Tosashimizu 132nd Shin'yō Special Attack Squadron Monument
Tosashimizu City, Kōchi Prefecture
The cliffs along the water in Tosashimizu City still have 15 caves dug out of
the rocks in 1945 to hide shin'yō explosive motorboats. A monument erected in
2005 in front of a couple of these caves gives the history of the 132nd Shin'yō
Special Attack Squadron stationed at Tosashimizu:
Shin'yō Special Attack Squadron Base Site Monument
In June 1945, a special attack squadron was stationed here at Koe Bay
in preparation for the landing of American forces on the mainland. It was a
shin'yō special attack squadron in which crewmen would crash into enemy ships
in two-man plywood boats armed with 250 kilograms of explosives in the front
part of each boat. Among a total of 171 squadron members, 48 were crewmen,
mostly youths of 17 years of age. With tension due to the war situation,
orders were issued several times to standby to make a sortie, but the war ended
without having to launch the boats. We narrowly escaped with our young
lives.
The caves that exist here were shelters for these shin'yō boats. Today at
this time 60 years after the end of the war, when the horrors of a war that
must not be repeated have faded, we erect here this monument hoping that
these shelters may be preserved for a long time so that they may become
living teaching material and so the story may be passed down from generation
to generation in order to serve as a guidepost for eternal peace.
March 2005
132nd Shin'yō Special Attack Squadron Base Site Preservation Association
The back of the monument lists the names of the 132nd Shin'yō Special Attack
Squadron members.
A sign to the left of the monument, put up by the Tosashimizu City Board of
Education one year after the monument's erection, provides additional details on the history
of the 132nd Shin'yō Special Attack Squadron:
Former Navy Shin'yō Special Attack Squadron Base Site
These caves are the remains of shelters for special attack weapon
shin'yō
boats during the Pacific War. The scale of each shelter is roughly 3.5
meters in height and width and 20 to 29 meters in depth. The 15 shelters
that were dug held 24 boats in total.
The two-man Model 5 shin'yō boat was made from two sheets of waterproof
pressed plywood. The boat had a length of 6.5 meters and a width of 2
meters. It weighed 2.4 metric tons and had a speed of 25 knots (about 45
km/hour). With the front part armed with 250 kilograms of explosives, the
boat was a special attack (suicide) weapon designed to crash into an enemy
ship.
In the latter part of the Pacific War in April 1945, American forces
landed on Okinawa. It became a tragic battle that involved inhabitants all
over the island. In this period Japanese forces already had lost nearly all
of their warships and aircraft, and it reached the point where there was
nothing else to do but to carry out taiatari (body-crashing) attacks by
small special attack weapons against the swarming enemy ships.
Imperial Headquarters expected that American forces would land in
southern Shikoku to carry out the decisive battle for the Japanese homeland,
so Army units were positioned along the coast of Tosa Bay, and Navy special
attack squadrons with shin'yō and kaiten were positioned in key areas.
Fortunately the war's end came in August. If the war had been prolonged,
perhaps this area also would have become a gruesome battlefield.
The shelters that exist here are valuable remains of war history. We
desire that they tell the story to future generations as a legacy toward
eternal peace.
Date established: October 1, 2006
Tosashimizu City Board of Education
Drawing of Model 5 shin'yō boat at base of
132nd Shin'yō Special Attack Squadron Monument
One 132nd Shin'yō Special Attack Squadron member, Seifu Nikaido, wrote a book about his wartime
experiences entitled Umi no
bohyō: Suijō tokkō "shin'yōtei" no kiroku (Grave markers at sea: Record
of marine special attack shin'yō boats).
Koe Bay as seen from in front of
132nd Shin'yō Special Attack Squadron Monument
Based on a two-page history of the 132nd Shin'yō Special Attack Squadron
written by Squadron Commander Kunio Watanabe (Shin'yō Association 204-5), the 45
shin'yō boat pilots in the
132nd Squadron trained in Nagasaki Prefecture at Kawatana Torpedo Boat Training
School. The following provides key dates in the history:
-
May 25, 1945 - formed 132nd Shin'yō Special Attack Squadron
-
May 29 - left Kawatana to go to Kure Submarine Base in
Hiroshima Prefecture to prepare supplies for the shin'yō base
-
June 17 - departed from Kure
-
June 18 - arrived in Sukumo, Kochi Prefecture, at the
headquarters of 21st Totsugeki Unit
-
June 26 - arrived at base of 132nd Shin'yō Squadron at Koe
Bay
In addition to the 45 two-man Model 5 shin'yō boat pilots, the 132nd
Shin'yō Squadron had 7 officers, 14 headquarters
personnel, 31 maintenance workers, and 71 base workers for a total of 168
members. The men originally were housed at Shimizu Elementary School, but in
early July they moved to local houses due to heavy air bombardment. On June 29,
1945, two maintenance workers died in a large explosion caused by gunfire from
an enemy plane. On July 28, another maintenance worker died when a Grumman
fighter strafed the area with machine gun fire.
The 132nd Shin'yō Squadron went on standby alert for 12 hours on July 28, 1945,
and for another 12 hours in the early part of August, but the shin'yō explosive
motorboats never left base to make an attack on enemy ships.
The Tosashimizu Shin'yō Association was formed in 1975 with mainly former pilots,
and this group met annually for many years to remember those who died during and
after the war.
Former members of 132nd Shin'yō Squadron and family
members gather at former base site in Tosashimizu
(August 1978) Source Cited
Shin'yō Association (Shin'yōkai), ed. 1990. Ningen heiki:
Shin'yō tokubetsu kōgekitai (Human weapon: Shin'yō Special Attack
Corps). Shiro Arai, general editor. Volume 2 of 2. Tōkyō: Kokushokankōkai.
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