The night before flying to Japan, I stayed at the Hilton Hotel at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, having flown there from Boston. From the 10th floor, I had a great view of the runways (and a parking garage). On the big day, Zach (sound mixer), Tim (director of photography) flew to O’Hare from Nashville and we all boarded a Boeing 777-300ER for a 13-hour, 35-minute All Nippon Airways flight to Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan.
In Tokyo, we were met by Takayuki Oshima, a journalist/researcher who works for NHK (the Japanese equivalent of PBS). He has made five programs for NHK where he researched documents pertaining to kamikaze pilots and has interviewed kamikaze family members. His most recent program aired in December 2023 and featured the pilots that attacked the USS Franklin (CV-13) on October 30, 1944 off the Philippines. Of the six planes in that attack, one struck the USS Franklin and another struck the USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24), causing significant casualties and damage to both.
For our documentary about the USS Franklin, Mr. Oshima helped locate families of the kamikaze squadron that attacked the Task Force 58 on March 19, 1945, and he facilitated interviews with three families for the documentary. He also made reservations for hotel rooms, equipment rentals for filming, two different rental vans for our trip and tickets for the Shinkansen (bullet train), as well as acquired permissions to film in southern Japan at a WWII museum and also near the base from where the planes departed on March 19, 1945. This trip would not have been possible without his expertise, knowledge and hard work.
Our trip followed the course below over a 9-day period:
The schedule was as follows, with the reminder that Japan’s time zone is 13 hours ahead of the eastern time zone of the U.S.:
March 13: Arrived in Japan – stayed in Shibuya area of Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis Prefecture, island of Honshu.
March 14: Picked up rental van and filming/lighting equipment, drove to Shizuoka in the Shizuoka Prefecture
March 15: Conducted first family interview in Shizuoka, drove to Hamamatsu in the Shizuoka Prefecture
March 16: Our second interview was supposed to be with a woman in Hamamatsu, but it was canceled. Her husband had died recently and she was not up to the interview. She kindly sent to Takayuki a rare book about the Special Attack Unit that we are researching. She said that we can keep the book until we are finished with the documentary. Drove to Matsuzaka in the Mie Prefecture
March 17: Conducted an interview with a family in Matsuzaka, drove to Nagoya in the Aichi Prefecture, dropped off the rental van and shipped some of the filming/lighting equipment back to Tokyo.
March 18: Took the Shinkansen (bullet train) from Nagoya Station to Shin Osaka, changed trains and traveled to Kagoshima in the Kagoshima Prefecture, on the island of Kyushu, picked up another rental van, scouted filming locations, and stayed in Miyazaki in the Miyazaki Prefecture.
You might recognize the name of Kyushu as the location of air bases that were targeted by planes from carriers in Task Force 58 in March or 1945. It’s also the origin of the planes that attacked the Franklin.
March 19: At 7:08am from the beach at Miyazaki, we placed a wreath of flowers in the sea in memory of those who died aboard the USS Franklin during the attack of March 19, 1945. (This was at 6:08pm, March 18 in the eastern time zone of the U.S. We live-streamed this on the Facebook group, “Survivors, Family, and Friends of the USS Franklin CV-13.”) Then we filmed at a nearby WWII museum.
March 20: Filmed near the location of the air base from where the planes departed that attacked the Franklin on March 19, 1945. Then returned the rental van at Kagoshima Airport and flew to Haneda Airport in Tokyo.
March 21: Filmed interviews with Mr. Oshima and another WWII researcher.
March 22: Flew back to the U.S.
The trip was very successful. Our guide, Mr. Oshima, was an excellent production coordinator and had everything planned to a “T.” We met wonderful people who were generous with their hospitality and their stories, we ate delicious food, and saw memorable sights. In other words, it was kind of like filming at a Franklin reunion, but in Japanese!
(All photos by Anderson Clark unless otherwise specified.)