"Tokkoubana" tte shitteru? (Do you know about "tokko flowers"?)
by Chiho Nakata
Sinonome Shuppan, 2008, 204 pages
This unique inspirational book, written by a young professional photographer,
shows photos of tokko (special attack or kamikaze) flowers and presents the sad
history behind these beautiful wildflowers. The flower's official name in Japanese
is tenningiku, but inhabitants of Kikaijima, a small island
about halfway between Kyushu and Okinawa, also refer to them as tokko
flowers. During WWII the Japanese Navy had an air base on Kikaijima, which
kamikaze pilots sometimes used. Tokko flowers still flourish around the island's
airport, the site of the former naval air base.
Chiho Nakata writes how she felt about the special significance of tokko
flowers when she first found them during a visit to Kikaijima (p. 26): "I
considered that tokko flowers are different than just normally blooming flowers.
It is like they're flowers filled with spirits of kamikaze pilots my same age,
with one person in each flower." This quote exemplifies her emotional ties
to tokko flowers and her heartfelt approach to both the historical material and
the many people of all ages she meets through her photographs of tokko flowers.
Nakata presents her story chronologically over seven years from when she
first went to Kikaijima in 2001 to photograph tokko flowers at age 19 while a
junior college student in Kyoto. Every year she goes back to Kikaijima to
continue taking photographs of tokko flowers. She mentions briefly major events
in her life as she starts work at a company of women photographers in Osaka and
has opportunities to take a wide variety of advertising photos. However, the
book keeps focused on tokko flowers and the many individuals she meets in
connection with her photographs of the flowers and her research into the history
of kamikaze pilots.
After she returned from Kikaijima the first time, she began to investigate
the history of kamikaze special attacks and met with Tadamasa Itatsu, former
kamikaze pilot and first director of the Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze
Pilots, who continued to assist her over the years. Her tokko flower photographs
were exhibited as part of her junior college's graduation photography
exhibition, and there many people who had lived through WWII, including veterans,
viewed her photos with great emotion. For example, one women stood crying in front of
the photos for a long time, and Nakata found out by talking with her that when
she was 17 years old during the war she fell in love with an airman when he
visited her family's home near an airfield, but later she found out that he
died over Kikaijima when shot down by an enemy plane.
Even after starting work in the photography firm after graduation from junior
college, Nakata continued her activities related to tokko flowers. In 2005, with
the help of her firm, she organized a special exhibition of tokko flower
photographs over a six-month period in Osaka, Tokyo, Kikaijima, Kanazawa, and
Kyoto. Over 20 thousand people in total visited the exhibition, with about 40%
being younger people and 60% being older people. The book includes about ten
pages of selected comments from exhibition visitors, including the following one
written by a 24-year-old woman (pp. 104-5):
I saw on TV when your photos were presented. I was very impressed by the
beauty of tokko flowers and by the beauty of the photos that you took, so I
visited since I wanted to see them up close in person. It was very good that
I tried to visit. Being about your same age, I did not know about the war
other than the instruction I received in school. On a personal note, when I
went to the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Museum on an elementary school field trip,
instead of considering the overwhelming tragedy, I remember a feeling of
rejection toward learning about the war. Through the beautiful flowers that
you took, memories of the known war came gently into my heart. Your photos
are not only beautiful but also a new attempt, which could not be done by
classroom instruction, to make the war known to a generation that does not
know it.
The tokko flower photographs taken by Nakata and this book about her life
provide inspiration in various ways. Though her talks at schools, students have
been inspired by her enthusiasm and dedication toward photographing in many
different ways this same type of flower. After she spoke to high school students
at Kikaijima, they had a new appreciation for the history of their small island
and decided to create and perform a play about tokko flowers. Two brothers about
her age who live on Kikaijima composed and recorded the following song after
meeting her (pp. 93-4):
Tokko Flowers
by Doki Doki
Blown by the sea breeze, blossoming with smiles
Young flowers, gallant in full bloom
Fighting goes on, forgetting life, never-ending, sad flowers.
If our lives will perish, we want to die riding the wind.
Don't forget, young flowers
Blooming, we fall, blooming, we fall
Laughing, flowers of our souls.
Fighting tells us it's senseless
Here we'll keep on blooming
Tokko flowers.
Her touching stories of conversations with elderly people about the war
provide encouragement to the younger generation to find out more about the times
in which the older generation lived. Her photographs awakened many sad wartime
memories that provided her the opportunity to find out more about personal
histories. Nakata's story also serves as a model to others of a young person who
finds something fascinating, pursues her interest with her whole heart, humbly
receives guidance from those who are older, gains confidence bit by bit as she
gets positive feedback, and achieves success in her chosen field.
