The Song Of The Fall Of Singapore シンガポール陥落の歌

The Song of the Fall of Singapore, Victor Records Japan.
Photo : Codyrex via Carousell

There was a song for the Fall of Singapore? Apparently there was! The fall of Singapore to the soldiers of the invading Imperial Japanese Army ( IJA ) on 15th Feb 1942 was the worse defeat ever suffered by the British not just during World War Two but in history. In slightly more than two months, the IJA swept through the jungles of the Malaya Peninsula, once thought impassable, to besiege and eventually capture Singapore, then a major British military bastion in the Far East. The song was written and composed by the Japanese to celebrate and glorify their victory over the numerically superior defenders who had initially believed that their island fortress was impregnable. 

This article is the first in a series commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Fall of Singapore.

Gibraltar of the East

Singapore has been an important trading post and colony of the British Empire ever since its founding by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. By the beginning of the 20th century, this tiny island at the southern tip of the Malaya Peninsula has been transformed from a fishing village with an estimated population of about a thousand to become a modern city with deep water ports and an estimated population of 228 thousand. With hardly any natural resources or land at its disposal, Singapore had thrived on being the premier entrepot or transshipment hub for regional and international trade. Its total trade volume comprising of imports and exports was $457.3 million in 1900 and reached a pre-WWII high of $1886.7 million in 1926 before declining due to prevailing global economic conditions which would later include the Great Depression. Its strategic location straddling between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean along the east-west trade route made it the preferred spot* to base a military garrison to protect British interests in the Far East, which then included territories such as Hong Kong, Burma, Brunei, North Borneo, Sarawak, Malaya and the Straits Settlement which Singapore was itself part of. 

In the years immediately following the end of World War I, Japan was the only Asian power that could be a threat to the possessions of the British Empire east of the Suez Canal. It had defeated China in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and emerged as a Great Power after convincingly trashing Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. As a result Japan had gained prestige and territorial concessions such as the Island of Formosa ( Taiwan ) from the Chinese and southern Sakhalin from the Russians, events that probably fueled its military and empire ambitions further. By 1910, Japan had annexed and occupied Korea and as a member of the Allied Powers had wasted no time in seizing German-leased territories in the Far East and German colonies in the Pacific when WWI broke out in 1914.

In the inter-war years between 1919 and 1939, exhausted and saddled with vast war debts, the British embarked on cost cutting measures that drastically reduced its military strength to levels way below what was required to protect its Empire interests. The Royal Navy in particular had been further hamstrung by disarmament treaties and was thus severely decimated in both ships and men. It was however still expected to maintain its global foot print and operational tempo, frequently under perilous and dated illusions of grandeur. 

To counter the Japanese threat in the Far East, the British came up with the Singapore Strategy in 1921 which was to use the building of a modern main fleet base and dock yards with advanced repair capabilities in Singapore as a pivot while the main fleet could remained in Home waters. In times of crisis, a powerful naval task force would be assembled and dispatched to Asia to deter or repel an invasion. This military bastion would be adequately stocked with fuel and supplies to service the expeditionary fleet and would be well defended with 15 inch coastal guns and a huge garrison of soldiers, with air support provided by the Royal Air Force. It would be an unsinkable aircraft carrier, an impregnable fortress, touted the Gibraltar of the East by none other than Winston Churchill himself.

Unfortunately, the glaring deficiency in this ill conceived war plan was the lack of an indigenous Eastern Fleet. What if the Home Fleet was tied down and none could be spared? Should war with Japan be unavoidable, the Singapore garrison was supposed to protect the naval base and airfields and hold out against the invasion force long enough for reinforcements to arrive. It was assumed that the relief forces would somehow not only expel the aggressors in Singapore and Malaya but perhaps also go on northwards to liberate Hong Kong if necessary and to blockade the Japanese Isles in order to sue for a negotiated settlement of peace!

And so the British diverted significant resources to begin in 1923 the construction of the Sembawang Naval Base in the northern part of Singapore. It was not completed until 1938, after spending a staggering £60 million and numerous changes including down-sizing that ultimately resulted in a base too small to host a fleet large enough to defeat the Imperial Japanese Navy in a full engagement. Nonetheless in those turbulent pre-war years a false sense of security was created and life went on more or less as usual on the island. It was an audacious military bluff that would soon be called.

