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Kaiten pilot Yūzō Watanabe
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Tokkō no shima 2 (The Isle of Tokkou 2)
by Syuho Sato
Hōbunsha, 2011, 196 pages
Tokkō no shima 2 (The Isle of Tokkou 2) continues the manga comic
story of Yūzō Watanabe and other Japanese Navy kaiten (human torpedo) pilots at
a secret base on the small island of Ōtsushima in the Seto Inland Sea in
Yamaguchi Prefecture. Volume 2 contains Chapters 8 to 15, which cover the sortie
and success of the first kaiten mission by the Kikusui Group in Ulithi in
November 1944 and the sortie of the second kaiten mission from Ōtsushima by the Kongō Group in late December 1944. Although the book includes fictional
characters such as Watanabe and his friend Masao Sekiguchi, the story is based
on actual history with the kaiten base and kaiten missions being accurately
portrayed and with inclusion of some real historical characters such as
Lieutenant Junior Grade Sekio Nishina, who carried out the first successful
kaiten attack by sinking the large oil tanker Mississinewa (AO-59) at Ulithi.
The manga's realistic drawings and sparse dialogue depict the emotions and thoughts of
the kaiten pilots as they face death.
Volume 2 opens with the Japanese Navy's first kamikaze squadron that made
successful attacks on American ships in the Philippines on October 25, 1944. The
scene quickly switches to Ōtsushima Kaiten Base, where an announcement is made
of names of the 12 kaiten pilots selected for the Kikusui Group, made up of
three I-class submarines that will carry four kaiten each to make an attack on
ships at the American anchorage in Ulithi. Watanabe and his friend Sekiguchi do
not get selected for the Kikusui Group, but Nishina will lead the group to Ulithi as one of the 12
kaiten pilots. Nishina and Lieutenant Hiroshi Kuroki had developed the kaiten
weapon, but Kuroki had died a couple of months earlier during a training accident off
Ōtsushima.
The selected kaiten pilots attend a farewell party, but Watanabe finds Nishina
instead working on a kaiten in the Ōtsushima workshop since he wants to ensure success of the mission to
Ulithi. Watanabe, whose hobby is drawing, asks the long-haired unshaven Nishina
to let him draw a portrait of him. As Watanabe draws, Nishina talks fondly of
his family and explains his promise with Kuroki to not cut his hair until
crashing into an enemy ship.
The three submarines making up the Kikusui Unit sortie from Tokuyama Harbor on
November 8, 1944. In the sendoff ceremony, Nishina carries a small white box
with Kuroki's ashes, which will go with him in the I-47 submarine and in his
kaiten during the attack. Early in the morning of November 20, 1944, about 30 minutes after the I-47 captain launches the
four kaiten, a tall column of smoke
arises from the middle of the Ulithi anchorage. Although not known at the time,
this smoke came from the large oil tanker Mississinewa (AO-59), which
quickly sank after a kaiten hit. It was not known with certainty which kaiten
pilot sank the tanker, but the known facts seem to indicate that it was the
kaiten piloted by Sekio Nishina.
Japanese Navy officials conclude that the kaiten attack at Ulithi was a
resounding success with the sinking of three aircraft carriers and two
battleships, but the actual results were much less. The Ōtsushima Kaiten Base
commander invokes the names of Kuroki and Nishina to encourage other kaiten
pilots to follow them, but Watanabe and his friend Sekiguchi, now portrayed to
be more mature with unshaven faces, openly wonder about the accuracy of the
reported kaiten battle results. They talk together on the shore of Ōtsushima as
Watanabe sketches a self portrait by using a small piece of a mirror. He tells
Sekiguchi that Nishina had explained to him before his sortie that in the future
it would be much more difficult to attack anchorages after the first attack in
Ulithi, so the kaiten weapons would need to focus their attacks on ships at sea.
Watanabe and Sekiguchi get assigned to the next kaiten mission on the I-53
submarine, which is part of the Kongō Unit of several submarines with kaiten
that will attack various anchorages in January 1945. Sekiguchi questions the
commander as to the wisdom of attacking anchorages rather than ships at sea, but
the commander hits Sekiguchi in the face for questioning an order from the Combined Fleet
Headquarters. He gets further beaten by other men outside the barracks. This
incident in the story most likely would never have happened where an order from
the commander would be openly questioned in front of others, since the Japanese
Navy's training instilled absolute obedience to orders from above.
Before Watanabe's sortie, he gets leave for an overnight stay with his
family. They are overjoyed to see him and think that he has been flying planes,
since he keeps his assignment to a kaiten base a secret. As he prepares to
leave, he lets his
mother see his book of drawings, which include some with the kaiten weapon, so
she realizes something of the nature of his real assignment. As Watanabe rides
the train back to base, he sketches his family as they stood saying goodbye to
him at the train station. Tears from his eyes drop onto the sketch.
When Watanabe returns to base, he goes on a successful practice kaiten run.
However, Sekiguchi's kaiten gets stuck on the sea bottom, and he suffers minor
injuries. As he lies down in a bed recovering, he wonders for what reason he
will die as he talks with Watanabe. Sekiguchi and Watanabe board the I-53
submarine carrying four kaiten, which leaves Ōtsushima
in late December with a planned trip of about two weeks in order to attack
Allied ships at Kossol Passage in the Palau Islands on January 11, 1945. The
kaiten pilots get a formal sendoff from Ōtsushima while Watanabe remembers
Nishina and his earlier sendoff. The I-53 submarine gets attacked by Grumman fighters while still in
sight of Kyushu. Volume 2 ends abruptly with an explosion on the surface of the sea
without knowing what happened to I-53 and the men inside.
Tokkō no shima 2 (The Isle of Tokkou 2) was published five years
after the first volume's publication in 2006. Volume 3 continues Watanabe's
adventures in this provocative and well-researched manga comic series.
Smoke rising after kaiten crashed into
oil tanker Mississinewa (AO-59)
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