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Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots
Chiran, which served as the main kamikaze sortie base for Japanese Army attacks on Allied ships around Okinawa, has become the
principal place that Japanese people associate with kamikaze pilots. The Chiran
Peace Museum opened in 1975 on the site of the former Chiran Air Base in order to
commemorate kamikaze pilots, and enlargement of the museum building to 17 thousand sq.
ft. was completed in 1986. Chiran Town also has several statues and memorials
related to kamikaze pilots, and stone lanterns dedicated to the pilots line the
town's main street and the road leading to the museum.
Many tour buses, especially with school children and senior citizens, stop at Chiran Peace Museum, where visitors can hear a 30-minute talk by a
museum guide and view the many items on display. The guide mentions in his talk
that over 2,000 people per day on average visit the museum. Several Japanese
films that feature Chiran contribute to the museum's popularity as a tourist
destination. For example, the popular movie Hotaru
(The Firefly), released in 2001, is a story about kamikaze pilots at Chiran,
and several scenes from the movie were shot in the town. Shintaro Ishihara,
novelist and currently Tokyo Governor, has written a film entitled Ore wa
kimi no tame ni koso shini ni iku (I go to die for you) about Chiran's
kamikaze pilots. This film, scheduled for release in 2007, depicts several
pilots based on stories from Tome Torihama, who ran Chiran's Tomiya Restaurant,
frequented by many pilots during the war.
The museum's name and exhibits lead visitors to a
misunderstanding of the facts regarding Japan's kamikaze operations. The
museum's English name includes "Kamikaze Pilots," so visitors with no
previous knowledge of kamikaze history assume the museum will include history
and exhibits related to all kamikaze pilots. However, the museum exhibits almost
exclusively relate to kamikaze pilots in the Army, and exhibit explanations do not mention
that over 60 percent of the kamikaze pilots came from the Navy. The exhibits
say that 1,036 kamikaze pilots died [1], but this number does not include about
400 Army pilots who died in kamikaze attacks on Allied ships around the
Philippines and elsewhere [2]. The figure of 1,036 includes only Army
airmen who died in attacks around Okinawa, starting on March 26, 1945. Not all of the
1,036 airmen made plane attacks on Allied ships. The total includes 88
paratroopers and the unit's pilots who made a suicide attack against an
airfield in Okinawa in May 1945 to destroy American aircraft on the ground
(O'Neill 1999, 234-5; Tokkotai Senbotsusha 1990, 300-3).
Although Chiran served as the Army's main air base for
kamikaze attacks on ships near Okinawa, several other bases were used in the
attacks. The museum displays a table that summarizes the sortie bases for the
1,036 Army airmen who died in special attacks: Chiran (439 men), Taiwan [3]
(135), Kumamoto
(128), Bansei (120), Miyakonojo (83), and others (131).
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Type 4 Hayate Fighter
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The Chiran Peace Museum displays about 4,000 photos, final
letters, and articles left behind by pilots. The museum's exhibits on kamikaze
pilots are the most extensive of any museum in Japan. The display cases,
lighting, and spacing in the museum's four large exhibition rooms make it easy for visitors to view the exhibits.
Four aircraft are displayed inside
the museum, including a Hien (Army Type 3 Fighter) and a Hayate
(Army Type 4 Fighter) (see photo), both of which were used in kamikaze attacks on Allied
ships near Okinawa.
The main
exhibition hall has individual photos of the 1,036 kamikaze pilots. These
photos are arranged by date of death and include each pilot's name, squadron, home
prefecture, age at death, and date of death. The back wall of the main hall has
group photos of many Shinbu special attack (kamikaze) squadrons. The main
exhibition hall has numerous letters and other writings, both originals and
copies, in 16 display cases. In addition, the bottom part of each display case
has pullout drawers with many more writings that can be viewed.
The other three exhibition rooms have less organization and
many more miscellaneous items than the main hall. For instance, the back
exhibition room includes an assortment of both Army and Navy uniforms and
numerous miscellaneous wartime items not directly connected to kamikaze pilots.
The large exhibition room to the right of the main hall has a wide variety of
books, articles, photos, and models with no particular order. Other than brief
historical summaries at the beginning of the main exhibition hall, the rest of
the museum usually just shows photos and items with brief labels rather than
providing historical background information.
The two films shown at the museum effectively supplement the
displays. A five-minute film with several museum photos and wartime film clips
tells the general history of the kamikaze pilots and Chiran Air Base. A
20-minute film features Tome Torihama, who owned Tomiya Restaurant in Chiran
Town, giving her remembrances of several kamikaze pilots. Tome's daughter Reiko
and two women who ran inns in Chiran during the war also talk about the young
kamikaze pilots.
