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2nd Lt. Hiroshi Kohno
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With His Shakuhachi
The following story is on display at Hotaru Museum in
Chiran Town, Kagoshima Prefecture. Tome in the story refers to Tome Torihama,
who operated Tomiya Restaurant in Chiran during WWII. Reiko is her daughter.
Second Lieutenant Hiroshi Kohno always sat against Tomiya Restaurant's second-floor
window and played the shakuhachi, a five-hole bamboo flute. Before his sortie,
Tome asked, "What are you going to do with that shakuhachi when you
sortie?" He replied, "Tomorrow I'll sortie taking only this with
me."
After the end of the war, Tome and Reiko went to visit Kohno's grave in
Kumamoto Prefecture. They noticed that the shakuhachi from those days was
displayed in the tokonoma (alcove) at his family's home. "He couldn't take
it," said Tome and Reiko. They cried as they remembered the tone of his
shakuhachi from that time.
Sortie Date: May 4, 1945
78th Shinbu Squadron
24 years old
Translated by Bill Gordon
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