Kanoya Naval Air Base Museum
From March 1945 to the end of World War II, almost half of
the kamikaze attacks made by the Japanese Navy departed from its air
base at Kanoya, opened in 1936 in the southernmost mainland prefecture of
Kagoshima. The Kanoya Naval Air Base Museum, established in 1972 and operated
by the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF), seeks to present aviation
history of both the Imperial Japanese Navy and the JMSDF.
The second floor of the museum's two-story building constructed
in 1993 covers the history of Japanese naval aviation from its beginnings to
the end of World War II, with the highlight being a restored Zero carrier
fighter. The first floor has exhibits and models of equipment previously used
by the JMSDF, including plane engines, radar stations, and a rescue helicopter
into which visitors can climb. The park outside the museum building has 15 planes and helicopters used in the past by the JMSDF.
The main exhibition room dedicated to kamikaze pilots highlights
their photos and letters. The photos of over 800 Kamikaze Special Attack Corps
members, about one third of the total number who died, are ordered
chronologically by date of death, starting with the first official kamikaze
attack in the Philippines on October 25, 1944, and ending with pilots who died
in the attack led by Vice Admiral Ugaki, Commander of the 5th Air Fleet, soon
after he heard the radio message of surrender by the Emperor on August 15,
1945. Each photo gives the pilot's name, squadron, rank, date of death, age at
death, training class, and home prefecture. The pilot's last letters are
displayed around the room, and the museum also sells a book with about 50 of
the last writings of the pilots. The room also has photos of 12 Army Special Attack Corps pilots who departed from Kanoya
when the Navy and Army had joint operations [1].
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The museum's exhibits present the Navy's entire kamikaze
operations, and several charts give historical summaries. For
example, one chart shows the distribution of ages of Navy Kamikaze Special
Attack Corps members, with
over 90% being between the ages of 18 and 24. The youngest pilot was 16 years
old, and the oldest one was 35. A relief map of East Asia shows the location of
Navy kamikaze air bases, and a chart lists by base the total number of Kamikaze
Corps members who died in sorties. One corner of the room has a plaque with the
names of all the Navy Kamikaze Corps members who died. The room also has two
large notebooks that contain information compiled by the museum about each
Kamikaze Special Attack Corps member who died during the war [2].
The Jinrai Butai (Thunder Gods Corps) Type 1 Attack Bombers
(Allied code name of Betty) and ohka missiles, which sortied from Kanoya Air
Base starting on March 21, 1945, receive considerable attention in the museum
displays. The main Kamikaze Corps exhibit room has an ohka model, one of the
rocket engines used for an ohka, a painting of a Betty bomber carrying an ohka,
and two photos of an ohka at Iruma Air Base. The room also shows several
historical photos and last letters of Jinrai Butai members. The museum displays
many Japanese Navy model planes, including Betty bombers and ohka glider bombs,
in several places on the second floor.
The second floor balcony above the lobby contains several
exhibits related to the Kamikaze Corps. One board tells the history and has ten
photos of the Azusa Unit, which included 24 Ginga bombers (Allied code
name of Frances) that sortied from Kanoya to make a long-range attack on
American ships at the Ulithi anchorage on March 11, 1945. Next to the exhibit
board, a diorama with plane models depicts the attack.
Two huge Type 2 Flying Boats with 12-man crews served as
lead planes in the mission for Ginga bombers to attack Ulithi. An
American bomber shot down one of these flying boats. The area outside the
museum has on display a Type 2 Flying Boat (see photo at bottom of page), which originally
belonged to the Takuma Naval Air Group in Kagawa Prefecture. The American
military took it back to the US after the war to study its technology, and it
was returned in 1979 to the Museum of Maritime Science in Tokyo, where the
flying boat's exterior was restored. In 2004, it was moved to the Kanoya Naval
Air Base Museum. The balcony above the lobby also has a Type 2 Flying Boat
display with photos, a model, and a diagram showing the interior.
The museum has several other noteworthy exhibits. There is a
metal piece from Shunsuke Tomiyasu's Zero fighter that hit the aircraft carrier Enterprise
on May 14, 1945. The fragment was identified based on writings recovered from
his flight suit pocket, and the item was returned to Kanoya in 2003. The museum
also displays information about Koichi Honda, another member of Tomiyasu's
Kamikaze Special Attack Corps 6th Tsukuba Squadron that sortied from Kanoya. On
May 11, 1945, Honda caught ten strike balls thrown by former professional
baseball pitcher Shinichi Ishimaru, a member of the 5th Tsukuba Squadron, before
he took off toward Okinawa in his Zero to make an attack. The main Kamikaze
Corps exhibit room also has several photos of Vice Admiral Ugaki's preparations
for a final kamikaze attack after the Emperor had announced surrender. The words
of his final letter and his final message sent from his aircraft are also
displayed.
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Kamikaze pilot statue
at entrance of main
Kamikaze Corps exhibit room
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Over one million visitors, with about a third from
Kagoshima Prefecture, have visited the new museum building since its opening in
1993. Over 800 thousand people visited the previous museum building, still
standing behind the new one, between its opening in 1972 and its closing in
1993 (Kanoya koukuu kichi 2003, 143). The museum maintains a web site with
summaries and photos of some of its exhibits, but it has no detailed
information on the exhibits of kamikaze operations. Entrance to the museum is
free, and Kanoya can be reached from Kagoshima Airport by bus in 1 hour and 40
minutes. The museum has a couple of 10-minute films, one on Japan's naval
aviation history with some excellent clips showing sendoffs of kamikaze pilots,
and another on the history of the Zero and the restoration of the Zero on
display. The museum has few explanations in English, and no
details about the exhibits on kamikaze operations are in English.
Kanoya City also has a couple of other sites related to
kamikaze pilots. A memorial tower was built on Kotsuka Hill in 1958 to honor
the 908 Special Attack Corps members who sortied from Kanoya Air Base. There is
also a small stone monument in remembrance of
ohka squadrons that sortied
from Kanoya. The base used to have
dozens of concrete shelters to protect and hide planes from enemy bombers, but only one
remains. However, the general public can no longer view this shelter since it
is located on the grounds of the JMSDF base.
Date of most recent visit: October 14, 2007
Link
Kanoya Naval Air Base Museum (Japanese)
Notes
1. Based on interview with Sachio Matsunaga, Director of
Kanoya Naval Air Base Museum (June 17, 2004).
2. The two large notebooks have
the following information on each Kamikaze Special Attack Corps member: name (including pronunciation), where died, sortie
squadron name, sortie date, sortie time (if known), official announcement
number, plane type and total planes in squadron, date of death, rank, birth
year, age, training class, home prefecture, sortie base, place of death, and
whether or not any items were left behind after his death.
Source Cited
Kanoya Koukuu Kichi Shiryoukan Renraku Kyougikai
(Kanoya Naval Air Base Museum Coordinating Committee). 2003. Kokoro no
sakebi (Cries of the heart). Kanoya, Kagoshima Prefecture: Kanoya Koukuu
Kichi Shiryoukan Renraku Kyougikai.
Type 2 Flying Boat outside museum building
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