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Memorial ceremony for pilots of suicide torpedoes brings together relatives of Japanese and U.S. soldiers

by Kaho Takada, Staff Writer

A ceremony was held on November 13 to remember the pilots of the former Imperial Japanese Navy’s manned torpedoes called “Kaiten” (literally, “return to heaven,” named in hopes of turning the tide of the war). The ceremony took place at a monument that stands by the Kaiten Memorial Museum on Otsushima Island, where the training base for this suicide craft was located, in Shunan, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Some 300 people from around the country, including relatives of the pilots, attended the ceremony, recalling the young pilots who died in suicide missions and reflecting on the preciousness of peace.

Eitaro Nishina, 72, a resident of Saku, Nagano Prefecture, attended the annual ceremony for the first time. His father’s cousin, sub-lieutenant Sekio Nishina, was one of the developers of the craft and members of the Kikusui (“floating chrysanthemum”) Group, which made the first attack against enemy vessels. Alongside Eitaro was Karen Wahl, 62, a resident of Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture, whose father crossed paths with an attack by the Kikusui Group.

Russell Evinrude, Ms. Wahl’s late father, was a crew member of a seaplane involved in a rescue effort of the crew of an American tanker attacked by the Kikusui Group. Ms. Wahl and her husband Larry Wahl, 61, came to Japan in 2008 when Mr. Wahl began working at a school at the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni. Since attending the ceremony in 2014, they have stayed in touch with relatives of the late sub-lieutenant.

The Wahls visited Saku, where sub-lieutenant Nishina was from, in April of this year. Eitaro took them to a monument dedicated to the kaiten pilots and Sekio’s grave, where they offered prayers. This made Eitaro and his wife Ryoko, 69, decide to attend the ceremony held on Otsushima Island. “I have always wanted to attend the ceremony, and I have finally come here thanks to Karen’s encouragement,” Eitaro said with a smile.

Eitaro’s family didn’t talk about kaiten when he was a young boy. He guesses that they didn’t want to speak about it after the war because they were family members of a developer of the suicide craft. After gazing at the monument, he said to the Wahls, “I want to mourn for the dead regardless of which side they were on and maintain our ties of friendship.” Karen and Larry, who was holding their one-year-old grandson Blake in his arms, smiled as they listened.

(Originally published on November 15, 2016)

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