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Photo of Pilot in
Army Special Attack Forces [1]
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Museums
Several Japanese museums have exhibits to honor members of
special attack forces, who carried out suicide attacks against Allied forces
near the end of World War II. These exhibits portray the pilots as brave young
men who voluntarily sacrificed their lives to defend their country and families.
Their letters and photos cause many museum visitors to weep as they reflect on
the young men's lost lives and consider how they felt before their missions
of death.
Most museums with exhibits on special attack forces are
located at sites of former navy or army bases. Almost all of these locations
also have special attack force memorials constructed prior to the opening of the
museum exhibits. Except for the Yasukuni Jinja Yūshūkan in Tōkyō, the museums
present a separate history of either the navy or the army special attack forces.
Most museums also honor fallen soldiers who were not members of special attack
forces.
People associate Japan's suicide attacks in World War
II with kamikaze plane pilots, but the special attack forces also included
kaiten (manned torpedoes), midget submarines, explosive motorboats, fukuryū
(suicide frogmen), and others. Only the Yasukuni Jinja Yūshūkan in Tokyo has
exhibits to cover all the special attack forces. The Kaiten Memorial Museum on
Ōtsushima Island covers the history of the kaiten, and the other museums
have displays on kamikaze pilots. Etajima Museum of Naval History also
honors special attack force members who perished in midget submarine and kaiten
attacks.
Private citizens, mostly war veterans and bereaved family
members, took the lead in founding the majority of museums with exhibits related
to special attack forces. Japan's Self-Defense Force still uses the former
Imperial Navy bases in Etajima, Kanoya, and Tsuchiura [2], and it operates the
history museums at these locations. As a result, these museums cover Japan's
entire naval history, with only part of the exhibits related to special attack
forces. As part of Japan's demilitarization during the American occupation after
the war, existing military museums such as those at Yasukuni Jinja and Etajima
were closed [3]. Etajima Museum reopened in 1960
[3] and included exhibits
of letters and photos of members of naval special attack forces who died during
the war. Several other museums with special attack force exhibits opened over
the next 15 years: Yasukuni Jinja Yūshūkan (1961) [3], Kaiten Memorial Museum
(1968), Yokaren Museum in Tsuchiura (1968), Kanoya Air Base Museum (1972),
Tokushima Air Base Museum (1974), and Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots (1975).
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Letter of Kaiten Pilot in
Navy Special Attack Corps [4]
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Photos and letters form the foundation of each museum's
exhibits related to special attack forces. Museums display photos of individual
pilots, groups such as kamikaze units and training classes, and places such as
former air bases. Except for Etajima Museum, the photos of individual pilots
are exhibited in rows together with each pilot's basic biographical information,
such as name, unit, date of death, age at death, and home prefecture. See the
top of this page for a typical photo of an individual pilot.
Letters written by the kamikaze pilots have the strongest
emotional impact on museum visitors. All museums with exhibits of special attack forces display numerous letters, poems, diary entries, and other miscellaneous
writings. Most were written on the eve of the final mission or soon before, but
others were written sometime after a pilot had entered a kamikaze unit but not
yet knowing his final sortie date. It is difficult to generalize on the contents
of the hundreds of letters on display at museums around Japan, but many pilots
convey thanks to their parents for everything they have done and express the
honor of the opportunity to make an attack to defend their country. Some pilots
may have been inhibited in writing down their true feelings since the letters
would be subject to military censorship. Also, the letters would be the final
remembrance the pilots' families would have of them, so they most likely wanted
to write something to make their families proud and happy rather than burdening
them with any feelings of doubt or fear.
Several museums display restored planes or other weapons
used in suicide attacks. Yasukuni Jinja Yūshūkan, Kanoya Air Base Museum,
and Yamato Museum each
display a restored Zero fighter, the plane type used for many kamikaze
attacks. The Yūshūkan Museum also has a kaiten (manned torpedo),
ōka (piloted
rocket-assisted glider bomb), and a Suisei dive bomber (Judy). Most
museums also have many models of planes and other weapons with the most
impressive being Yamato Museum's 1/10-scale model of the battleship Yamato,
which was sunk by American aircraft during a special attack mission toward
Okinawa in April 1945. Museums
with special attack exhibits display a wide variety of other artifacts, such as
military uniforms, medals, hachimaki (headbands), model planes,
paintings, and senninbari (thousand-stitch belts worn for good luck).
