Last Letter of Corporal Yukio Garan to His Father
On April 6, 1945, Corporal Yukio Garan took off from Bansei Army Air Base as
a member of the 73rd Shinbu Special Attack Squadron and died in battle to the
west of
Okinawa at the age of 19. He piloted an Army Type 99 Assault Plane (Allied
nickname of Sonia). After his death he received a special promotion to
Second Lieutenant. He was from Kagoshima Prefecture and was a member of the 15th Class of the Army Youth Pilot (Rikugun Shōhi)
Program.
He wrote the following final letter on a postcard addressed to his father:
I hope that you have been doing well.
It has been decided that next I will take off to OO [1],
and perhaps I will pass through Chiran.
At that time I will let you know, so please understand.
If there is free time, I would like to see you.
If you come, please come as soon as possible. I will let you know.
Letter translated by Bill Gordon
October 2024
The letter comes from Minaminippon Shinbunsha (2016, 64). The biographical
information in the first paragraph comes from Naemura (1993, 486) and Osuo
(2005, 201).
Related Web Page
Note
1. OO indicates information that was a military
secret and could not be included in the letter. "Special OO" almost certainly
meant "Special Attack Corps."
Sources Cited
Minaminippon Shinbunsha, ed. 2016. Tokkō kono chi yori:
Kagoshima shutsugeki no kiroku (Special attacks from this land: Record of
Kagoshima sorties). Researched and written by Shūji Fukano and Fusako
Kadota. Kagoshima City: Minaminippon Shinbunsha.
Naemura, Hichirō. 1993. 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). Ōsaka: Tōhō
Shuppan.
Osuo, Kazuhiko. 2005. Tokubetsu kōgekitai no kiroku (rikugun hen)
(Record of special attack corps (Army)). Tōkyō: Kōjinsha.
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