Ryūsei Monument
Tone Town, Ibaraki Prefecture
Ryūsei, which means "shooting star" in Japanese, was a Navy
carrier-based torpedo-dive bomber with a crew of two used in the Pacific War.
Grace was the Allied code name for the Ryūsei torpedo dive bomber. This
aircraft was used from July 25 to August 15, 1945, by the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps 7th Mitate Squadron
in sorties from Kisarazu Air Base in Chiba Prefecture.
Hideaki Sekiguchi, the brother of Hiroshi Sekiguchi who died in a special
(suicide) attack on July 25, 1945, erected a monument in memory of the 7th
Mitate Squadron at a Buddhist temple named Enmyōji in Tone Town, Ibaraki
Prefecture. Mitate means shield, and the name was used by other Navy
special attack squadrons.
The top of the monument has the word Ryūsei (流星). The monument has engraved
the following history with a poem written by Hiroshi Sekiguchi:
Ryūsei
In the Greater East Asia War it was decided frequently to have special
attack operations when a person was not expected to return alive.
Especially, from July 25 to August 15, 1945, in order to destroy the enemy
task force making repeated attacks as it approached the mainland from the
southeast, crewmen of the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps 7th Mitate Squadron Ryūsei
Units boarded their Ryūsei torpedo-dive bombers, took off in high
spirits from Kisarazu Base, and carried out certain-death, sure-kill (hisshi
hissatsu) body-crashing (taiatari) attacks. They set ablaze one
large aircraft carrier and two cruisers. Following is the death poem of
Flight Chief Petty Officer Hiroshi Sekiguchi, who died for an eternal cause:
Falling petals for the country unsparingly
Scattering the enemy, Yamato cherry blossoms
Yamato is a poetic name for Japan. The last part of the engraving on the front has not been translated on this
web page.
The back of the monument lists the names of the 30 men of the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps 7th Mitate Squadron
who died in battle. The names are grouped by the four Ryūsei Units that made
sorties on different dates from Kisarazu Air Base, but the dates are not
indicated on the monument. The following listing gives the number of men who died in battle by
unit and adds sortie dates and number of planes from Osuo (2005, 232-3):
1st Ryūsei Unit - 8 men died in battle in 4 Ryūsei torpedo-dive
bombers on July 25, 1945
2nd Ryūsei Unit - 12 men died in battle in 6 Ryūsei torpedo-dive
bombers on August 9, 1945
3rd Ryūsei Unit - 8 men died in battle in 4 Ryūsei torpedo-dive
bombers on August 13, 1945
4th Ryūsei Unit - 2 men died in battle in 1 Ryūsei torpedo-dive
bomber on August 15, 1945
Back of Ryūsei Monument with list of
7th Mitate Squadron members who died in battle
Main hall of Buddhist temple of Enmyōji
(Tone Town, Ibaraki Prefecture)
The following last letters and diary entries were written by Kamikaze Special
Attack Corps 7th Mitate Squadron members who died in special attacks:
Source Cited
Osuo, Kazuhiko. 2005. Tokubetsu kōgekitai no kiroku (kaigun
hen) (Record of special attack corps (Navy)). Tōkyō: Kojinsha.
|
