubetsu kōgekitai no kiroku (rikugun hen)
(Record of special attack corps (Army)). Tōkyō: Kōjinsha.
Takaoka, Osamu, ed. 2009. Chiran tokubetsu kōgekitai
(Chiran special attack forces). Kagoshima City: Japlan.
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