Three museums with special attack force exhibits (Chiran,
Kaseda, and Tachiarai) include in their names the term "peace museum,"
something many people do not associate with kamikaze attacks. For example, the
brochure for the Chiran Peace Museum explains the museum's purpose is "to
commemorate the pilots and expose the tragic loss of their lives so that we may
understand the need for everlasting peace and ensure such incidents are never
repeated." Although these
three museums have a stated goal to promote peace, the types of historical
artifacts displayed at the peace museums do not differ from the museums that do
no not identify themselves as peace museums. In any Japanese museum that
displays letters and photos of the young men who perished in suicide attacks,
visitors can reflect on war's tragic consequences and most will leave the museum
with the conviction that such a terrible war must never be allowed to happen
again. Whereas most of the museums concentrate on the tragic aspects of war, the
museums at Etajima, Yasukuni Jinja, and Kanoya have several displays to
commemorate Japan's military successes in battles prior to World War II.
Kanoya Air Base Museum also has many exhibits related to the history of
the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) after the war. A secondary
purpose of these exhibits seems to be the encouragement of young people to
choose a career with the JMSDF.
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Type 3 Hien Fighter Used in Kamikaze Attacks
(Chiran Peace Museum)
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The primary goal of exhibits on special attack forces
is to memorialize the pilots who sacrificed their lives to defend their country,
so the museums do not present controversial or negative aspects of Japan's
history of suicide attacks. The only negative items found in any museum are two
wooden bats used in the military by leaders and instructors to inflict physical
punishment on subordinates. The small private Yokaren Museum in Ōita City
displays these bats but does not provide details on their use during the war.
The Yasukuni Jinja Yūshūkan actively tries to convince visitors of the
nationalist perspective of Japan's war history for which Japan has no reason to
apologize, whereas the other museums generally remain silent on responsibility
for the war other than brief explanations, such as Western nations cutting off
imports of oil and other natural resources to Japan prior to December 1941.
Japanese museums with special attack corps exhibits have
very few displays in English and limited information on the Internet. The Chiran
Peace Museum has a 22-page English booklet explaining the exhibits, and the
Kaiten Memorial Museum has a high-quality 30-minute film in English on the
history of manned torpedoes. However, both museums have no exhibits translated
to English. Only the Yasukuni Jinja Yūshūkan has extensive English translations
of exhibits, but even there many letters and other items related to the special
attack forces remain without translations. The Yasukuni Jinja Yūshūkan, Yamato
Museum, Chiran Peace Museum,
and Kanoya Air Base Museum have created well-designed web sites to provide overviews of
museum exhibits, but they have few details related to special attack forces. The
Yokaren Museum in Ōita City has created a web site with Yokaren (Japanese Naval
Flight Training Program) history, photos of museum exhibits, last letters of
kamikaze pilots, comments from museum visitors, and essays on wartime
experiences. The other museums have limited or no information on the Internet.
This web site on Kamikaze Images examines 17 museums with
substantial exhibits related to the Special Attack Corps. Each museum has a
separate web page that includes the following information:
- purpose
and overview of museum
- reason
for location
- museum
history
- exhibits related to special attack forces
- layout and organization
- historical significance
- user friendliness
- notable displays
- portrayals and images of
pilots who perished
- perspective on historical
events
- films and other audiovisual
materials
- facilities
(access, cost, number of visitors)
- material
available in English
- books
and other items available for purchase
- Internet
information
The significance and influence of the 17 museums differ
greatly. Whereas Yamato Museum, Chiran Peace
Museum, and Yasukuni Jinja Yūshūkan receive several hundred thousand visitors
each year [5] [6], most museums with exhibits on special attack forces have very
few visitors. However, even small museums can have a very strong effect on a
small segment of the population, such as relatives and friends of the soldiers
memorialized at these museums. The following list ranks the museums based on
their influence on people's perceptions of the Special Attack Corps. The following
factors were used to develop the ranking: number of visitors, books about museum
and its exhibits, mention in mass media, historical importance of museum's
location, references in books, appearance in films, international influence, and
museum web site.
