The Last Zero Fighter: Firsthand Accounts from WWII Japanese Naval
Pilots
by Dan King
Pacific Press, 2012, 292 pages
Four Zero fighter pilots and one Type 97 Kate torpedo bomber
navigator/observer tell their thrilling training and battle stories through
interviews in Japanese with author Dan King. They get to tell their personal
histories in their own words with minimal interruptions from the author,
although some brief diversions by the author have little relationship to the
main story. For example, a two-page story about the kamikaze unit that made an attack off Iwo Jima
(2nd Mitate Special Attack Squadron) on February 21, 1945,
has no relationship at all to Haruo Yoshino's history, but the account gets
stuck in apparently only because the author interviewed the sister of one of the
pilots who died in the attack. Three Zero pilots covered in the book flew as
escorts of kamikaze squadron aircraft, and one of these three also flew as a
member of a kamikaze squadron but returned safely to base.
The five chapters cover each pilot's Navy experience in roughly chronological
order with helpful section headings. The chapters begin with a description of
the contacts that the author had with the veterans. The style is informal with
no tendency to overly dramatize battles and other events. However, the book
includes many names and details regarding the Navy's organization, which
sometimes can bog down a reader, but these features reflect the authenticity of
these stories and the immense amount of research performed by the author to add
background information and to confirm facts. The book has a
few errors with spelling, grammar, and facts that could have been corrected with
a better editor, but on the other hand Dan King definitely should be
complimented for such a noteworthy accomplishment of communicating effectively these five
pilots' gripping and complex histories in English. The middle section has over
thirty pages of wartime and current-day photographs plus maps.
Toshimitsu Imaizumi flew as an escort for the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps
8th Taigi (Great Justice) Squadron from Ishigakijima toward Okinawa, but no
enemy ships could be located so the squadron returned to base. He gave his thoughts
about pilots who returned to base when assigned to a special (suicide) attack
unit (p. 234)
Imaizumi cracks the image that all Kamikaze pilots were fearless
automatons eager to die for the Emperor. He complained that some pilots
experienced unexplained "engine failure" or became separated in non-existent
clouds. They would return to a different airfield and request maintenance to
fix "problems" in order to buy time. On the other hand, there were also
honorable men who returned time and time again for legitimate reasons. Most
returned because they were unable to find a target. Some commanders
understood this, while others were harsh. He said there were times when
Kamikaze returned from a mission and were then sent out in a biplane
trainer. "Well, that is just a form of execution if you ask me," he said.
On April 14, 1945, Imaizumi got assigned as one of six kamikaze pilots in the
10th Taigi Squadron who flew from Ishigakijima. Two squadron pilots got killed
during the mission, but Imaizumi released his fighter's bomb on a cruiser, which
missed off the ship's stern, and he recovered near the ocean's surface. He then
returned to base with one other pilot. Imaizumi never really explains why he and
the other pilot did not try another attack on the American fleet according to
their orders, but Lt. Cdr. Tamai said that they did well and transferred them to a base
on Taiwan, so they did not participate in any other kamikaze attacks carried out
by the Taigi Unit, which in the end lost 50 of its 130 pilots in kamikaze
missions. Imaizumi explained why he thought his squadron's mission failed (p.
236):
The whole mission went south when the first escort fighter claimed engine
trouble and returned. Lt. Soya [one of two escort fighter pilots] was then
shot down above the clouds in a dogfight, unseen by Imaizumi. What made
Imaizumi's blood boil was Lt. Kurashige, the leader of the bakusō
[bomb-laden] Zeros, claimed engine trouble and returned not to the nearest
airfield, which would have been Miyako Jima (only forty miles west of their
departure point), but to Saishuto, an island located off the southern tip of
the Korean Peninsula. In Imaizumi's eyes, "This proved he was a damn
coward." Imaizumi blamed Kurashige for Miura's ignoble death. "Miura was a
good man. He and the others would have stayed with the group if Kurashige
hadn't turn tail and run." Long after the war, Lt. (jg) Kurashige changed
his last name and his story. He said his engine was fine, but his compass
malfunctioned which led him north by mistake. "He was a liar," Imaizumi
punched a fist into his hand to make a point.
The chapter on Toshimitsu Imaizumi ends with a comment about reporting of
results in air battles including kamikaze missions (p. 241):
The inaccurate recording of success was not only a problem with kill
scores. Many of the Tokkō Kamikaze escort pilots also inflated the
results of their missions. Imaizumi said it was not unusual for an escort
pilot to report hits when there were none. This was done to honor the dead
Kamikaze, but it gave false hope to the men in command. Perhaps, this
misleading information prompted more men to be sent on Kamikaze missions. He
hoped that those who died in the war would not be forgotten. He said, "I
don't ask they be glorified, just remembered for their own personal
sacrifices."
Zero pilot Kaname Harada comments on the last words of dying Japanese
military men, which included kamikaze pilots (p. 68)
He wishes to break the long-held myth that exists in Japan and in other
countries that Japanese fighting men shouted out jingoistic military slogans
at the time of their death. "In my long experience in the war I have seen
many dying men in their last moments. None of them I knew called out for the
Emperor, or shouted a patriotic slogan. The last word spoken by many men was
the name of a loved one, usually their wives or mothers."
Starting in December 1944, two Zero pilots, Isamu Miyazaki and Tomokazu Kasai, became members of Minoru
Genda's famed 343rd Air Group based at Matsuyama Airfield (later at Kanoya,
Kokubu, and Ōmura) and later flew the new
Shidenkai (Allied code name of George) fighter that could compete more effectively with
American aircraft.
In 2014, Dan King published a book about his interviews with Japanese
survivors of the Battle of Iwo Jima, A Tomb Called Iwo Jima: Firsthand
Accounts from Japanese Survivors.
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