Highlights: Kazukiyo Yamamoto, a 74-year-old architect living in Osaka, said he had never heard of the war from his father, Takuro. His father died 18 years ago. Yamamoto looked up the names of his father and his unit on the Internet. It was revealed that his father had traveled to 10 places nationwide, including Tochigi, Nagano, and Aomori prefectures, for training, and that he had an accident during the training and survived.

NHK: A scarf with the word "Special Attack Squad" written on it was found in the belongings of my father, who said that he did not go to war. Was my father really a commando?

Was my father really a commando? Aug 8 at 15:16

It all started with a scarf found in his father's belongings.

Written there were the letters of the commando and his father's name.

During his lifetime, his father said, "I didn't go to war," and kept his experiences hidden.
Was he really a commando officer?

The son who followed in his footsteps arrived at a father he had never imagined.

(International broadcaster World News Department Yamato Ueno)

The characters of "Shinbutai Special Attack Team Tenshotai" are ...

Kazukiyo Yamamoto, a 74-year-old architect living in Osaka, said he had never heard of the war from his father, Takuro.

Takuro worked at the forestry department until his retirement.
He was serious, strict with himself and his children, and was trained to always say "I'll eat it" at mealtimes.

His father died 18 years ago.

On the scarf I found while sorting through the relics, the words "Shinbutai Special Attack Team Tenshotai" and his father's name were written on it.

Kazukiyo
Yamamoto: "My first impression when I saw the muffler was 'Hey~', and since I got my car license when I was almost 60 years old, I never imagined that I would be able to fly an airplane."

Father's career had a blank of two years

In addition, it was found that his sister, who lives in Nagoya City, kept documents with his father's background.
This is the first time I see my father's career.

There was a detailed description of the place of work, address, and salary for each age group.

However, the wartime part
has only two lines: "October 18, Showa 10 Sendai Army Flight School Second Enlistment" and
"August 1, Showa 20 Demobilization Ozera".

What happened in the two years of the gap between the ages of 8 and 18?
Why didn't his father talk about the war?

Last year, when the new corona infection was spreading, Mr. Yamamoto had plenty of time to stay at home and be free. Decided to follow in his father's footsteps.

Becoming a commando in a short period of training

First, Yamamoto looked up the names of his father and his unit on the Internet.

From the search results, I found a homepage that summarized the unit formation of the "Shinbutai" to which my father belonged.

It stated that Takuro was trained as a special pilot apprentice officer who trained fighter pilots of the former army in a short period of time, and then was incorporated into the special attack unit.

When I contacted the operator of the site, it was found that there was a bulletin contributed by special pilot apprentice officer = special pilot officer from the special training team.

When he ordered it, it was revealed that his father had traveled to 10 places nationwide, including Tochigi, Nagano, and Aomori prefectures, for training, and that he had an accident during the training and survived.

Kazukiyo
Yamamoto: "I was able to get on an airplane in just about six months, and in less than a year I was ready for actual combat, so I could imagine that it must have been a very harsh training.

My father left a "suicide note"

Further investigation revealed that his father had spent time at a temple called "Saitoji" in Yoshinogari Town, Saga Prefecture, until the end of the war.

Mr. Yamamoto immediately visited the temple.

According to the temple, during the war, this was used as a dormitory for the commandos just before the sortie, and 53 young people went to the battlefield.

His father also spent about a month here, training at the nearby former Army "Medachihara Air Base".

Surprisingly, there was also a suicide note left by his father.

Written there was the phrase "Believe in what will follow."

And it was a tanka that said, "Show me to scatter for the sake of the country, and I will go to the trail of the divine eagle."

Thinking of his comrades who had flown out earlier, he was determined to follow in his footsteps.

Kazukiyo
Yamamoto: "If there were no people to follow me, I wondered if what I was doing would be right. Maybe that's why I used these words as the basis of my own heart."

Self-portrait of father given to the girl

At this temple, Yamamoto also learned about an unexpected side of his father.
There were pictures and postcards that had been given to a 13-year-old girl at the time.

My father wrote
, "The soldiers were very happy after a day of playing, and I could see the children playing on the beach and the waves crashing against the rocks. Let's play again next time."

The owner, Reiko Ito, 92,
had donated it to the temple eight years ago.

In Showa 8, he met Takuro when his family was evacuating to a ryokan in Yamagata Prefecture.
Ms. Ito wanted to leave a living testimony of the commandos and asked her to draw a self-portrait.

Reiko Ito:
"She was a wonderful person, kind, gentle, and caring. I hope you are safe and come home."

What emerged from the exchange between the two was a kind, ordinary young man who was different from his strict father.
The feeling of being a person from another world when he learned that his father was a special attack officer was gone.

Father was looking for a place to die

After the war, his father moved to Nagano Prefecture, relying on acquaintances, where he met and married Yamamoto's mother, Yoko.
His mother, who passed away in April, left a memoir of more than 4 pages looking back on the war and postwar period.

While researching his father's footsteps, Yamamoto read his mother's memoirs again and found a page describing his father's situation after the war.

"A subordinate crashed and died during flight training at a base in Kyushu, and the next day was a declaration of defeat. When he saw the death of his subordinates, he felt a sense of regret and responsibility, and he sought a place to die in the mountains around the base."

He may have kept his mouth shut, believing that surviving would be a denial of his comrades who lost their lives and who he was back then. Yamamoto speculates so.

He also feels grateful for peace, saying that his father's determination to "survive" in the midst of various conflicts led to his life, and that he, his children, and his grandchildren also exist.

Kazukiyo
Yamamoto: "I had heard that the survivors of the special attack squad committed suicide, so I hope that each of them will be able to think about it so that a war with many sacrifices will never happen again."

Mr. Yamamoto has completed a journey to fill in the blanks of two years.
I feel that various coincidences have led to a vague view of my father.

Yamamoto is determined to summarize his research in a book and tell the story of the war that his father did not talk about.

Joined the World News Department
Yamato
Ueno in 2012.
He was in charge of case coverage in Nagano, Osaka, and Saitama. World News department since 2022. Japan and Asian news are disseminated in English.

Was My Father Really a Commando? | NHK