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Last letters, poems, and
writings of Navy Preparatory
Flight Trainees (2) (2006)
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Last Letter of Flight Petty Officer 2nd Class Mitsuo Iyanaga to His Mother and Older Sister
At 1535 on April 28, 1945, Flight Petty Officer 2nd Class Mitsuo Iyanaga took
off from Kushira Air Base as radio operator/gunner in a Type 97 Carrier Attack
Bomber (Allied code name of Kate) carrying an 800-kg bomb and died in a special
(suicide) attack off Okinawa at the age of 19. He was a member of the Kamikaze
Special Attack Corps 1st Seiki Squadron from Hyakurihara Naval Air Group in
Ibaraki Prefecture. He was from Fukuoka Prefecture and was a member of the 12th
Kō Class of the Navy's Yokaren (Preparatory Flight Training Program).
He wrote the following final letter:
Dear Mother and Older Sister,
Mother, you have taken care of me in many ways for a long time.
I am going to crash dive bravely into an enemy aircraft carrier.
Everyone, I pray that you pay sufficient attention to your health.
Morning of sortie
Letter translated by Bill Gordon
November 2018
The letter comes from Unabarakai Henshū Iinkai
(2006, 27). The biographical information in the first paragraph comes from
Osuo (2005, 224) and Unabarakai Henshū Iinkai
(2006, 27).
Sources Cited
Osuo, Kazuhiko. 2005. Tokubetsu kōgekitai no kiroku (kaigun
hen) (Record of special attack corps (Navy)). Tōkyō: Kōjinsha.
Unabarakai Henshū Iinkai (Unabarakai Editing
Committee). 2006. Kaigun hikō yoka renshūsei
isho • iei • ikōshū (2) (Last letters, poems,
and writings of Navy Preparatory Flight Trainees (2)). Tōkyō:
Unabarakai.
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