The museum's photos, exhibits, films, and 30-minute
presentation by a guide present a very positive image of kamikaze pilots as
brave young men with great patriotism and love for their families. The museum
portrays the pilots as willingly giving their lives for their country and their
families to establish peace and prosperity for Japan. The English brochure
explains that this peace museum was "built to commemorate the pilots and
expose the tragic loss of their lives so that we may understand the need for
everlasting peace and ensure such incidents are never repeated."
Since 2004, the museum has added a small number of exhibits that mention Navy
kamikaze pilots but do not provide any historical background of the Navy's
special attack operations. These exhibits, located in the smaller display room
behind the main display hall with photos and letters, include two exhibits
related to Navy kamikaze pilots who came from the local area. One exhibit lists
brief biographical information of 73 Navy kamikaze pilots from Kagoshima
Prefecture who died in battle, but less than one third of these pilots have
photos. The other exhibit shows larger photos and provides detailed biographical
information of 20 Navy kamikaze pilots from Kawanabe-gun (where Chiran Town is
located) and Ibusuki-gun. In the same area as these two exhibits, there are also
some hachimaki (headbands) with the two Japanese characters for
"kamikaze," worn only by Navy airmen. Army suicide pilots who died
during the Battle of Okinawa generally belonged to units called Shinbu (meaning "military might" in Japanese) instead of
"kamikaze."
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The museum has a computerized display system with three
monitors to allow visitors to learn more about the history of kamikaze
operations. A narrator reads the explanations shown on some screens, but the
low volume makes it difficult to hear, especially when noisy tour groups enter
the museum. This plus the limited time allowed by most groups to tour the museum
probably explain the infrequent use of the computer system by visitors. The system has a touch-button menu system allowing visitors to view
a museum map and choose a museum section to get a brief description and photos.
The computer system also has search capabilities, where a visitor can choose a
pilot's prefecture, city, and name to get complete information about the pilot,
including photo (and where displayed at museum), rank, plane type used in
attack, date of death, and age at death.
The computer system can provide visitors much information if
they spend time to go through its many screens. For example, one screen
explains how Army officers used three methods to get volunteers for special
attack corps to be used in suicide attacks:
- have men gather together with eyes closed and have volunteers raise hands
- have men write on paper one of following three options: strongly desire (to
volunteer), desire, or do not desire
- have men line up in row and then have volunteers step forward
Although many computer system screens have interesting information
or helpful historical summaries, a few screens go to great length to not
mention the Navy's role in kamikaze operations. For example, the system's
explanation of the founding of the kamikaze corps does not credit the Navy,
only saying that the Japanese military initiated kamikaze attacks in the
Philippines in October 1944.
Chiran Town, 34 km (21 miles) to the southwest of Kagoshima
City, can be reached by bus, with a stop at the entrance road to the museum.
All museum displays are in Japanese, but the museum has a 22-page English
booklet with many photos. The museum store sells a variety of souvenir items
and about 20 kamikaze-related books, most about Chiran. Admission costs 500 yen ($4.50). The
museum's web site has about ten pages with many photos that give an overview of
the museum's history and exhibits. The site used to have one English page (in PDF
format without photos), which came from the museum's brochure and gave a
brief summary of the history of the base and museum. However, this page is no
longer available on the web site.
Dates of most recent visit: November 17, 2006
Link
Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots (Japanese)
Notes
1. One of the detail pages of Chiran Peace Museum's
computerized display system indicates that the source for the 1,036 total is
the book Tokkou Kougekitai (Special Attack Operations) by the Tokkotai
Irei Junshoukai (Tokkotai Commemoration Memorial Association) with no date. I
searched for this figure in the latest edition (published 1990) of the book by
the Tokkotai Senbotsusha Irei Heiwa Kinen
Kyoukai (Tokkotai Commemoration Peace Memorial Association), but I could not
locate the figure. [Note: The name of the organization was changed.] Based on
the detail information on pages 264-295 and 300-303 of the 1990 edition, the
total of Army special attack corps soldiers who perished in Okinawa is 1,019.
However, it is difficult to compare this to the number provided by the Chiran
Peace Museum, since the reference on the museum's system does not have a
publication date and page.
2. Figure from museum source described in Note 1.
3. There were several Army air bases located in
Taiwan.
Sources Cited
O'Neill, Richard. 1999. Originally published in 1981 as an
illustrated edition. Suicide Squads: The Men and Machines of World War II
Special Operations. London: Salamander Books.
Tokkotai Senbotsusha Irei Heiwa Kinen Kyoukai (Tokkotai Commemoration Peace Memorial Association).
1990. Tokubetsu Kougekitai (Special Attack Corps). Tokyo: Tokkotai Senbotsusha
Irei Heiwa Kinen Kyoukai.
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