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Book of letters
published by
Yasukuni Jinja
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Writings - Books
Dozens of Japanese books contain letters, poems, and diaries
written by kamikaze pilots and other Special Attack Corps members such as
kaiten (manned torpedo) pilots. The most famous of these is Kike Wadatsumi
no Koe (Listen to the Voices from the Sea), first published in 1949. After
many reprintings, over one and a half million copies had been sold through
1982. This book has two English translations, Listen to the Voices from the
Sea (2000, translated by Midori Yamanouchi and Joseph L. Quinn) and The
Sun Goes Down (1956, edited by Jean Lartéguy, translated from the French
version by Nora Wydenbruck). These two translations contain letters of all
types of Japanese soldiers, and kamikaze pilots wrote only about one fifth of
the letters.
Yasukuni Jinja, the national shrine for Japan's war dead, has
published many books with writings by special attack corps members. These
include seven volumes of Eirei no koto no ha (Words of the spirits of
war heroes) (1995-2001), which contain letters and brief biographical data on
the writers. Special attack corps members authored about one fifth of these
writings. Yasukuni Jinja also publishes other books of writings that include
photos and background of the soldiers and the war. These books are much easier
to read than Eirei no koto no ha (Words of the spirits of
war heroes), since they provide context for the letters. Chichiue-sama hahaue-sama
(Dear father, dear mother) (1988) provides the full text of each letter and then
an explanation. The following two books provide shorter excerpts of writings as
part of the soldiers' personal stories: Iza saraba ware wa mikuni no
yamazakura
(Farewell, we are our country's mountain cherry blossoms) (1994) and Sange no
kokoro to chinkon no makoto (Spirits of heroic dead and devotion to repose
of souls) (1995).
Although both Kike Wadatsumi
no Koe (Listen to the Voices from the Sea) and the Yasukuni Jinja
publications include writings of Special Attack Corps members, the types of
letters differ between the two. Kike Wadatsumi no Koe has writings of
elite university students who died in the war, and its goal is the promotion of
peace so as to never repeat the tragedy of war. Many of the writings tend to support
liberal thinking and criticize the war. Kazuo Watanabe writes in the
introduction to the 1949 edition (Nihon Senbotsu 2000, 1):
In the beginning, I had leaned quite far in the direction of
all-inclusiveness and insisted that it would be much more fair and just to
include even rather fanatical Nipponism, or even a few short essays shading
toward the glorification of war, but the members of the Publication Department
did not show any sign of agreement with my position. The primary reason for
their opposition was that the publication of this book must not at all affect
negatively the current social conditions, and so on.
In contrast, Yasukuni Jinja is a symbol of Japanese colonialism and
nationalism. The letters published by Yasukuni Jinja tend to be consistent with
its nationalistic view of Japanese military history, and it avoids publication
of some of the extremely liberal letters included in Kike Wadatsumi no Koe.
Besides the Yūshūkan Museum at the Yasukuni Jinja, several other museums with
kamikaze exhibits also sell books of letters written by pilots who made sorties from
the World War II air base near the museum site. For example, the Kanoya Naval
Air Base Museum published in 2003 the book Kokoro no sakebi (Cries
of the heart), about half of which contains letters written by kamikaze pilots.
The Bansei Tokkō Peace Museum sells Hichirō Naemura's Rikugun saigo no tokkō kichi:
Bansei tokkōtaiin no isho to isatsu (Army's last special attack base: Last
letters and photographs of Bansei special attack corps members) (1993), which
has about 150 pages of letters. The Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots
sells several books that contain writings of kamikaze pilots, but the best
selling one seems to be Kaoru Muranaga's Chiran tokubetsu kōgekitai
(Chiran special attack forces) (1989), which also includes a history of the base
and many historical photos. The Kokubu No. 2 Air Base Exhibit sells Chinkon
-- shirakumo ni norete kimi kaerimase: Tokkō kichi daini kokubu no ki
(Repose of souls -- riders of the white clouds, come back to us: Record of
Special Attack Corps Kokubu No. 2 Air Base) (1992), which has about 100 pages of
writings by kamikaze pilots.
Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki, one of the Japanese Navy's top leaders from Pearl
Harbor to the end of the war, wrote a 15-volume diary covering his wartime
experiences. This detailed diary serves as a valuable primary source to
understand the thinking of Japan's military leaders regarding kamikaze attacks,
since Ugaki commanded the military's air attacks from February 1945 to the end
of the war. Ugaki personally led the last kamikaze attack against the Allied
fleet off Okinawa after he listened to the Emperor's surrender message. The
University of Pittsburgh Press has published an excellent English translation of
Ugaki's diary entitled Fading Victory (1991, 731 pages).
In 2024, the two-volume work entitled Facing Death: Last Writings of Japanese
Special Attack Corps Members, Volumes 1 and 2, was published. This
book contains writings of over 400 Japanese men, most in
their late teens and early twenties, who died during the final ten months of
World War II in what non-Japanese people call suicide or kamikaze attacks. The
letters, diary entries, and poems were written after assignment to the Special
Attack Corps, which had the mission to carry out sure-death attacks to sink
Allied ships. Many writings include typical militaristic and patriotic
expressions popular during the war, but the selected writings also provide
insights into the men’s thinking, emotions, and concerns as they confronted
impending death. Most writings appear in English in print for the first time.
Kamikaze Diaries, published in
2006 by an anthropology professor at an American university, contains a few
English translations of writings by kamikaze pilots. Much of this book deals
with writings of student soldiers not part of the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps,
and even most kamikaze pilot writings in the book are dated before they entered
the Kamikaze Corps or even before they joined the military.
Other books that contain writings of kamikaze pilots and other Special Attack
Corps members include:
In addition to the books mentioned on this page, many other Japanese books
contain writings by Special Attack Corps members:
Source Cited
Nihon Senbotsu Gakusei Kinen-Kai (Japan Memorial Society for the
Students Killed in the War—Wadatsumi Society), comp. 2000. Listen
to the Voices from the Sea: Writings of the Fallen Japanese Students (Kike
Wadatsumi no Koe). Translated by Midori Yamanouchi and Joseph L. Quinn.
Scranton: University of Scranton Press.
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