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Sendai Pilot Training School Monument
Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture

The Ministry of Communications and Transportation established the first two Pilot Training Schools in Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture and Yonago City in Tottori Prefecture in 1938. These served as training facilities for pilots who would work in the Ministry of Communications and Transportation mainly to carry mail by plane. During the Pacific War, the Army and Navy increasingly used these Pilot Training Schools as sources for much needed trained pilots. The Army controlled the Sendai Pilot Training School. The Ministry of Communications and Transportation established a total of 13 Pilot Training Schools before the end of World War II. During the Pacific War, the Army had ten of these schools, and the Navy directed the other three.

From the 13 Ministry of Communications and Transportation Pilot Training Schools, there were a total of 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.

Mutsu Kokubun Niji, a Buddhist temple in Sendai City near Yakushidō Station, has the Sendai Pilot Training School Monument near its entrance. The monument's face has engraved "Air Monument," and the back has the following engraved words that have faded to the point where they are barely readable.

Ministry of Communications and Transportation Civil Aviation Authority Sendai Pilot Training School

Among the 1,022 men who trained at this school, 210 lost their lives in battle during World War II. Remembering their heroic deeds, we offer this heartfelt memorial tribute. We pray for world peace and that they may have happiness in the next world.

October 17, 1981

Sergeant Saburō Miyagawa, who spent time at Sendai Pilot Training School, died after taking off in a special attack squadron from Chiran Air Base on June 6, 1945. His supposed return to Chiran as a firefly became a well-known story that was the source of the title for the 2001 Japanese film Hotaru (Firefly).

The following last letters and diary entries were written by Army Special Attack Corps members from the Sendai Pilot Training School who died in special attacks:

• Last Letters of Corporal Shinji Koseki to His Mother
• Last Letters of Sergeant Tetsuo Noguchi to His Father
• Last Letter of Corporal Hiroshi Ōhata
• Last Letters of Corporal Yoshikazu Sakakihara to His Parents
• Last Letters of Corporal Kiyoshi Sakamoto to His Father
• Last Letter of Corporal Heikichi Sasaki to His Family
• Last Diary Entries of Sergeant Major Shinpei Satō
• Last Letter of Corporal Genzō Takeda to His Grandmother
• Last Letter of Corporal Tsugio Watanabe to His Parents
• Last Letters of Corporal Renzō Yanai to His Father and Mother

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). Tōkyō: Tokkōtai Senbotsusha Irei Heiwa Kinen Kyōkai.