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Volume 1 of 4
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Chiran: Tokkōhei no kōfuku shokudō (Chiran: Happy Restaurant of
Special Attack Corps members)
by Santa Uonome
4 volumes
Akita Shoten, 2019 to 2021, Volume 1 - 207 pages, Volume 2 - 205 pages,
Volume 3 - 205
pages, Volume 4 - 207
pages
The four volumes of Chiran: Tokkōhei no kōfuku shokudō (Chiran: Happy
restaurant of Special Attack Corps members) originally appeared as a regular series from Issue
1 in
2019 to Issue 24 in 2020 in the popular semimonthly manga magazine Yangu
Chanpion (Young Champion), which targets young adult men. The 47 chapters of
these four manga books tell stories of
many interactions between the family who operated a local restaurant named Happy
Restaurant, which the air base in Chiran (Kagoshima Prefecture) used as a
designated eating place for Army personnel during the war.
The manga creator Santa Uonome highlights different types of food in many
stories included in four volumes on Chiran. These often include descriptions and
drawings of Kagoshima Prefecture's local food specialties. However, the human
emotions experienced by the pilots remain the focus of these stories. Uonome is
a well-known manga author who has written many other manga stories about food
and war such as Sensō Meshi (War Food) with 12 volumes published through
2026 and Shiawase Gohan (Happy Meals) in four volumes published from 2015 to
2017.
The Chiran stories are loosely based on actual history, but the names of
historical figures have been changed, and some largely fictional characters are
introduced although certain places and events are based on fact. The main
characters of the family of four who work at Happy Restaurant are the following
with the actual names of the historical figures in parentheses:
Tomiko Shimada (Tome Torihama) - operates Happy Restaurant (Tomiya
Restaurant) in small town of Chiran
Satoshi Shimada (Yoshitoshi Torihama) - husband of Tomiko
Eiko Shimada (Mieko Torihama) - eldest daughter
Aiko Shimada (Reiko Torihama) - youngest daughter
Satoshi Shimada is the one manga character of the Shimada (Torihama) family
who differs most from real life. A biography of Tome Torihama,
Chiran inochi no monogatari: "Tokkō no haha" to yobareta Torihama Tome no
shōgai (Chiran life story: Life of Tome Torihama, called "tokkō mother"),
describes her husband Yoshitoshi as someone who commuted by train each day from
Chiran to the nearby town of Kaseda, where he worked at the bus company. He was
not actively involved in the operation of Tome's restaurant in Chiran. In sharp
contrast, in the manga story Satoshi Shimada works as the chief chef at Happy
Restaurant until asked by a childhood friend, now a Captain aboard the aircraft
carrier Suihō, to become the ship's chef. Satoshi accepts, but he dies in battle
when the ship is sunk on October 25, 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
The individual stories in this manga series reflect the tragic atmosphere in
Chiran while many young men came there and soon departed on missions where they
knew that they would not come back alive. The family members at Happy Restaurant
provide a supportive and caring environment for the pilots who will soon depart
with Okinawa, and they performed favors for the pilots such as sending letters
to their families in order to avoid censorship. The stories of special attack
pilots who died in battle after making sorties from Chiran include the
following with the actual pilot names in parentheses:
- Ube [only family name given] (Masaya Abe) - pilot stranded on small island
of Kuroshima, returned to mainland by small boat, and during second special
attack sortie dropped medicine when flew over Kuroshima [detailed
story in Abe
Masaya shōi: Nido senshi shita tokkōhei (Second Lieutenant Masaya Abe:
Special attack soldier who died in battle twice)]
- Fumihiro Kaneyama (Fumihiro Mitsuyama) -
Korean pilot who sang the Korean song Arirang on
the night prior to his departure to make a special attack
- Yoshihiko Uemoto (Hiroshi
Kōno) - pilot who played his
shakuhachi (five-hole bamboo flute) at Happy Restaurant [more
information at
With His Shakuhachi]
- Ōshima [only family name given] (Toyozō Nakajima) - pilot who flew
from Chiran even though his right arm was in a sling due to an injury
Volume 2 of Chiran: Tokkōhei no kōfuku shokudō
(Chiran: Happy restaurant of Special Attack Corps members)
Special (suicide) attack sorties from Chiran Air Base did not begin until
late March 1945. The first volume covers the period prior to this. In 1942, the
Army's Tachiarai Flight School in Fukuoka Prefecture opened a branch school at
Chiran Air Base in Kagoshima Prefecture. Although this manga series portrays
many individual pilots who were stationed at Chiran Air Base, the author also in
many places provides background information about the overall war situation.
A fictional character who appears throughout the four volumes is a Chiran
native named Tamotsu Ida, who is the son of a local liquor store owner and who
is a childhood friend of Eiko Shimada. He becomes an Army pilot, gets assigned
to Daegu Army Air Base in Korea, and makes a special attack sortie from Chiran.
However, his aircraft develops engine problems on the way to Okinawa, and he
makes a crash landing into the sea off Kuroshima Island. When he returns to the
mainland, he is sent to the Shinbu Barracks in Fukuoka Prefecture. This building
is used to detain Special Attack Corps pilots who returned from unsuccessful
suicide missions, since they were considered to be cowards even though some
pilots had a reasonable explanation for the inability to complete a mission such
as engine problems. Staff officers subjected them to daily "reeducation" with the
intention of making them fit for another special attack. After Tamotsu is
released from the Shinbu Barracks, he returns to Chiran and gets assigned to
another special attack sortie, but his mission gets cancelled with the Emperor's
announcement of the end of the war on August 15, 1945.
Volume 3 of Chiran: Tokkōhei no kōfuku shokudō
(Chiran: Happy restaurant of Special Attack Corps members)
The following web pages provide background historical information regarding
some of the fictional episodes depicted in Chiran: Tokkōhei no kōfuku shokudō
(Chiran: Happy restaurant of Special Attack Corps members).
Volume 4 of Chiran: Tokkōhei no kōfuku shokudō
(Chiran: Happy restaurant of Special Attack Corps members)
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