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Kaiten pilot Yūzō Watanabe
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Tokkō no shima 3 (The Isle of Tokkou 3)
by Syuho Sato
Hōbunsha, 2011, 184 pages
Volume 2 of the manga series Tokkō no shima (The Isle of Tokkou) ends
with the Japanese submarine I-53 under attack by Grumman fighters while still in
sight of the Japan's southern home island of Kyushu. I-53 has on board four kaiten
pilots on their way to Kossol Passage in the Palau Islands in order to attack
Allied ships there. Two I-53 kaiten pilots, Yūzō Watanabe and Masao Sekiguchi,
are the main characters of this manga series. The I-53 submarine is part of the Kongō Unit, which includes six I-class submarines each carrying four
kaiten
weapons. Kongō Unit's mission is to attack various enemy anchorages in January
1945, and the six submarines all make their sorties from the kaiten base on
Ōtsushima
Island in the Seto Inland Sea where kaiten pilots have been in training for several months. The entire volume of Tokkō no
shima 3
(The Isle of Tokkou 3) covers a relatively short period of time in which I-53
first gets bombed by five enemy planes and then gets subjected to many depth
charges dropped from three enemy ships.
In contrast to Volume 2, which features the actual historical figure
Lieutenant Junior Grade Sekio Nishina who made the first successful kaiten
attack by sinking the large oil tanker Mississinewa (AO-59) at Ulithi,
this volume portrays a fictional event. Submarine I-53 did participate as part
of the Kongō Unit, but it did not have bombs and depth charges dropped on it
even before getting out of sight of Kyūshū. Reference sources on kaiten history
make no mention of such an attack on I-53 on its way to Kossol Passage (e.g.,
Konada 2006, 116-25; Mediasion 2006, 47; Uehara 2000, 250-6).
The depth charge attack by the three enemy destroyers on the I-53 submarine
gets depicted in the book more with drawings than with dialogue or narration.
The dialogue remains sparse like the first two volumes, but it portrays the
close relationship between Sekiguchi and Watanabe. Sekiguchi gets seriously
injured with a broken leg when a depth charge explodes right above the
submarine, and water starts to flood the ship. The crew manages to stop the
flooding, but depth charges continue to be dropped. The three remaining
kaiten pilots plead with the captain to let them attack the enemy ships with
kaiten weapons, but an inspection indicates that only one kaiten is in good
enough shape to be launched since the others have been damaged by the depth
charges. Watanabe first gets in the usable kaiten, but then the injured
Sekiguchi declares that he wants to pilot this kaiten since he was born for this
day. In the midst of exploding depth charges around the submarine, Sekiguchi
says his final goodbye to his close friend Watanabe, the other kaiten pilots,
and the I-53 crew in an overly long scene when considering the danger.
After Sekiguchi's kaiten is launched, he tries to use it to lead the three
destroyers away from the I-53 submarine so that it may escape from the enemy.
Depth charges are dropped on Sekiguchi's kaiten, and the final page's two
drawings seem to indicate that his kaiten has been hit and damaged, but they are
not clear whether it has been destroyed. Most likely this manga series will
continue with at least one other volume, since submarine I-53 in actual history did launch
three kaiten weapons after reaching Kossol Passage. The final frame shows
Sekiguchi with teeth clenched in fierce determination as he says, "Watanabe . .
., I will protect the lives of you all."
Sources Cited
Konada, Toshiharu, and Noriaki Kataoka. 2006. Tokkō
kaiten sen: Kaiten tokkōtai taichō no kaisō (Special attack kaiten
battles: Kaiten special attack corps leader's reminiscences). Tōkyō:
Kōjinsha.
The Mediasion Co. 2006a. Ningen gyorai kaiten (Kaiten
human torpedo). Hiroshima: The Mediasion Co.
Uehara, Mitsuharu. 2000. "Kaiten" sono seishun gunshō:
Tokkō senkōtei no otokotachi ("Kaiten" youth: Men of special
attack submarines). Tōkyō: Shōunsha.
Sekiguchi (on crutches) says to Watanabe (center),
"If you live, I will be able to die."
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