Bonotsu Shinyo Corps Monument
Minamisatsuma City, Kagoshima Prefecture
The Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots displays a restored Model 5
shinyo explosive motorboat, which was built in WWII to carry out nighttime
suicide attacks against enemy ships. In 1979, the Kyoto Arashiyama Museum
salvaged the remains of this shinyo motorboat that had been scuttled after the
end of WWII by the
123rd Shinyo Special Attack Squadron stationed at Bonotsu, located at the
southwestern end of the Satsuma Peninsula. The Model 5 shinyo boat had a crew of
two and carried 250 kg of explosives in the bow.
The Bonotsu Shinyo Corps Monument, erected in 1979, stands alongside a path
through the woods alongside the inlet at Bonotsu. The path starts from the
parking lot of Kishinkan, a museum dedicated to Bonotsu's history. The
Shinyo Monument is located on the path's right-hand side about 10 meters from
the entrance to the woods. Further along the path is a monument to author Haruo
Umezaki, who was in Bonotsu in July 1945 as a member of the Navy's
Communications Unit and who used Bonotsu as a setting for a couple of his
postwar novels including Genka (Illusion).
The front of the monument has inscribed "Shinyo Corps Monument," and the back of the monument has the following inscription:
During the final stage of the Pacific War, there was a Surface Special
Attack Squadron located in this place. The squadron made preparations for
an enemy naval task force invasion and carried out constant training for
taiatari (body-crashing) suicide attacks to achieve certain victory.
Now thanks to the kindness of Bonotsu Town, we received the donation of a
site near the former base gate. Squadron members from those days and other
persons connected to the squadron gathered together to erect this
monument and pray for eternal peace.
August 15, 1979
123rd Shinyo Squadron Monument Erection Committee
In 2005, Bonotsu Town merged with nearby municipalities to form Minamisatsuma
City.
Bonotsu Inlet
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