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Kaiten pilot Yūzō Watanabe
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Tokkō no shima 5 (The Isle of Tokkou 5)
by Syuho Sato
Hōbunsha, 2012, 182 pages
Tokkō no shima 5 (The Isle of Tokkou 5) continues with the story of
Flight Petty Officer 2nd Class Yūzō Watanabe, kaiten human torpedo pilot.
Volume 4 ended with him passed out in his kaiten due to toxic fumes from water
that had leaked into the kaiten. On January 15, 1945, the I-53 submarine, which
had carried three kaiten to Kossol Passage in the Palau Islands, successfully launched two
kaiten weapons at Allied ships in the anchorage, but
these two did not reach any target before exploding. Watanabe's kaiten failed to
launch from the I-53 submarine, so the captain ordered his submarine to surface
so a rescue attempt could be made, since there is no passage from the submarine to
Watanabe's kaiten. Volume 5 begins at the point when the I-53 submarine has
finished surfacing despite enemy ships within firing range.
Several crewmen exit the submarine hatch and hurry to Watanabe's kaiten while
enemy ships fire at the submarine. They carry the unconscious Watanabe from the
kaiten back to the submarine entrance. As the hatch is closed, a torpedo launched from
one of the enemy ships hits the submarine but appears to cause only minor
damage. Four enemy ships soon start to drop depth charges on the submarine that
has dived as deep as possible. One wounded crewman, who thinks everyone will
die, can hold back no more and blames the submarine's precarious situation on
the captain's decision to surface and rescue Watanabe from the kaiten. The
captain tells the crewman to calm down and says they can escape as before
when depth charges were being dropped on them.
The manga comic effectively depicts the apprehension and terror of the
submarine crew who are hearing and feeling depth charges explode around them. As the
I-53 submarine remains deeply submerged for several hours, the oxygen level and
batteries become low, and the inside temperature heats up to nearly unbearable
levels. The crewmen beg the captain to have the submarine surface so that they
can die fighting rather than in vain deep in the sea. The captain finally orders
the I-53 to surface, and the crewmen are overjoyed to find high waves, a hard
rain, and nearly zero visibility. One crewman shouts that this miracle came
about due to a kamikaze (divine wind) that blew. The submarine gets through the
enemy ships and returns to the kaiten base at Ōtsushima in two weeks.
When Yūzō Watanabe was recovered from his kaiten and carried inside the
submarine, he was given oxygen. However, he remained unconscious for several
hours, and he did not regain consciousness until the submarine surfaced during
the driving rain. During his unconsciousness, he dreamed that he was in a small
boat heading toward the torii gate at Kudan, which is the hill in Tokyo where Yasukuni Shrine
is located. Yasukuni is the place where the spirits of dead soldiers were said to go. Around him in other small
boats were kaiten pilots who had died already such as Masao Sekiguchi,
Watanabe's close friend whose kaiten saved the I-53 submarine when it drew away
three enemy destroyers to allow the I-53 to escape, and Lieutenant Junior Grade Sekio
Nishina, one of the co-creators of the kaiten weapon who died when his kaiten
successfully crashed into and sank a large oil tanker at the Ulithi anchorage on
November 20, 1944. In Watanabe's dream, the others reach a large ship and climb
up rope ladders to the deck. The dream ends as the voice of an unseen person
from the ship tells Watanabe to live.
Watanabe returns extremely depressed to the kaiten base at Ōtsushima, since
he did not carry out his mission of crashing his kaiten into an enemy ship. On
February 11, 1945, officers meet at naval headquarters in Kure to discuss the
results of the Kongō Unit, which included six I-class submarines that each
carried four kaiten weapons. They conclude that 18 enemy ships in total have
been hit and sunk by kaiten launched from Kongō Unit submarines, even though
after the war American records showed that no ships had been sunk. Watanabe begs
the kaiten base commander at Ōtsushima to be assigned to the next kaiten
mission, which is the Chihaya Unit scheduled to sortie on February 20 with 14
kaiten on three I-class submarines. The commander refuses his request, since he
strongly believes that a kaiten pilot should not be sent again on a mission if
he failed in the initial one. Watanabe is assigned as an instructor and
accompanies a trainee inside a kaiten when there is a training run. Volume 5
ends with one of the top officers lecturing
kaiten pilots, including the Chihaya Unit pilots and Watanabe. He exhorts
them to achieve battle results and apparently refers to those who do not as
cowards. He says, "If the [kaiten's] screw does not turn, try to turn it
even by
your hands and plunge into a ship." The manga story's last frame of Volume
5 shows
Watanabe in anguish as he hears the commander's words.
Volume 5, like previous volumes, has sparse dialog with an emphasis on drawings
that illustrate the emotions and actions of the characters. The manga series is
based on historical facts with a few minor changes. In real history, the I-53 submarine
actually carried four kaiten manned torpedoes
to Kossol Passage in the Palau Islands (Konada 2006, 116-25; Mediasion 2006, 47,
80). Three kaiten weapons were launched in the darkness of the early morning of
January 12, 1945. The final kaiten
piloted by Ensign Minoru Kuge filled with gas prior to his launch, and he passed
out before the order for launch. The submarine surfaced in the darkness and
recovered him. Kuge's experience has similarities to the fictional account of
Yūzō Watanabe.
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. 2006. Ningen gyorai kaiten (Kaiten
human torpedo). Hiroshima: The Mediasion Co.
I-53 submarine crewmen recover
unconscious Yūzō Watanabe from kaiten
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