Transition To War

By the early 1930s global economic recession would give new impetus to the long standing Japanese imperialist policy of expanding its influence militarily and politically to secure access to raw materials, labour and food for its industries and population. Japan had invaded Manchuria in 1931 and would later also wage war in greater China with the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War ( 1937 to 1945 ). The war effort was a huge undertaking that had to be supported with the uninterrupted supply of commodities like oil, steel and iron, most of which Japan had to import from America. As its troops became bogged down in China, Japan started eyeing the resource-rich countries in South East Asia, top of the list being the oil fields of the Dutch East Indies ( modern day Indonesia ). 

To invade South East Asia and create its envisioned Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, Japan would have to first secure its northern flank which it did by entering a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union in April 1941. A staging area would be needed to launch and support the invasion and that was achieved with the occupation of Hainan Island in Feb 1941 and of French Indochina ( modern day Vietnam ) in July 1941. It also had to deal with the British and the Americans, the only two powers that could thwart its empire ambitions. The US Pacific Fleet based in Hawaii and the US colony of the Philippines which had the potential to interfere due to its proximity had to be taken out. The British forces had to be driven out of Malaya though Japan would not have dreamt of defeating the British unless it was already engaged with fighting another foe elsewhere. This opportunity had already presented itself when war broke out in Europe in Sep 1939 and Britain had to fight Nazi Germany and later Italy as well as it joined the Axis Alliance. With both the Atlantic Fleet and Mediterranean Fleet tied down with fighting in Europe, the door was wide open for the invasion of Malaya and Singapore. 

The final push on the path to war was probably the complete oil embargo by the United States on Japan from July 1941 in response to Japanese aggression in China and French Indochina. At that time America accounted for 80% of Japan's oil imports. The British and Dutch would later join the oil embargo. The freezing of Japanese assets, closure of the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping and the additional embargo on scrap iron, tools, steel, copper, bronze and many other critical metals from America meant the trade sanctions had pushed the Japanese to the brink and had exactly the opposite effect of what they were supposed to achieve. War was coming and the Singapore Strategy would soon be put to the test.

Malayan Campaign : Japanese Advances Dec '41 to Feb '42
Source : Singapore : The Pregnable Fortress

The Malayan Campaign

Nineteen Japanese transports carrying General Tomoyuki Yamashita's 25th Army left the port of Samah on Hainan Island with their escorts on 4th Dec 1941. Three days later they rendezvoused with seven transports from Saigon in the middle of the Gulf of Siam. Shortly after midnight on 8th Dec, Japanese forces attacked and made amphibious landings around the Thai-Malayan border at Singora, Patani and Kota Bahru simultaneously, triggering the start of the Pacific War. The attack on Pearl Harbor came 70 minutes later but would have deemed to occur on 7th Dec because of the intercurrence of the International Date Line and time zone differences. Within the next 12 hours Japanese forces also invaded Hong Kong and made air assaults on Clark Air Base in the Philippines, on Guam and on Wake Island.

For the Malayan Campaign, the main landings were at Singora and Patani in southern Thailand which was achieved without much resistance. The landing at Kota Bahru was more a diversionary attack made to capture the north-eastern airfields of Malaya. From the Thai ports the main invasion force followed the roads southwards to the Malayan border near its west coast, crossing it on 10th Dec. They overran the British northern defences around Jitra within 3 days and surged on, taking town after town. 

The naval fleet sent to reinforce the garrison at Singapore comprising of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Repulse and their four destroyers were hastily dispatched to seek out the invasion fleet off Kuantan on the east coast of Malaya. Without an adequate air cover**, they were sunk by land based bombers in what was known to the Japanese as the Naval Battle of Malaya on 10th Dec.

Penang subsequently fell on 19th Dec and failure to stop the IJA at Slim River meant Kuala Lumpur too would fall on 11th Jan 1942. Malacca suffered the same fate just four days later. Equipped with tanks and enjoying complete air superiority the Japanese thus put the Allied forces on a continuous retreat along the north-south axis of the Malayan Peninsula towards Johore, beyond which lies Singapore. Predictably, the Muar-Segamat-Mersing line in northern Johore failed to hold and all Allied forces were ordered to withdraw to Singapore on 25th Jan.

