Usa Special Attack Monument
The commander at Usa Naval Air Base, located on the northern coast of Oita
Prefecture on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu, received orders in
February 1945 that 110 men in the Naval Air Corps there should commence training
for special (kamikaze) attacks. Near the planned dates of their attacks, these
young men in the kamikaze corps moved south to bases in Kagoshima Prefecture,
from where they would sortie on suicide attacks against Allied ships off
Okinawa. The monument at right, erected in 1954, honors the 154 Usa Naval Air
Corps men who died in kamikaze attacks.
The Navy opened Usa Air Base in October 1939 for flight training of pilots
and observers of carrier dive bombers and carrier attack bombers. The use of
Usa as a training base continued through the end of 1944. In April and May 1945,
the men from Usa Naval Air Corps
participated in the first five of ten mass kamikaze attacks, named Kikusui
(Floating Chrysanthemum) operations. They sortied from Kushira Air Base and Kokubu
No. 2 Air Base on April 6, 12, 16, 28, and May 3 [1].
In total, 61 men in 49 carrier dive bombers and 93 men in 32 carrier attack
bombers perished in carrying out kamikaze attacks.
In 1954, surviving pilots from the Naval Reserve Training Program provided
funds and a local man donated land to build a monument in honor of men in
the Usa Air Base kamikaze corps who died in the war. The monument site also
includes a stone wall with names, ages, and home prefectures of those who died.
The monument tablet has engraved on it the three-character word "chuukonhi," which means
monument to the war dead. Each year a memorial service is held at the monument
site on April 16.
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