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Hikari Kaiten Monument
Hikari City, Yamaguchi Prefecture

Hikari City was the location for one of the Navy's four kaiten training bases. The Kaiten Monument, erected in 1996, honors Hikari Base kaiten pilots and others associated with kaiten operations at Hikari who died during the war.

The first part of the black plaque at the bottom of the stone monument has the following inscription:

On November 25, 1944, in the final stage of the Pacific War, Hikari Base for the kaiten human torpedo was established at this site in Hikari City. A kaiten was a human torpedo piloted by one man beneath the sea to crash himself into an enemy ship. Young men, in order to protect the Japanese homeland, piloted kaiten launched in the South Pacific from submarines that carried them. They did not return to this place to live again.

We pray that your spirits will rest in peace at your home in Hikari. We vow without fail to tell future children of your hopes for peace.

After the above inscription, the black plaque lists 55 names of men at Hikari Base who died, but not all of these men were kaiten pilots. An authoritative kaiten reference book (Mediasion 2006, 78-87) lists 34 Hikari kaiten pilots who died, so some of the other names listed on the monument may be maintenance crewmen who died aboard submarines carrying kaiten. Two kaiten pilots who made sorties from another base but who were previously at Hikari are shown on the plaque after the 55 names.

The black plaque lists at the end the four ships that were sunk carrying kaiten, their captains, and the number of crewmen who died. There were three submarines: I-370 (79 men), I-361 (76 men), and I-165 (104 men). Transport Ship 18 is also listed with 148 crewmen and 114 men from Hikari Base [1]. This transport ship disappeared for unknown reasons about midnight of March 17, 1945, as she carried several kaiten on the way to Naha, Okinawa (Mediasion 2006, 71).

The following last letters and diary entries were written by Kaiten Special Attack Corps members who made sorties from Hikari Base and died in special attacks:

• Last Letter of Flight Petty Officer 2nd Class Hideo Abe to His Parents
• Last Letter of Ensign Takatsugu Ichikawa to His Parents
• Last Letters of Lieutenant Junior Grade Nobuo Ikebuchi to His Father and Mother
• Last Letter of Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Jūjirō Kitamura to His Aunt
• Last Writings of Ensign Minoru Kuge
• Last Letter of Flight Petty Officer 2nd Class Kōichi Kumada to His Parents
• Last Letter of Flight Petty Officer 2nd Class Mitsuo Matsuda to His Mother
• Letters of Ensign Sōichi Mizuchi to His Parents
• Last Diary Entries of Flight Petty Officer 1st Class Hajime Sano
• Last Diary Entries of Ensign Minoru Wada

Note

1. Mediasion (2006, 71) states that 225 crewmen and 127 men from Hikari Base were lost when Transport Ship 18 disappeared. The reason for the different numbers on the monument inscription is not known.

Source Cited

The Mediasion Co. 2006. Ningen gyorai kaiten (Kaiten human torpedo). Hiroshima: The Mediasion Co.