On 31st Jan, the causeway linking Singapore to Johore was demolished in a last ditch attempt to slow the Japanese advancement. In all, the retreat from the Malaya Peninsula had taken place in just 55 days. The IJA now occupied all the high grounds overlooking Singapore from across the Straits of Johore and used that to their advantage, subjecting the defenders to intense artillery barrages. They eventually landed at Sarimbun Beach in north-western Singapore on 8th Feb and fought their way towards the city centre.

By 15th Feb which happened to be the first day of the Chinese New Year, with casualties mounting and faced with dwindling supplies of water, ammunition and fuel, the British forces capitulated. The General Officer Commanding ( Malaya ) Lieutenant General Arthur Percival formally surrendered to General Yamashita at the Ford Motor Works Factory in Bukit Timah shortly after 17:15. An estimated 85000 men were made POWs. What was incredible was that the invading Japanese forces numbered only 30000.

Following their victory, the Japanese renamed Singapore Syonan-to ( 昭南島 ), meaning Light of the South, and began a 3 year and 8 month rule of terror that lasted for the rest of the War until their surrender on 15th Aug 1945.　

Lt Gen AE Percival ( far right ) surrendering on 15th Feb 1942
Photo : Imperial War Museum

The Song of the Fall of Singapore

The Japanese arguably had all the right to be jubilant on their victory in the Battle of Singapore. They had destroyed the British relief fleet, overcome the supposedly impassable tropical jungles of Malaya, and captured the impregnable fortress of Singapore. They achieved their objectives with an attacking force numbering less than a third of the defenders, and did it all in a matter of 69 days. 

In those days the Japanese had the habit of releasing songs to celebrate their military accomplishments. Radio was a popular media to reach out to the masses and such war songs, known as gunka ( 軍歌 ) in Japanese, apart from its news and propaganda values, could bring a sense of pride and patriotism to the citizens and troops alike. 

So there was a " Song of the Annihilation of the British Eastern Fleet " to commemorate the victory in the Naval Battle of Malaya and of course the " Song of the Fall of Singapore " which is the main subject of this article. These were by no means the only Japanese war songs on Singapore. Many others are in existence such as 陥したぞシンガポール ( Singapore Has Fallen ), 星港撃滅 ( Destruction of the Port of Singapore ), 戦友の遺骨を抱いて ( Holding the Remains of A War Buddy ). 

The Song of the Fall of Singapore is known as シンガポール陥落の歌 ( Shingaporu Kanraku no Uta ) in Japanese. It was composed by Fukami Zenji ( 深海善次 ) with lyrics by poet Ozaki Kihachi ( 尾崎喜八 ) and was released by the Victor Record Company of Japan in March 1942, one month after the fall of Singapore. It was performed by Namioka Soichiro ( 波岡惣一郎 ) who is a renowned singer from Aomori, Obata Minoru ( 小畑実 ) who originally hailed from Pyongyang, the Kachidoki Men's Choir ( かちどき男声合唱団 ) and the Japan Victor Orchestra ( 日本ビクター管弦楽団 ).

What was the public reaction to the release of the song? In the March 1942 issue of Record Culture ( レコード文化 Rekodo Bunka ) NHK producer and music critic Maruyama Tetsuo ( 丸山鉄雄 ) had frowned upon the various record companies that rushed to release jikyokuka ( 時局歌 current affairs song ) after the fall of Singapore the previous month. He believed that the companies were eagerly awaiting for the announcement of victory in Singapore so that they could sell their songs, presumably all composed and written in advance. However particularly on The Song of the Fall of Singapore he gave rare high praise, extolling it as an exceedingly powerful song, boldly underlining the fall of Singapore.

Though it definitely fits the description of a gunka or military song, The Song of the Fall of Singapore was instead labelled as a national song ( 国民歌 kokuminka ) by the record company. That was frequently the case especially if the song was produced for an official purpose or was meant to be sung by a wide range of people or played to a wide audience.

