Chiba Special Attack Corps Monument
Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture
The Special Attack Corps Monument at Chiba Prefecture Gokoku Jinja is the
10th one erected nationwide with support from the Tokkōtai Commemoration Peace
Memorial Association. The bronze figure of the front half of a kamikaze
pilot honors young men who died in battle while carrying out special (suicide) attacks
during the latter stage of the Pacific War.
A gokoku jinja is a Shintō shrine
dedicated to persons from the prefecture who died in wars to protect Japan. The Chiba Prefecture Gokoku Jinja has several monuments to remember those persons who
died during wars. Replicas of the standing kamikaze pilot have been erected at other gokoku jinja
such as those
in Gunma, Miyagi,
and Nagano.
The monument has a plaque on its right side with the following explanation:
Chiba Prefecture Special Attack Hero Monument
Between 1941 and 1945, our country Japan fought the Greater East Asia War
with the United States, Britain, China, the Soviet Union, the Netherlands, and
Australia. It was for our own country's security and in order to free Asia from
colonial rule of Europe and the United States. The fighting brought the
region under Japanese control with consecutive victories as far as the South
Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean, but we permitted enemy counter-attacks in the
Philippines and Okinawa due to poor supply of goods to our troops.
At this time hisshi (certain-death) special attack battle tactics,
unprecedented in history, were adopted to make taiatari (body-crashing)
attacks on a ship with an aircraft or a boat. Even though there was a deficiency
in aircraft, it was the painful choice of a proud people. As they put their
hands together in prayer, the people gave young men about 20 years old send-offs
at their departures to death.
We place here that valiant figure. Present-day people who were brought up in
a country that lost the war and who have been cut off from history, what would
you try to protect in exchange for your lives? We hope that you will keep asking
this figure. On May 3, 1951, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the
Allied Forces, testified to the U.S. Senate Armed Forces and Foreign Relations
Committees that Japan's war was for self-defense [1].
Japanese people, remember this fact.
The plaque on front of the pedestal of the Special Attack Corps Monument
reads "Ā tokkō" (Ah, Special Attacks) and "we certainly will never forget you."
The left side of the monument base has engraved the following words:
We humbly erect here the "Chiba Prefecture Special Attack Hero Monument"
with support and cooperation of the Tokkōtai Commemoration Peace Memorial
Association and Yasukuni Shrine and with heart-filled donations from
bereaved families, comrades, and admiring individuals and organizations in
order to honor publicly the virtues of the many spirits of the war dead from Chiba
Prefecture who made sorties as Special Attack Corps members and died
gloriously in battle.
May 26, 2011
Chiba Prefecture Special Attack Hero Statue Erection Committee
Chairman, Hideo Usui
The following last letters were written by Special Attack Corps members from
Chiba Prefecture who died in special attacks:
Note
1. MacArthur was relieved of his position as
Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces on April 11, 1951, so his testimony to
the U.S. Senate was when he was no longer in this position. His actual statement
was the following: "They feared that if those supplies were cut off, there would
be 10 to 12 million people unoccupied in Japan. Their purpose, therefore, in
going to war was largely dictated by security." This quotation comes from p. 97
of United States Congress, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Inquiry
into the military situation in the Far East and the facts surrounding the relief
of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur from his assignment in that area
(Washington, DC: Ward and Paul, 1951).
Figure of special attack pilot on
Chiba Special Attack Corps Monument
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