- Chiran Peace Museum for
Kamikaze Pilots
- Yasukuni Jinja Yūshūkan
- Yamato Museum
- Kanoya Air Base Museum
- Kaiten Memorial Museum
- Bansei Tokkō Peace Museum
- Hotaru Museum
- Etajima Museum of Naval History
- Tsukuba Naval Air Group Museum
- Usa City Peace Museum
- Yokaren Museum - Tsuchiura
- Tachiarai Peace Museum
- Wadatsumi no Koe Museum
- Tokushima Air Base Museum
-
Atata Exchange Center
-
Kamikaze Special Attack Museum
- Yokaren Museum - Ōita
US Museums
No U.S. museum covers the entire history of Japan's kamikaze operations, but the
following museums have exhibits related to some limited aspect of Japan's
kamikaze attacks or some other aspect of the Special Attack Corps:
-
Battleship Missouri Memorial
(Pearl Harbor) - displays related to the Zero fighter that hit the ship on
April 11, 1945
- Intrepid
Sea, Air & Space Museum (New York City) - some exhibits about five
kamikaze attacks experienced by aircraft carrier Intrepid
-
National Museum of the Pacific War
(Fredericksburg, TX) -
several displays related to Japan's special attack forces including a Japanese
midget submarine captured after the Pearl Harbor attack, plaques to honor US
ships hit by kamikaze, and a video about the downing of 23 kamikaze planes in 80
minutes by the destroyer Hugh W. Hadley (DD-774)
-
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force -
world's largest military aviation museum that has ōka trainer version, Zero
fighter, and two P-47 Thunderbolt fighters on display
-
USS Cassin Young (DD-793) (Boston) -
destroyer hit twice by kamikaze planes is now a museum ship at Charlestown
Navy Yard
-
USS Laffey (DD-724) serves as a museum
ship that survived the most kamikaze aircraft hits ever in one day when hit
by seven kamikazes on April 16, 1945
- USS Kidd (DD-661) (Baton Rouge, LA)
- destroyer docked along the shore of the Mississippi River, which has been
restored to its August 1945 wartime configuration, was hit by a
bomb-carrying kamikaze Zero fighter on April 11, 1945, that killed 38 men
Museum in Philippines
The Dizon Kamikaze Museum in Angeles City is
run by a Filipino named Daniel Dizon, who met Japanese pilots and soldiers as a
boy during Japan's occupation of his home country. This small private museum in
a room in his home is dedicated to the history of Japanese kamikaze pilots
Notes
1. Photo of Toshio Sakai displayed at the Bansei
Tokkō Peace Museum.
2. The address of the Ordnance School of the Japanese Ground
Self-Defense Force, where the Yokaren Museum is located, is in Ami Town, which
is next to Tsuchiura City.
3. Murakami 2000.
4. Letter written by Fumio Kobayashi displayed at the Kaiten
Memorial Museum.
5. Murakami (2000, Figure 1) indicates that Chiran Peace
Museum attendance from 1990 to 1997 was over 500 thousand annually.
6. Murphy (2002) indicates Yūshūkan attendance is one
thousand per day.
Sources Cited
Murakami, Toshifumi. 2000. The Role of Peace Museums
in the Construction of a Culture of Peace. Paper from 18th General IPRA
(International Peace Research Association Conference) held August 2000 in
Tampere, Finland.
<http://kyoiku.kyokyo-u.ac.jp/gakka/murakami/peacemuseum.htm>
(July 15, 2004), link no longer available.
Murphy, Paul. 2002. Yasukuni Museum Tugs At
Heartstrings To Keep Military Memories Alive. Asahi Shimbun News
Service. August 25. <http://www.rense.com/general28/tudg.htm>
(February 9, 2004), link no longer available. Originally available at: <http://www.asahi.com/english/feature/K2002081500254.html>
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