Fukuoka Special Attack Corps Monument
Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture
The Special Attack Corps Monument at Fukuoka Prefecture Gokoku Jinja
honors
the young men who died in battle while carrying out special (suicide) attacks
during the Greater East Asia War. The monument has a bronze figure of a
kamikaze pilot standing on a stone pedestal. A gokoku jinja is a Shintō shrine
dedicated to persons from a prefecture or other area who died to protect Japan. Each
gokoku jinja has several monuments to honor persons who
died in wars.
Replicas of the standing kamikaze pilot have been erected also at other
shrines such as Tochigi Gokoku Jinja and Kagoshima Gokoku Jinja. The Fukuoka
Special Attack Corps Monument is the 12th monument erected in different
prefectures throughout Japan. The monuments have the same bronze figure of the
front half of a kamikaze pilot standing on a stone pedestal, but the monument
arrangements and the explanatory plaques or inscriptions differ between
locations.
The plaque on the left side of the Fukuoka Special Attack Corps Monument has the following
words:
We certainly will never forget you
From 1941 to 1945, Japan fought the Greater East Asia War against the United
States, Britain, China, and Netherlands in order to protect Japan's independence
and continued existence and to free several Asian countries colonized by the
great Western powers. Although we achieved brilliant military results, the odds
of winning were against us as the war situation became adverse. It reached the
point where we allowed an enemy landing at Okinawa Prefecture. We had to turn
back the enemy's overwhelming military power, and finally there was no choice
but to carry out battle operations with heartbreaking and courageous taiatari
(body-crashing) attacks with aircraft and watercraft against enemy ships.
Through support from the Tokkōtai Commemoration Peace Memorial Association
and in order to impart the story eternally to future generations, we erect this
noble, courageous figure of a hero of about 20 years of age who did his utmost
and gave his life in battle.
We desire that the people of modern times, who tend to be inclined toward
peaceful individualism based on postwar education and strategy, look at and
touch this figure on the pedestal that is dedicated to the spirits of the 301
men in the Special Attack Corps from Fukuoka Prefecture and consider that they
gave their lives in place of their countrymen in order to protect them so that
we could survive.
December 8, 2012 (Commemoration Day of Outbreak of Greater East Asia War)
Fukuoka Prefecture Committee for Erection of Statue of Special Attack Corps Hero
Close-up of kamikaze pilot on
Fukuoka Special Attack Corps Monument
The large characters on the plaque on front of the pedestal say "Ā tokkō"
(Ah, Special Attacks). The plaque on front also has in small characters the
following statement: "We certainly will never forget you."
Fukuoka Prefecture Gokoku Jinja
The following last letters and diary entries were written by Special Attack Corps members from
Fukuoka Prefecture who died in special attacks:
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