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Youth Pilots' Memorial Column
Musashimurayama City, Tōkyō Prefecture

The grounds of Zenshōji Temple have an unusually shaped column to honor Army Youth Pilot (Rikugun Shōhi) Program graduates who died in battle. The plaque on the wall behind the column gives the following explanation of the monument's purpose along with the history behind it:

The Army Youth Pilot system began with its 1st Class in February 1934 at the Tokorozawa [1] Army Flight School.

In 1938, due to expanding demand of the Army Air Force, the Tōkyō Army Flight School was established in Murayama [2], and the 6th Class started at the school. In addition, Army Youth Pilot schools were established in Ōtsu and Ōita, and training corps were formed in each place for hurried training. Forty-six thousand young eagles left the nest through the 20th Class at  war's end.

As the backbone of the Army Air Force's piloting, communications, and maintenance, they went through the China Incident [3] and the Nomonhan Incident [4] and took part in the Greater East Asia War. They actively participated, risking their lives, at the battlefront of the skies north and south during the crisis threatening the survival of Japan. Over four thousand five hundred young eagles, including over 450 special attack force members [5], gave their lives in the sky with concern for the peace and prosperity of their country. They were still rosy-cheeked teenagers.

In 1963, a monument was erected on the site of the Tōkyō Army Youth Pilot School. Since then, every year survivors gather together for a memorial service. Now, based on the care of these people, a memorial column has been erected at this spot hoping for eternal repose of the departed.

This memorial honors the great achievements of the war dead and embodies our hope for eternal peace.

October 10, 1990

Graduates of Army Youth Pilot Training Program
Youth Pilot Association

Each support for the railing around the column has engraved on it the name of one of the twenty classes that graduated from the Army Youth Pilot Training Program.

The following last letters and other writings were written by Army Youth Pilots who died in special attacks:

• Last Letter of Corporal Takao Adachi to His Grandmother and Father
• Last Diary Entries of Corporal Tsugihiko Adachi
• Last Letters from Corporal Nobuo Aihana to His Parents
• Last Letter of Corporal Kōji Andō
• Last Letters of Corporal Yukio Araki
• Last Letter from Corporal Toshio Chizaki to His Mother
• Last Letter from Lance Corporal Hideo Fujii to His Two Younger Sisters and One Younger Brother
• Last Letter of Corporal Bunroku Fujita to His Mother
• Last Letter of Corporal Tsuneaki Fujiyama to His Parents
• Last Letter of Corporal Yasuo Fukushima to His Parents
• Last Letter from Corporal Tadamasa Fukuura to His Mother
• Last Letter of Corporal Yukio Garan to His Father
• Last Letters of Corporal Hitoshi Hamada to His Parents
• Last Letters of Corporal Saburō Hasegawa to His Mother
• Last Writing of Corporal Isamu Hashinokuchi
• Last Letter from Corporal Masato Hisanaga to His Parents
• Last Letter of Corporal Kan'ichi Horimoto to His Parents
• Last Letter of Corporal Kōshirō Itō to His Parents
• Last Letters of Corporal Shun'ichi Kagawa to His Family
• Last Letter of Corporal Takeo Kakehashi to His Parents
• Last Letter of Corporal Kazuki Kamitsu to His Parents
• Last Letters of Captain Kisaku Kataoka to His Wife and Unborn Child
• Last Letters of Corporal Torao Katō to Family
• Last Letters from Corporal Morio Kishida to His Parents and Former Teacher
• Last Letter of Sergeant Hidetoshi Kuniyoshi to His Mother
• Last Letter of Corporal Yoshikatsu Matsuzaki to His Mother
• Last Letter of Corporal Teruo Mino to His Parents
• Last Letters of Sergeant Tadashi Miyake to His Parents
• Last Letter of Sergeant Keizō Mizokawa to His Parents
• Last Letter of Sergeant Kōichi Mukōjima to His Parents
• Last Writings of Corporal Akihiko Nagasoe
• Last Letter of Corporal Toshio Nagata to His Parents
• Last Letter of Corporal Sukeo Nitta to His Parents and Older Sister
• Last Letter of Corporal Sakae Ogawa to His Parents and Others
• Last Letter of Sergeant Shin'ichi Ogawa
• Last Letter of Corporal Minoru Okazawa to His Parents
• Last Letters of Corporal Fujio Okiyama to His Parents
• Last Writings of Corporal Takamasa Senda
• Last Letter of Corporal Hitoshi Shima to His Parents
• Last Letter of Corporal Hajime Shimizu to His Parents
• Last Letter of Corporal Toyoshi Takada to His Parents
• Last Letters of Corporal Megumu Takano to His Parents
• Last Letter of Corporal Osamu Tanaka to His Father
• Last Letters of Sergeant Ikuichirō Terasawa to His Parents
• Last Letter of Corporal Ryōichi Toyoda to His Mother
• Last Letter of Sergeant Jūji Uchimura
• Last Letter of Corporal Fusao Ukegawa to His Parents
• Last Letters of Corporal Teruo Usami to His Mother
• Last Letter of Corporal Fujio Wakamatsu to His Mother
• Last Letter of Corporal Kōzō Watanabe to His Parents
• Last Letter of Corporal Keiki Yamaguchi to His Parents
• Last Letter of Corporal Takayuki Yamamoto
• Last Letter of Corporal Takayuki Yamashita to His Mother
• Last Letter of Corporal Shōichi Yasui to His Family
• Last Letter of Sergeant Shigenori Yoshihara to His Younger Brother
• Last Letter of Corporal Nariaki Yoshimizu to His Parents

Notes

1. Tokorozawa City in Saitama Prefecture is directly north of Musashimurayama City, located west of Shinjuku and on the northern edge of the center part of Tōkyō Prefecture. 

2. Murayama was the name of the village where the flight school was located in 1938. The area became part of Musashimurayama City in 1970. 

3. The China Incident is the term used in Japan to refer to the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945.

4. The Nomonhan Incident is the term used in Japan to refer to the Battle of Halhin Gol in the undeclared 1939 war between Japan and the Soviet Union over the location of the border between Japanese-occupied Manchuria and the Soviet Union.

5. Although the Navy used the term "kamikaze" to refer to most of their pilots who carried out suicide attacks, the Army did not use this name to refer to their suicide pilots. The general term used in Japanese to refer to men who committed suicide attacks in World War II is "special attack force members" (tokubetsu kōgeki taiin, often shortened to tokkōtai).