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Takeyoshi Inokubo
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Resentment: Tradition of Commanding Officer's Taking Lead Disappeared (Hanpatsu:
Shikikan sentō no dentō kie)
Researched and written by Shūji Fukano and Fusako Kadota
Pages 174-176 of Tokkō kono chi yori: Kagoshima shutsugeki no kiroku
(Special attacks from this land: Record of Kagoshima sorties)
Minaminippon Shinbunsha, 2016, 438 pages
Takeyoshi Inokubo (93 years old), former Naval Air Group member who lives in
the Kumano district of Miyazaki City, has a photograph (see bottom of page) that
was taken together with a Flying Skill Trainee classmate when they worked hard
together at practical flight training in
three-seat reconnaissance seaplanes at Komatsushima Naval Air Group Chita
Detachment in Aichi Prefecture.
Standing behind Inokubo, who has on his
lap a child from the family where they were lodging, is his good friend Flight Chief Petty Officer Eiji Iizuka. Iizuka died in battle when he made a
sortie from Ibusuki Naval Air Base on May 4, 1945, as senior petty officer
of the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps 1st Sakigake Squadron, which was formed
from members of the Kitaura Naval Air Group in Ibaraki Prefecture.
After the war Inokubo found out there were feelings of deep resentment toward
senior officers who sent out only student reserve officers and Yokaren (Naval
Preparatory Flight Training Program) graduates on special (suicide) attacks.
In April 1945, just before the 1st Sakigake Squadron proceeded to the
training air base of Takuma Air Group in Kagawa Prefecture, the top-ranking
officers of Kitaura Air Group transferred in a lieutenant who was a Naval Academy
graduate who had been selected as 1st Sakigake Squadron Commander.
In the Navy when a commanding officer gave an order to subordinates, there
was a tradition that he would take the lead and initiative and show himself to
be a model, but it turned out to be a form that was overturned. Inokubo
explains, "The chance of success was low for special attacks by a slow
floatplane. Therefore, there was no need to send an officer who was a Naval
Academy graduate. Iizuka was surely angry at such expedient thinking."
As for the Type 0 Reconnaissance Seaplane (Jake) piloted by Flight Chief Petty
Officer Iizuka on May 3 when he moved from Takuma Base to the final sortie base
at Ibusuki, soon after he took off from the water he started a steep dive, which
could have been mistaken for a special attack, and passed close to the command post
packed with high-ranking officers. This surprised the men who were seeing him
off.
On the following morning on the 4th, 5 Type 0 Reconnaissance Seaplanes and 23
Type 94 Reconnaissance Seaplanes of the 1st Sakigake Squadron and the Kotohira
Suishin Squadron from Takuma Air Group took off from Ibusuki, and 40 men in 18
planes died in battle. The plane piloted by Flight Chief Petty Officer Eiji
Iizuka was shot down by American Corsair fighters lying in wait as he flew by
the island of Amami Ōshima.
A U.S. Navy report indicates that the destroyer Morrison, responsible
for radar patrol north of the main island of Okinawa, was hit and sunk by
two decrepit bi-wing Type 94 Reconnaissance Seaplanes that had slipped through
the
tight intercept net. One of these planes seemed to have been shot down by an
American fighter, but it took off again from the sea by using its floats and
crashed into the ship's rear main battery. The crash caused an explosion in the powder
magazine that dealt a fatal blow to the ship.
A battle report released by Kitaura Air Group has only words of praise,
"After special attack training began in the beginning part of March, all men
with utmost fighting spirit avidly engaged in training while waiting for a
favorable opportunity. When they received the order to make a sortie, all men
renewed their resolve even more. They displayed more than enough skill with
decrepit aircraft as they charged forward wholeheartedly burning only with
resolve to protect the Empire and to destroy the enemy."
Related web pages:
Flight Chief Petty Officer Eiji Iizuka (back row,
2nd from right) and Takeyoshi Inokubo (front row,
2nd from right) when at
Komatsushima
Naval Air Group Chita Detachment
Translated by Bill Gordon
December 2024
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Resentment: Tradition of Commanding Officer's Taking Lead Disappeared
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