Last Letter from Lance Corporal Hideo Fujii to His Two Younger Sisters and
One Younger Brother
At 1600 hours on April 6, 1945, Lance Corporal Hideo Fujii took off from Bansei Army
Air Base as a member of the 73rd Shinbu Special Attack Squadron and died in
battle near Okinawa at the age of 19. After his death, he received a special
promotion to Second Lieutenant.
Fujii was born in 1926 and was from Fukui City. He joined the 15th Kō Class
of the Army Youth Pilot (Rikugun Shōhi) Program and received training at
Ōtsu, Utsunomiya, 13th Kyōiku Hikōtai (Flight Training Unit) 101st Butai in
Pyongyang (Korea), and 23rd Rensei Hikōtai. On March 29, 1945, he was assigned
officially as a member of the Special Attack Corps and became a member of the
73rd Shinbu Squadron when it was formed on March 31, 1945.
He wrote the following last letter to his two younger sisters and one younger
brother:
Tsuyako, Michiko, and Norio,
I hope that you are doing well. Now I go in order to strike down the
hated Americans and British.
Tsuyako, Michiko, and Norio, please follow the instructions of Father and
Mother, train your bodies, become wonderful persons, and become useful
individuals. And for my portion please diligently do your best for Father
and Mother.
Goodbye.
Written on board my plane at 0907 on April 6, 1945
Army Special Attack Corps Member
Shinbu Unit, Hideo Fujii
He also wrote the following:
Smiling cheerfully
In death with enemy ship
Written at 2340 on April 5, 1945
Letter translated by Bill Gordon
December 2017
The letter and other information on this page come from Naemura
(1993, 113-4).
Source 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.
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