At 1355 on April 6, 1945, Lieutenant Nobuo Miyatake took off from Kanoya Air Base
as pilot in a Zero fighter carrying a 250-kg bomb and died in a special
(suicide) attack off Okinawa at the age of 24. He was a member of the
Kamikaze Special Attack Corps 1st Shichishō Squadron from Genzan [1] Naval Air Group. After his death in a special
attack, he received a promotion to Commander. He was from Kagawa Prefecture and
graduated in the 71st Class of the Naval Academy at Etajima.
Dear Mother,
I have not written in a long time. I am really full of vigor and pushing
forward with my duty. Until the end being patient, I earnestly am praying to
carry out my duty.
Give my regards to Father and Satoko. Farewell.
Seven lives
I pledge to fall
A cherry blossom
Older Sister Yasue Takahashi
When you put together an album, there will be material on my reputation as
a member of the Special Attack Corps.
I will pray in the next world for peace, and Father will engrave my death
poem on the tombstone.
You will rub my back when you wash the grave after climbing the hill
where cherry blossoms have fallen.
When you read the article about Okinawa special attack operations, see my
dazzling figure before the sortie.
Younger Sister Satoko Tamada
When the cherry blossoms start to bloom, I will fall in a special attack
in the Okinawa Sea.
Like a gust of wind in the evening I will keep going to my place of duty,
which is my farewell to this life.
My face will not appear at my 60th birthday, and there will only be my
gallant figure at 20 years old.
This sea continues on to Okinawa Prefecture, and there is no way I can be
kind and offer flowers there.
Older Sister Shinako Hirata
At dawn hiding tears from the public, Mother is crying when looking at my
photo as she remembers me.
I will die as a warrior with Mother following after me, and in the Pure
Land (Paradise) I will pray for peace.
Accompanied by Father when he returns from Siberia, visit Etajima where
my spirit will be resting in peace.
When you search for my image at my 60th birthday if I were alive, there
will also be my friends in the same class.
The letters come from Katabami
(2014, 72, 74). The biographical information in the first paragraph comes from
Katabami
(2014, 72) and Osuo (2005, 199).
