The Imperial Japanese Army airbase at Chiran, Kagoshima, with its two runways, was the principal kamikaze base during the Battle of Okinawa. Of the 1,036 army aviators who died in these attacks, 439 were from Chiran. Of the total number, 335 were classed as "young boy pilots".
Peace Museum
In 1975 a museum was built to commemorate the lives of the pilots and document their "patriotic efforts for peace". Enlarged in 1986, exhibits include four planes: a Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa, a 1943 Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien, a 1944 Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate, and a Mitsubishi Zero recovered from the seabed in 1980. On a personal level, the exhibit includes letters, poems, essays, testaments, and other artefacts; as well as photographs of the 1,036 pilots, arranged in the order in which they died. There is also the grand piano on which two of the pilots played the Moonlight Sonata the night before their final mission.
Other monuments
The Tokkō Kannondō is a temple dedicated to the "Special Attack Goddess of Mercy". The image enshrined within is a 1.8m replica statue of the Yumechigai Kannon, a National Treasure at Hōryū-ji. The names of the kamikaze pilots are written on paper within her womb. It was erected in 1955 thanks to donations collected by Tome Torihama, who ran the Tomiya Inn frequented by the pilots, and who sought to redeem their memoryafter the war. Stone lanterns dedicated to the pilots line the approach to the museum.
Pilot Hayashi Ichizo wrote in his diary: "I will do a splendid job sinking an enemy aircraft carrier... I read the Bible every day... I will sing a hymn as I dive on an enemy vessel."
Major Hajime Fuji, a training instructor, presented his petition to serve as a kamikaze pilot written in blood; his wife drowned herself and their children so that he should have no conflicting ties.
After the war, "Two or three American soldiers jumped up on the planes and kicked them with their military boots. They ridiculed the planes with the following scornful words, 'Look! So those kamikaze fellows came against us with these piddling worn-out planes. Did they think they could win with these toys? How stupid!'"
Film
The Firefly : popular Japanese film of 2001, directed by Yasuo Furuhata and centered around the character of Tome Torihama, who ran the Tomiya Inn in Chiran and treated the young kamikaze pilots as if they were her own sons. I go to die for you : 2007 film with screenplay by Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, based on his conversations with Tome Torihama, who died in 1992.
