Writing of Lieutenant Junior Grade Masataka Furukawa
At 1610 on May 29, 1945, Lieutenant Junior Grade Masataka Furukawa took off
from Shinchiku Airfield in Taiwan as navigator/observer in a Type 97 Carrier Attack Bomber
(Allied code name of Kate) carrying an 800-kg bomb and died in a special
(suicide) attack off Okinawa at the age of 22. He was a member of the Kamikaze
Special Attack Corps Shinten Squadron. He was from Nara
Prefecture, attended Ōsaka College of Foreign Languages, and was a member of the
13th Class of the Navy's Flight Reserve Students (Hikō Yobi Gakusei). He was
promoted two grades to Lieutenant Commander after his death by special attack.
He wrote the following in late 1943 on the morning when he departed to join
the Navy:
All of my 22 years of life have not been with my own strength but rather
with my Mother's great kindness. Moreover, my deceased Father's spirit also
is within that kindness of my Mother.
My peaceful 22 years was due to the country's spiritual strength.
Now if I die for the country's crisis, my beloved peace will not come. I
love peace more than anything.
For the love of peace, I understand the urgency of fighting. For the
hatred of war, I will participate in the war.
I pray that many people will understand the pure-hearted feelings of us
young people.
I will end only with a few words of thanks for my life of 22 years.
Everything moves naturally. Everything is inevitable.
Writing translated by Bill Gordon
December 2018
The writing comes from Yasukuni Jinja (2000, 67-8). The biographical information on this page comes from
Osuo (2005, 176) and Yasukuni Jinja (2000, 67).
Sources Cited
Osuo, Kazuhiko. 2005. Tokubetsu kōgekitai no kiroku (rikugun hen)
(Record of special attack corps (Army)). Tōkyō: Kōjinsha.
Yasukuni Jinja, ed. 2000. Eirei
no koto no ha (6) (Words of the spirits of war heroes, Volume 6).
Tōkyō: Yasukuni Jinja Shamusho.
|
