Miyakonojō Pilot Training School Monument
Miyakonojō City, Miyazaki Prefecture
Japan's Ministry of Communications and Transportation established 13 Pilot
Training Schools before the end of World War II. The Army ran ten Pilot Training
Schools (year established in parentheses and prefecture where school was located
in brackets) in Sendai (1938) [Miyagi Prefecture], Yonago (1938) [Tottori
Prefecture], Niigata (1941) [Niigata Prefecture], Kumamoto (1941) [Kumamoto
Prefecture], Inba (1941) [Chiba Prefecture], Kyoto (1942) [Kyōto Prefecture],
Okayama (1942) [Okayama Prefecture], Miyakonojō (1942) [Miyazaki Prefecture],
Koga (1942) [Ibaraki Prefecture], and Chikugo (1944) [Fukuoka Prefecture].
From the 13 Pilot Training Schools, there were 3,200 men who graduated,
received supplemental flight training at Army and Navy training bases, and
became noncommissioned officers. As Japan's situation worsened toward the end of
the war, 162 graduates from Pilot Training Schools died in special (suicide)
attacks.
The Miyakonojō Pilot Training School Monument was erected in 1985 in the
Miyakonojō City neighborhood of Miyakobaru. The monument's center has a circular
grayish-white stone with an image of a boy angel without clothes flying above a
plane. The left-hand plaque's inscription reads as follows:
On April 19, 1942, a Ministry of Communications and Transportation Pilot
Training School was established with the objective of training civilian
aircraft personnel. For over two and half years, young men who yearned for
the skies underwent rigorous training day and night at this place and flew
from the nest here when finished. Some men died in battle for their country
in World War II. With prayers for eternal peace and prosperity, we erect a
monument here as testimony of our youths along with consolation for the
spirits of the war dead and others who are deceased.
April 21, 1985
Miyakonojō Pilot Training School
All Associated Persons
The right-hand plaque has the following inscription with a record of the
several classes who trained at Miyakonojō Pilot Training School:
Record
(Normal Course Trainees, 2nd Class) 60 men started April 1942. In April
1943, 10 transferred to Niigata, and 21 transferred from Okayama. In March
1944, 70 transferred to Yonago.
(Normal Course Trainees, 4th Class) 60 started April 1942. In September
1944, transferred to Chikugo.
(Normal Course Trainees, 5th Class) 70 started April 1943. In September
1944, transferred to Chikugo.
(Normal Course Trainees, 6th Class) 59 started April 1944. In September
1944, transferred to Chikugo.
(Pilot Trainees, 12th Class) 60 started September 1942. 54 graduated
August 1943.
(Pilot Trainees, 13th Class) 60 started April 1943. 61 graduated March
1944.
(Pilot Trainees, 14th Class) 80 started October 1943. In April 1944, 80
transferred from Kyoto and 80 transferred from Kumamoto. At same time,
became Tachiarai Army Flight School Miyakonojō Training Unit. 240 graduated
July 1944.
The back side of the right part of the monument has an addendum to the record
recorded on the front:
Record Supplement
(Normal Course Trainees, 2nd Class) Graduated September 1944 at Yonago.
At same time started at Matsudo Advanced Pilot Training School Koga Branch
School. Graduated June 1945. Deployed as Army Reserve Cadets in army air
transport units.
(Normal Course Trainees, 4th Class) In April 1945, transferred to Yonago.
In August 1945 at war's end, graduated early.
(Pilot Trainees, 12th Class) After graduation were deployed in civil
aviation and as Army Reserve Cadets in training units at domestic and
foreign locations.
(Pilot Trainees, 13th Class) After graduation were deployed in civil
aviation and as Army Reserve Cadets in training units at domestic and
foreign locations.
(Pilot Trainees, 14th Class) After graduation were deployed as Army
Reserve Cadets in training units at domestic and foreign locations.
The following three classes of Pilot Trainees at the ten Army Pilot Training
Schools had the following number of graduates who died in special (suicide)
attacks near the end of World War II:
62 - 14th Class
7 - 13th Class
15 - 12th Class
The available published records do not indicate the number of special attack
pilots who trained at Miyakonojō Pilot Training School as pilot trainees. No
pilots who trained in the 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Classes of Normal Course
Trainees died in a special attack.
The historical information about the Pilot Training Schools in the first two
paragraphs is from page 360 of the following book:
Tokkōtai Senbotsusha Irei
Heiwa Kinen Kyōkai (Tokkōtai Commemoration Peace Memorial Association). 1990.
Tokubetsu Kōgekitai (Special Attack Corps). Tokyo: Tokkōtai Senbotsusha
Irei Heiwa Kinen Kyōkai.
The information in the last paragraph comes from the following web page:
Tokuta, Tadanari. 2008. Jōin yōseisho sotsugyōsei no tokkō
(Special attacks of crewmen who were Training School graduates). <http://www.aero.or.jp/web-koku-to-bunka/2008.09.15youseijo21.htm>
(June 14, 2017).
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