In our last update, we had laid a wreath in the sea (in Miyazaki on the east coast of Kyushu, Japan) the morning of March 19 in remembrance of the USS Franklin crew members who had died 79 years prior. Afterward, we had breakfast back at the hotel and then went to Kanoya City, also in the Kagoshima Prefecture, to the Kanoya Air Base Museum. Established in 1972, the Kanoya Air Base Museum is part of the current Kanoya Air Base within the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF). Through aircraft, artifacts, models, documents, photographs and other memorabilia, the museum researches, preserves and shares the aviation history of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the JMSDF. To quote the museum director, Nagayama Tsutomu, from his message on the museum website:
The Kanoya Air Base Museum of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force displays a wealth of historical materials from the establishment of the Kanoya Naval Air Group in 1936 to the current Kanoya Air Base of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. The museum displays the historical facts of the naval spirit, relics related to the special attack unit in the last war, and an actual Zero fighter aircraft. The current activities of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, such as disaster relief, surveillance in the seas surrounding our country, and overseas deployment missions, are also on display. We must learn this past history, know the present, and use it for the future.
On the grounds of the museum are roughly 15 historical aircraft. There are paved paths that wind through the outdoor museum with information posted about each aircraft.
In the lobby just inside the entrance of the museum, visitors are greeted by a huge, beautiful stained glass window of Sakurajima. The point of view seems to be that from Kagoshima City (please see my previous update about these sites). It’s really striking.
We were met by Takayuki’s contacts at the museum and were led upstairs to a special part of the building. The history of Japanese naval aviation presented there represents its beginning in 1936 through the end of World War II. The center of that display is a restored Japanese carrier Zero fighter plane.
But the main exhibition room on the second floor is devoted to the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps. It was there that we met Mr. Yamamori Masanobu, a guide and museum archivist/curator responsible for the exhibition room. After making introductions and presenting him with the gifts we had brought, we interviewed Mr. Yamamori for the film. He told us:
I am a guide at this museum and I have worked here for the last 10 years. I am a retired member of the Maritime Self Defense Force of Japan. Regarding this museum, we have received tens of thousands of visitors from all over Japan. The aim of this museum is to educate the visitors. It is an educational archives, if you will. Therefore, through this museum, we are educating not only the Self Defense Forces’ new members, but its retirees, as well as primary, middle, and high school students. We teach them about peace and war. Kanoya Base here was, and still is, an Air Force groups’ base. So this is an archive that holds materials on the history of aviation and the history of Japan’s involvement in the war.
This room where we are standing is a photo-room of Tokkotai (Special Attack Force) members. From this base, 908 Tokkotai members departed on their missions. A total of 2,526 Tokkotai members perished from the Japanese Navy. In this ‘Study Room’ we display the photos of the Navy’s Tokkotai members who perished, as you can see. Presently, we are displaying a total of 1,177 photos. And inside the glass-enclosed cases, we are displaying the Tokkotai members’ last letters, last testaments, wills, and various memorabilia and items left by them. These items were donated by the family members of Tokkotai.
(Translated from Japanese.)
Mr. Yamamori told us about the young men in the Japanese naval Kamikaze Special Attack Corps represented in this room:
Some of the Tokkotai members were very young. The youngest was 16 years old and the oldest was 38 years old. The average age was about 21 years old. So this museum is telling the historical fact that young people around 20 years old went on Tokko missions.
Mr. Yamamori told us that the museum is focused on “Peace Education” and we asked him to elaborate. He said:
Our objective is world peace. In other words, we want to stress the importance of peace. I want people to realize that people gave their lives to attain peace. People know this fact in general, but I don’t think it is recognized deeply. Why do we want peace? This room is a study room for the Tokko group, but it is a fact that there were young men who gave their lives in order to defend and protect Japan. We would like to teach everyone the history in order to maintain peace for the future. That is this museum’s objective. Neither the winner nor the defeated benefit from fighting a war. War must be avoided. So, we have to defend and maintain peace. We want to let the visitors learn about the last war, and give them an opportunity to think about what happened. We want the visitors to recognize the facts, raise their awareness and be enlightened.
We concluded our interview and filming and gave our thanks to Mr. Yamamori and his colleagues. As we were leaving, Mr. Yamamori gave us a brief tour of the museum. He pointed out in the lobby an information board about the War in the Pacific that I had not noticed when we arrived. He said that the information is updated daily. The list names the personnel of the Kamikaze Special Attack Units that sortied from Kyushu and were killed on the same month and day in 1945. Having just that morning laid a wreath in the sea to remember the men of the USS Franklin who were killed 79 years prior, on March 19, 1945, here was the Japanese equivalent — a memorial to those who had been killed during the fighting on that cold, overcast day.
Takayuki translated part of the document for us and I’ve added those translations to the photo below. He pointed out the names of Ueda Mototarou and Nishiguchi Hayao, the young men from the families we had interviewed just a few days prior. At the bottom of the page, he showed us where the Franklin was named as being bombed, along with the Wasp.
By the time we left the museum, it was mid-day and we had not yet had lunch, so we partook of the cake that the Ueda family had given us several days prior. The castella (kasutera) is based on a type of sponge cake that was introduced to Japan by the Portuguese in the 16th century. It’s not overly sweet and stays soft over a relatively long period of time. The cake was quite yummy and curbed our hunger, and also reminded us of the generosity and hospitality of the Ueda family.