Song of the Fall of Singapore lyrics pamphlet featuring singers
Namioka Soichiro ( R ) and Obata Minoru ( L ).
Note the His Master's Voice doggy logo of RCA Victor Records
on the top left corner. Photo : Codyrex via Carousell

                                                                            The Song of the Fall of Singapore

You can also listen to it on Youtube here.

シンガポール陥落の歌  Shingaporu Kan Raku no Uta

歓べ一億今日この日　 Yoroko be ichi oku kyo ko no hi

新嘉坡は遂に陥つ　 Shingaporu wa tsui ni o tsu

あ～満々の　海越えて　Aa man man no   umi ko e te

我等が父は　同胞は    Ware ra ga chichi wa   harakara wa

今ぞ陥せり　この城を　Ima zo oto se ri    ko no shiro wo

不落を如何に誇るとも    Fu raku wo ikan ni hoto ru to mo

百練の業 此処に在り    Hyaku ren no waza ko ko ni a ri

電撃一閃 轟けば     Dengeki issen todoro ke ba 

敵は慄き　山揺らぎ    Teki wa onono ki  yama yu ra gi

牙城忽ち 幕を閉ず  Ga jou tachima chi   baku wo to zu

祖国を出でて　幾千里     Sokoku wo i de te  iku sen ri

血となり　火となり    Chi to na ri  Hi to na ri

弾丸となり    Ta ma to na ri

進みし兵の　この武勲　 Su su mi shi hei no    ko no _ isao   

進路拡げて　ただ涙　 Shin ro hiro ge te    ta da namida

銃後は哭けり     Juu go wa na ke ri

みな哭けり     Mi na na ke ri

歓べ十億今日のこの日　  Yoroko be ju oku kyo no ko no hi

侵略遽点    遂に陥ち     Shin ryaku kyo ten   tsui ni ochi

旭日燦と　咲き栄ゆ     Kyoku jitsu san to   saki saka yu

いざ護るべき      I za mamo ru be ki

亜細亜こそ     Ajia ko so

我等の為の亜細亜なれ     Ware ra no tame no Ajia na re

Translation of Lyrics

A hundred million would rejoice this day

For Singapore had fallen

From across the oceans, full to the brim

Our fathers and fellow compatriot 

This city will fall today

Such claims of impregnability

Incessant training just for this moment

A lightning attack, an explosive roar

The enemy shiver and the mountains shake

The curtains are falling on this bastion

A thousand miles from the Motherland

Of blood, of fire

Of bullets

The valor of the advancing warrior

The way forward is forged with tears

Wailing after the guns are silent

All are sobbing

A thousand million would rejoice, this is the day 

The point of invasion is finally falling

The rising sun is brilliant and magnificent

It will now be protected

Asia it is

We are for Asia

Of course we have always known that the Japanese never invaded British Malaya or Singapore or anywhere else out of altruism. It had only done so to fulfill its own imperialist and expansionist aspirations under the guise of the so called Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Not only that, the Japanese military would subject the conquered to extremely harsh treatment under occupation, much of it tantamount to war crimes. 

Therefore most of these war song lyrics are nothing more than self-praise and empty wartime propaganda. They are however still an interesting and important source of historical information on life before and during occupation and as a window to the mindset of the lyricist and by extension those of the military and political leadership.

Many important documents and records pertaining to the invasion and occupation were deliberately destroyed by the Japanese military towards the end of the war as they could contain incriminating evidences of war crime. Songs and other cultural relics on the other hand are much more likely to endure and survive the war as they would have been too widely distributed in the first place to be retracted or destroyed.

With the advent of the television and later the internet, the radio had taken a back seat as a media for entertainment and for spreading news and propaganda. Vinyl records have all but disappeared. We are now in the era of virtual reality and deep fakes, of Facebook and Twitter, Tik Tok and Instagram. War songs are just memories from a distant past.

* In 1921 the Committee of Imperial Defence recommended Singapore as the preferred locality for building a far eastern fleet base. The other candidates considered were Sydney, Hong Kong and Trincomalee. 

  

** RAF was supposed to provide the fleet with air cover up to 50 miles from the coast in the war plans. However by 10th Dec all the northern airfields had either been captured by the Japanese ( Kota Bharu ) or severely damaged by aerial bombing ( Alor Star, Sungai Petani and Butterworth ).  