In 2005, Nakata met with Yasuto Ichikawa, a former naval transport plane
pilot, to listen to his explanation for the many tokko flowers around Kikaijima
Airport. Ichikawa was at Kanoya Air Base with his fellow squadron member,
Atsushi Ohshima, when they received separate assignments during the Battle of
Okinawa. Ichikawa received orders to air drop medical supplies, dried bread, and
other items at Oroku Air Base on Okinawa, and Ohshima had orders to go to
Kikaijima to drop off supplies and to pick up stranded kamikaze pilots who had
made forced landings on or near the island. While talking before they took off
from Kanoya, Ohshima told Ishikawa that he was going to plant some tenningiku
flowers at Kikaijima when he landed there since he liked them so much. Ohshima
did land on Kikaijima, but he never made it back to Kanoya, because his
transport plane that took off from Kikaijima one hour after landing was ambushed
by two enemy fighters. His plane crashed into the sea only about 200 meters from
the shore of Kikaijima. After the war, Ishikawa built a small monument near the airport in
remembrance of his friend Ohshima.
Small black-and-white photos are spread throughout the book, but only seven
pages in total in front and back have larger color photos of tokko flowers. In
addition, two pages in back show about 70 very small photos of tokko flowers,
people who the author met, and historical scenes. The book's photos lack
captions, making it difficult at times to identify people in the photos, but
often the text around a photo makes identification possible. Nakata does not
give the reasons why she selected individual photos for this book, but she does
describe how she took photos before dawn to draw closer to the feelings of kamikaze pilots,
since these young men about her age would have seen the flowers
at the same time when they got ready to fly toward enemy ships around Okinawa.
Although basic historical facts get presented, Nakata focuses on feelings,
emotions, and memories evoked by her tokko flower photographs. Ohshima's story
provides a sentimental explanation of why so many tokko flowers grow near
Kikaijima Airport, but the book does not scientifically address where else the flowers grow
or whether the flowers grew on Kikaijima even before the Navy had an air base
there. The flower's scientific name is gaillardia pulchella, and this
short-lived wildflower grows throughout the United States and especially in the
central part of the country. The flower's most common names in English are
firewheel or Indian blanket, and it is the state wildflower of Oklahoma. Nakata visits Kanoya Naval Air Base Museum and mentions that Kanoya also
has tokko flowers around the base. However, these flowers are yellow and
completely different than the ones on Kikaijima. She does not give much explanation
as to how two completely different flowers came to have the same name.
Some of the few
specifics mentioned about wartime special attack operations are inaccurate. For
example, the book states that 100 kamikaze pilots in 100 aircraft took off from
Kikaijima Air Base (p. 70), but an exhibit at the Kanoya Naval Air Base Museum
indicates only 19 Navy Kamikaze Special Attack Corps members died after sorties from
Kikaijima, and the Army also had 23 kamikaze pilots who sortied from an air base
on Kikaijima [1]. The section on her visit to Chiran incorrectly mentions that 1,036
kamikaze pilots took off from Chiran Air Base and died in special attacks. The
actual number is 402, which does not include pilots who made sorties from
Chiran's two forward bases at Kikaijima (23 pilots) and Tokunoshima (14 pilots)
[2]. The number of 1,036 represents Army airmen who died in
attacks around Okinawa, starting on March 26, 1945, from all Army air bases
including Bansei, Miyakonojo, Kengun, and bases in Taiwan.
After the six-month photo exhibition in 2005, Nakata has continued her
activities related to kamikaze pilots and tokko flowers. In 2006, she joined a
group of 25 veterans to travel to the Philippines to tour various war sites and
memorials including Mabalacat, where the first kamikaze squadrons led by
Lieutenant Yukio Seki were formed. In 2007, she joined Tadamasa Itatsu, former
Chiran Museum Director, to go with Fumiko Sato to visit the museum at the Nara
Air Self Defense Force Base. Sato's fiancé, Seizo Tatsumi, died at 24 years of
age as part of a special attack squadron that took off from Bansei Army Air Base
on June 11, 1945. Sato told her sad story to Nakata as she viewed with many
tears Tatsumi's photo and writing at the museum. In 2008, along with publication
of this book, a second tokko flower photograph exhibition was held in two cities in
July and August.
The tokko flower photographs and Nakata herself have influenced many people
from young to old, and this book will most likely do the same. Although not a
detailed history of either tokko flowers or special attack operations, the book
contains many individual stories and histories to better understand the personal
side of wartime experiences and memories.
Notes
1, 2. Chiran Tokkou
2005, 69
Sources Cited
Chiran Tokkou Irei Kenshou Kai (Chiran Special Attack
Memorial Society), ed. 2005. Konpaku no kiroku: Kyuu rikugun tokubetsu
kougekitai chiran kichi (Record of departed spirits: Former Army Special
Attack Corps Chiran Base). Revised edition, originally published in 2004. Chiran Town, Kagoshima
Prefecture: Chiran Tokkou Irei Kenshou Kai.
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