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Kawatana Special Attack War Monument
Kawatana Town, Nagasaki Prefecture

Ōmura Bay in Kawatana Town was the site of a Japanese Navy torpedo boat training school established in 1944. The school also trained many men who served in the special attack corps that carried out suicide attacks near the end of World War II. These included squadrons for shin'yō (explosive motorboats), kaiten (manned torpedoes), fukuryū (frogmen), and kōryū (midget submarines).

The inscription at the top of the monument means "Special Attack Monument to Those Who Died for Our Country," or "Special Attack War Monument" for short. The black stone plaque with gold engraved characters at the bottom front of the monument has the following inscription:

In 1944, the Japanese Navy moved the special torpedo boat training school from Yokosuka to the Ogushigo area of Kawatana Town in Nagasaki Prefecture and carried out training of torpedo boat squadrons in order to reverse the Pacific War situation that was worsening day by day. The torpedo boats were high-speed boats that mainly made torpedo attacks and were active in the Pacific and Indian Oceans such as during the attacks of Peleliu Island and the last withdrawal operations at Iwo Jima. In addition, in order to deal with the pressing war situation, this training school trained several tens of thousands of young men who personally volunteered from all over the country and gathered here. Shin'yō special attack squadrons and fukuryū special attack squadrons were formed, and training was conducted for kaiten and kōryū midget submarine special attack squadron members. The shin'yō special attack corps was deployed throughout the western Pacific Ocean with seven thousand small wooden speedboats that had explosives installed to make taiatari (body-crashing) attacks on enemy ships. Besides destroying four American warships off Corregidor Island in the Philippines, even at Okinawa they broke through tight enemy security in the most difficult situations and pressed ahead with special attacks. The fukuryū special attack squadron members, who dived alone and made attacks from underneath the water, worked hard at training in this place.

Today at a time when we observe peace and the restoration of Japan with the recovery from its devastation, we earnestly acclaim those things that came about through the aid of the war dead who gave their lives for our country. Here we erect this special attack war monument to those connected with this place by mixing in stones from the battle sites at Corregidor and Okinawa. We want to forever recognize you for your noble work left unfinished since you willingly gave your young lives at the ends of the faraway South Seas.

May 27, 1967

Each side of the monument has numerous engraved names of men from the Kawatana torpedo boat training school who died during the war. The entrance to the lot with the monument has a map of the school as it existed in 1945.