The Last Emily : Kanoya's Nishikawa H8K2 Type 2 Flying Boat



The Kawanishi H8K2 Model 12 Type 2 Flying Boat
Allied code name Emily at Kanoya Air Base Museum.
Source Wikipedia

Most of us are familiar with combat aircrafts of World War II like the North American P-51 Mustang, the Supermarine Spitfire, the Messerschmitt Me-109, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the Avro Lancaster and maybe even the Consolidated PBY Catalina. But how about the Kawanishi H8K? I must confess I did not know of its existence until my recent visit to the naval aviation museum of Kanoya Air Base in Kagoshima, Japan.






The Kawanishi H8K2 Emily Type 2 Flying Boat. Source : Hasegawa Model Co.

Kawanishi H8K

The Kawanishi H8K was a large 4-engine maritime aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service ( IJNAS ) during WWII. It was commonly known as the Nishiki Hikotei ( 二式飛行艇 ) or Type 2 Flying Boat and its allied reporting name was " Emily ".

It was manufactured by the Kawanishi Aircraft Company ( 川西航空機 ) which was well known for its various seaplanes. Its chief designer was Kikuhara Shizuo ( 菊原静男 ).

The H8K was fast, has a large lifting capacity and very long range. It was robustly built and also has a very comprehensive set of defensive armaments. It saw service between 1941 to 1945 and was deployed in maritime patrol, bombing, reconnaisence and transport missions. Many including the aviation author René Francillon considered it to be one of the most outstanding maritime combat aircraft of WWII. A total of 167 H8K of different variants were built during the War but as of today only one has survivied and it is now displayed at the Kanoya Air Base Museum ( 鹿屋航空基地史料館 ).

Kawanishi H8K2 Model 12 Emily at Kanoya Air Base Museum. Source : Wikipedia

Emily of Kanoya 

The Kanoya Air Base Museum is one of three museums managed by the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force ( JMSDF ) and is dedicated to the history of naval aviation. Kanoya Air Base itself was a major IJN airfield during WWII and was extensively involved with conducting Kamikaze suicide attacks during the closing years of the War. Today it is the headquarters of JMSDF's Fleet Air Wing 1 with its P-3C Orion anti-submarine unit, search and rescue unit and 2 helicopter training units.

The museum has a large collection of legacy Cold War era naval aircrafts and helicopters previously in service with the JMSDF but also a restored Mitsubishi A6M5 Model 52c Zero fighter and as mentioned the H8K Type 2 flying boat.

There is no doubt whatsoever that the crown jewel of Kanoya has to be the one and only Kawanishi H8K left in the world so much so that the museum has made the flying boat the official museum mascot and has created a caricature in the form of a flying whale called Nishiki Don.

Nishiki Don : the whale mascot of Kanoya Air Base Museum

But how did this Emily, a H8K2 Model 12, end up at Kanoya? I discovered that there was a convoluted story behind the preservation of this Type 2 flying boat. One that began with long trip across the Pacific to the United States, an extended period of storage, a subsequent reunion with its designer and a long drawn campaign to bring it back to Japan.

Some significant land marks in the history of the last Emily.

Survivor

It was said that when Japan surrendered on 15th Aug 1945, there were only four surviving Kawanishi H8Ks in all of Japan. Three of them were air worthy and they were located at the Nanao Auxillary Seaplane Station in Ishikawa Prefecture. However, one crashed and sunk off the coast of Shimane in transit to Takuma Naval Air Station located in Kagawa Prefecture within the Seto Inland Sea. Takuma was then one of the major seaplane base hosting the Type 2 flying boats.

