Last Letter of Corporal Kōzō Watanabe to His Parents
On May 27, 1945, Corporal Kōzō Watanabe took off from Chiran Air Base and
died in a special (suicide) attack west of Okinawa at the age of 18. He was a
member of the 431st Shinbu Special Attack Squadron. He piloted an
Army Type 97 Fighter (Allied code name of Nate). After his death in a special
attack, he received a promotion to Second Lieutenant. He was from
Tochigi Prefecture and was a member of the 14th Class of the Army Youth Pilot
(Rikugun Shōhi) training program.
He wrote the following final letter to his parents with a poem at the end:
Father, please forgive me for not contacting you in a very long time. I
can guess from afar that you may be worried. I apologize for my lack of
filial piety.
Father, I think that you too are readily prepared, but I also now have
received an Imperial command for a special attack. Please be glad. Now I am
waiting in the grass at OO [1] Base for a sortie either today or tomorrow.
When this letter arrives, I already will have fallen asleep forever.
However, Father, please never feel lonely. I am going before you, my
Parents. As the long-cherished desire of a young man of Yamato [2], I gladly will
make a taiatari (body-crashing) attack for a great cause. I will inform you
of the news of an instant sinking.
I now have no regrets. Please forgive me for my lack of filial piety
until now.
With an Imperial command today I go
How I will praise my Father and Mother
Father and Mother, farewell.
May 20
Kōzō
Letter translated by Bill Gordon
March 2018
The letter and biographical information on this page come from Chiran Tokkō Irei Kenshō
Kai (2005, 139, 164).
Notes
1. During the war due to counterintelligence,
information such as a place name or number was written with OO in civilian
letters and communication.
2. Yamato is a poetic name for the country of
Japan.
Source 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.
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