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Last Letters of Second Lieutenant Hidehiko Nakajima to His Family

On June 8, 1945, Second Lieutenant Hidehiko Nakajima took off from Bansei Air Base and died in a special (suicide) attack west of Okinawa at the age of 23. He was leader of the 144th Shinbu Squadron, which also had the name of 4th Tsurugi (Sword) Squadron. He piloted an Army Hayabusa Type 1 Fighter (Allied code name of Oscar). After his death in a special attack, he received a promotion to Captain. He was from Nakatsu City in Ōita Prefecture and graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Air Academy in the 57th Class.

The last three postcards from Hidehiko arrived together in June at his home without his writing any date on them. They each had a postmark from Kaseda Town in Kagoshima Prefecture, which was where Bansei Air Base was located, but the date could not be made out. They had no return address. These three postcards have been translated below:

To Father:

Dear Father, now I am here. In a few hours will be the sortie, and I will show you a splendid sinking with an explosion. I have arranged my personal items and sent them. From here I will take only my military sword. Sincerest regards.

To Mother:

Thank you for everything you have done. It will be a fine sortie a few hours later. Take care of yourself.  Pardon me for leaving a step before you. Farewell.

To Younger Sister:

Your older brother goes bravely to the Sea of OO [1]. Now I have few words to say. Just weep your eyes out at the complete destruction of the arrogant enemy. Take care of yourself.


Letters translated by Bill Gordon
March 2010

The letters come from Shirakawa (2002, 101-2). The biographical information on this page comes from Naemura (1993, 179) and Osuo (2005, 206).

Eiko Shirakawa wrote the book Sara no hana: "Tokkō" Okinawa no umi ni chiru, Nakajima Hidehiko no kiroku (Sal flower: Dying in special attack in Sea of Okinawa, record of Hidehiko Nakajima) (2002), which contains about 80 letters and postcards primarily written by Hidehiko Nakajima with most from the period after his entrance into the Army Air Academy on April 1, 1941.

Note

1. The word "Okinawa" appears to have been censored here in the postcard.

Sources Cited

Naemura, Hichirō. 1993. Rikugun saigo no tokkō kichi: Bansei tokkōtaiin no isho to isatsu (Army's last special attack base: Last letters and photographs of Bansei special attack corps members). Ōsaka: Tōhō Shuppan.

Osuo, Kazuhiko. 2005. Tokubetsu kōgekitai no kiroku (rikugun hen) (Record of special attack corps (Army)). Tōkyō: Kōjinsha.

Shirakawa, Eiko. 2002. Sara no hana: "Tokkō" Okinawa no umi ni chiru, Nakajima Hidehiko no kiroku (Sal flower: Dying in special attack in Sea of Okinawa, record of Hidehiko Nakajima). Tōkyō: Bungeisha.