Kōchi Gokoku Jinja Yokaren Monument
Kōchi City, Kōchi Prefecture
Kōchi Gokoku Jinja was established in 1868 as a Shintō shrine to honor
persons from Kōchi Prefecture who died in wars to protect Japan (gokoku
means "defend country"). The shrine stands on a small hill, and there are
eighteen monuments at the bottom of the hill next to the path that leads up the hill to
the shrine. The monuments include one erected in 1988 to
honor Navy Yokaren (Preparatory Flight Training Program) graduates from Kōchi
Prefecture who gave their lives in battle. Yokaren graduates who died in battle included many members of the
tokkōtai (Special Attack Corps) who carried out suicide attacks
against Allied ships near the end of World War II.
The Yokaren Monument base has a plaque with the following history:
The Navy Hikō Yoka Renshūsei (Flight Preparatory Trainee) system was
established in 1930 to respond to the demands of the times. Its history did
not last any more than 15 years, but fundamental education and character
building for flight crewmen were provided to youths of about 15 years of
age. For this reason they endured rigorous training to develop
themselves.
In the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and the Pacific War, they
fought as the core of the Navy's air power in deed as well as in name. When the country faced an unprecedented crisis, they became members of the
Kamikaze Special Attack Corps and carried out hissatsu no taiatari
(certain-death body-crashing) attacks of one plane to sink one ship. For
their beloved homeland and for the security of their fellow countrymen, they
bravely offered their brief youth and died nobly in battle without seeking
any reward or honor.
Not forgetting this noble self-sacrifice, we pray for eternal world
peace. We strongly hope that the calamity of war will not be repeated again
in the future. We erect this monument more than 40 years after the war's end
in order to pass on to future generations our Yokaren classmates' virtues,
which are buried in a corner of history and have become faded.
October 2, 1988
Kōchi Prefecture Yokaren Yūhi Association
Kōchi Gokoku Jinja also has monuments to honor the Navy as a whole and those who died
in battle at
Iwo Jima (Iōtō), the Philippines, and New Guinea.
The following last letters were written by Yokaren graduates from Kōchi
Prefecture:
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