Yokaren monogatari (Yokaren story)
Edited by Ami Town
Ami Town, 2009, 74 pages
This short book targeted toward upper elementary school and lower junior high
school students presents an
excellent introduction on what Yokaren (Japanese Naval Preparatory Flight
Training Program) trainees experienced both while in training and after
graduation in the Navy. Tsuchiura Naval Air Group in Ami Town, Ibaraki
Prefecture, was the location of the largest Yokaren base. Ami Town put together
this book with a focus on local stories, and it is sold at the Yokaren Peace
Memorial Museum bookstore located in Ami Town.
Yokaren monogatari (Yokaren story) has 20 short easy-to-read chapters
with one chapter of six pages about special (suicide) attacks carried out by
many Yokaren graduates. The book has about 50 historical photos (many also on
display at the Yokaren Museum), 25 drawings such as special attack aircraft, and
15 current photos such as the Yokaren Museum and monuments.
The Yokaren started in 1930 at Yokosuka City in Kanagawa Prefecture and in
1939 moved to the Tsuchiura Naval Air Group at the base in Ami Town. The Navy
added several other Yokaren bases (e.g., Kagoshima, Mie) later in World War II
as the number of trainees sharply increased. Numerous Yokaren-trained pilots and
crewmembers carried out kamikaze attacks on Allied ships, and many more young
men were still in training at the end of the war. About 80 percent of the
graduates of the Yokaren died in battle during World War II (p. 62).
This book features the following story of Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Fusao Itoga whose hometown was Ami
Town and who died in a suicide attack (pp. 59-60):
Fusao Itoga was born and grew up in the Yoshihara neighborhood of Ami Town in
1925. He graduated with outstanding grades from Asahi No. 2 Elementary School in
the advanced course. He joined the Yokaren in December 1941 and graduated in
February 1944.
After Itoga served in several Naval Air Groups at different locations, he
volunteered to become a Kamikaze Special Attack Corps member in the Jinrai Butai (Thunder
Gods Corps) as a crewmember in a Navy Type 1 Attack Bomber (Allied code name of
Betty) that carried an ōka human bomb. On April 16, 1945, he took off from
Kanoya Naval Air Base in Kagoshima Prefecture in order to attack one of the
American warships that were attacking the main island of Okinawa.
Fusao Itoga's younger brother Shōgo now lives in the Yoshihara house where
they were raised together. He talked about memories of his older brother, "On
Sunday, the base's leave day, Older Brother Fusao brought a boxed lunch from the
base and often was accompanied by friends who came to our home. My older brother
was a popular type. When he came to our home by himself, on his return to Tsuchiura Naval
Air Base we rode a bicycle together so I could see him off."
Fusao Itoga
Yokaren trainees sleeping in hammocks
|
