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Last Letters of Navy
Special Attack Corps (1971)
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Last Letter of Flight Petty Officer 2nd Class Kazuo Yamaguchi to His Parents
At 1310 on April 6, 1945, Flight Petty Officer 2nd Class Kazuo Yamaguchi took
off from Kokubu No. 1 Air Base as pilot in a Zero fighter carrying a 250-kg bomb. He was a member of the Kamikaze
Special Attack Corps 3rd Mitate Squadron from the 252nd Naval Air Group. He died
in a special (suicide) attack off Amami Ōshima at the age of 19. He was from
Yamaguchi Prefecture and was a member of the 12th Kō Class of the Navy's Yokaren
(Preparatory Flight Training Program).
He wrote the following final letter:
Dear Father and Mother,
Now I depart for death.
There is nothing to say.
Please forgive me for the many times when I lacked filial piety during my
lifetime.
Kazuo
Letter translated by Bill Gordon
July 2018
The letter comes from Matsugi
(1971, 130). The biographical information in the first paragraph comes from
Matsugi
(1971, 130) and Osuo (2005, 230).
Sources Cited
Matsugi, Fujio, ed. 1971. Kaigun tokubetsu kōgekitai no isho (Last letters of Navy Special Attack Corps).
Tōkyō: KK Bestsellers.
Osuo, Kazuhiko. 2005. Tokubetsu kōgekitai no kiroku (kaigun
hen) (Record of special attack corps (Navy)). Tōkyō: Kōjinsha.
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