Kawanishi H8K2 Emily Flying Boat beached at a
damaged installation in Japan circa late summer 1945.
Source : Naval History and Heritage Command

By 22nd Aug 1945, all three surviving H8Ks were at Takuma. An unverified source mentioned the US commander only wanted to keep one aircraft for tests and evaluation so the other two were eventually destroyed. To maintain the H8K in flyable condition was a tall order as demobilization was on ongoing and the was just not enough manpower for the up keep of the huge plane. Somehow a seven man team of technicians was recruited from the Kure Naval Arsenal and they had the H8K fixed by October 1945. With a team of six flight crew, Lieutenant-Commander Hitsuji Tsuneo ( 日辻常雄 ) who was then commander Takuma Naval Air Group, successfully flight tested the Type 2 flying boat without any incidents. On 13th November 1945 Hitsuji and his team flew the H8K to Yokohama, tailed by a PBY Catalina. He noted that the journey took him about one and a half hours while the slower Catalina took slightly more than two hours. From Yokohama it was ferried to Naval Air Station ( NAS ) Whidbey Island, Washington, where she was found to be not air worthy. The Emily was then shipped via the Panama Canal to NAS Norfolk where the Overhaul and Repair Facility had the herculean task of overhauling and reassembling the aircraft without the benefit of blueprints, technical manuals and spare parts, starting December 1945.

The Emily had thus far accumulated 15000 flight hours and upon the completion of her refurbishment, she was flight tested on 23rd May 1946 during which she was flown from Hampton Roads to NAS Patuxent River less than 100 miles away. Two engines had malfunctioned during the flight while a third stalled shortly after landing but none of the American aviators were injured. It seemed the Emily would never fly again. At NAS Patuxent River, hydrodynamics tests began on 22nd Aug 1946. By 30th Jan 1947, the test and evaluation program was terminated. The aircraft was taken apart, wrapped up in protective coating, crated up and shipped back to NAS Norfolk where she was mothballed under the responsibility of the Naval Air Rework Facility.

The Hampton Roads Naval Museum blog has an excellent collection photographs and information of the Emily while in the custody of the Americans.

The Japanese Internet Aviation Magazine Contrail ( Hikoki Gumo ) 航空雑誌ヒコーキ雲 has large collection of photographs and information of the Emily after her return to Japan.





Hitsuji Tsuneo wrote the book
The Last Flying Boat ( 最後の飛行艇 )
published by Kojinsha （ 光人社 )



Post War Restructuring

Meanwhile aircraft manufacturing was completely banned beginning from December 1945 during the Allied Occupation and the Nishikawa Aircraft Company tried to transform its business model to cater to a completely different peacetime market. By 1946 it was churning out daily commodities to help alleviate shortages in goods and food. It also made motorcycles and three wheeled light trucks. It was renamed Meiwa Industries in July 1947. In 1949, in compliance with some corporate restructuring law, the company was split and renamed Shin Meiwa Industry Company. Its automotive arm Meiwa Automotive Industries was divested to a certain car company known as Hatsudori Seizo Co, which in 1951 would be renamed Daihatsu Motor Co.

Rid of the automotive arm and retaining its core aircraft manufacturing and overhaul business, Shin Meiwa  ( which means New Meiwa ) soldiered on with heavy machinery and aircraft component manufacturing and eventually saw a change of fortune with the end of the Allied Occupation and the lifting of the aircraft manufacturing ban in 1952. In 1953 it had started to research on a new generation of amphibious aircraft with greater sea-worthiness based on an initial idea by Kikuhara Shizuo, the chief designer of the H8K. By 1957 the research team had successfully overcome two technological hurdles by inventing a wave suppressor and a high lift device which allowed for low take-off and landing speeds, thus paving the way to developing a short take-off and landing seaplane.

However, Shin Meiwa would soon face a new challenge in securing the necessary funds to develop the amphibious plane and the company started pitching the seaplane as the most effective means of anti-submarine patrolling with the hope that the Japanese government would start placing orders. Its PR efforts eventually drew the attention of the US Navy who would then invite Kikuhara to Washington D.C. in 1959.

Reunion and Failed Repatriation  

During his one month tour of the United States, Kikuhara Shizuo had the opportunity to visit many American research facilities including those at NASA. He observed experiments conducted in large scale water troughs and various wind tunnels and spoke with researchers over technical issues. He had also met with high ranking US naval officers and managed to obtain the promise of total support in terms of technology and materials so long as the JMSDF would make an official request. He promptly asked to be given one the US Navy's seaplanes so that he could test the new technology on an experimental plane before further development. His request was eventually accepted and a Grumman HU-16 Albatross was given to the Japanese who reverse engineered and reassembled it to build the UF-XS testbed seaplane. Shin Meiwa would then go on to produce the PS-1 anti-submarine patrol plane and later its SAR variant the US-1.

