Last Letters of Corporal Ichirō Kidokoro to His Family
On April 12, 1945, Corporal Ichirō Kidokoro took off from Chiran Air
Base and died in a special (suicide) attack west of Okinawa at the age of 20. He
was a member of the 103rd Shinbu Special Attack Squadron. He piloted a Type 99
Assault Plane (Allied code name of Sonia). After his death in a
special attack, he received a four-rank promotion to Second Lieutenant. He was from
Aichi Prefecture and was a member of the 14th Class of the Yonago Pilot Training
School.
He wrote the following final letter addressed to his parents:
Dear Parents,
I thank you for raising me for more than twenty years.
I have no regrets at this last moment.
I only request that I die splendidly.
Kidokoro wrote the following separate letter to his older brother and sister
[1]:
Dear Older Brother and Older Sister,
Thank you for the many ways that you have taken care of me.
I have no regrets.
I earnestly ask you to take care of things afterwards.
Letters translated by Bill Gordon
May 2018
The letters and biographical information on this page come from Chiran Tokkō Irei Kenshō
Kai (2005, 108, 186) and Osuo (2005, 203).
Note
1. Kidokoro may have had more than one older
brother or more than one older sister. The numbers are not specified in the
letter.
Sources Cited
Chiran Tokkō Irei Kenshō Kai (Chiran Special Attack
Memorial Society), ed. 2005. Konpaku no kiroku: Kyū rikugun tokubetsu
kōgekitai chiran kichi (Record of departed spirits: Former Army Special
Attack Corps Chiran Base). Revised edition, originally published in 2004. Chiran Town, Kagoshima
Prefecture: Chiran Tokkō Irei Kenshō Kai.
Osuo, Kazuhiko. 2005. Tokubetsu kōgekitai no kiroku (rikugun hen)
(Record of special attack corps (Army)). Tōkyō: Kōjinsha.
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