Kikuhara also toured NAS Norfolk during his working trip to Washington D.C. where he found the mothballed Emily placed in the open. In an article he later wrote for the Japanese magazine Koukuu Jyouhou ( 航空情報 ) or Aviation News, he described the plane as being preserved in fairly good condition. It was wrapped in a special rubber coating like a cocoon and the entrances were sealed. Some kind of air conditioner blew dry air into the interior of the fuselage and kept the humidity level at 28% on the day of the visit and generally less than 30% during the more than 10 years of preservation. He negotiated for its return but was unsuccessful this time as the US had decided on its permanent preservation on American soil.

A year after Kikuhara's visit, in September 1960, the Emily would suffered extensive damage when Hurricane Donna struck and ripped it off its moorings and tipped it over to its starboard side breaking loose engine number 4. Donna was the strongest Atlantic hurricane of 1960 and the strongest to hit the eastern seaboard since 1935.

Photo of Kikuhara Shizuo in an article he wrote in
Koukuu Jyouhou ( Aviation News ) magazine on his American trip
Source Internet Avaition Magazine Hikoki Gumo ( 航空雑誌ヒコーキ雲 )

 

 

The H8K2 Emily at the Tokyo Maritime Science Museum

 

Return To Japan

In the following years, the campaign for the return of the H8K to Japan continued, lead by a prominent psychiatrist Dr Saito Shigeta ( 斎藤茂太 ) ( 1917 - 2006 ) who was also an aviation enthusiast and an essayist. The movement eventually bore fruit in 1978 when the Americans decided to do away with the aircraft due to cost cutting constrains. Of the various organizations and individuals that offered to get the Emily off the hands of the USN, the Tokyo Museum of Maritime Science ( 船の科学館 fune no kagakukan ) was selected as it fulfilled the transfer criteria : it was a non-profit organization and it had the funds for the relocation. The transfer was subsequently approved by Congress and a ceremony was held on 23rd Apr 1979 to mark the event. The Emily departed Norfolk on 31st May 1979 and was put on a cargo ship the New Jersey which arrived at the Oi Container Terminal in Tokyo on 13th July. One week later, the H8K was transferred to the Tokyo Museum of Maritime Science and Lt-Commander Hitsuji was in attendance at the receiving ceremony. Restoration works commenced on 20th Feb 1980. The restored H8K was unveiled to the public on 27th March 1982, becoming part of the outdoor exhibit of the Maritime Science Museum until 2004 when it was finally relocated to Kanoya Air Base Museum.




Dr Saito Shigeta was instrumental in
the eventual return of the H8K to Japan

The reasons for the transfer to Kanoya was not apparent to me but it may have something to do with the death of the Museum of Maritime Science's founding president Sasakawa Ryouichi ( 笹川良一 ) in 1995 and perhaps to the lack of funding from his Sasakawa Foundation ( later Nippon Foundation ) thereafter. The museum has been effectively closed since 2011 with only a few ships still open to the public at its annex location. Sasakawa was a shady and controversial Japanese businessman with connections with the political elites and the underworld. He was once imprisoned as a class A war criminal from 1945 to 1948 but was subsequently released without facing charges. He made his fortunes supplying the Imperial Japanese Army in Manchuria from 1932 and post war through monopoly of the betting activities on motor boat racing, among other things.

The Emily displayed at the Maritime Science Museum whose main building
takes the shape of a ship. This old image was dated Dec 1997 

 

 

 

The H8K2 Model 12 taking-off. Source : Hasegawa Model Co.

 

 

 

Aircraft Specifications H8K2 Model 12

Length  :  28.13m
Width   :  38.00m
Height  :  9.15m
Wing Area : 160m²
Empty Weight  :  18400kg
Gross Weight    :  24500kg
Maximum Weight : 32500kg
Powerplant : 4 x Mitsubishi Kasei MK4Q Model 22  14 cylinder air-cooled radial piston each 1850hp
Max Speed : 453 km/h at 5000m altitude
Range : 7200km
Armament : 5 x 20mm Type 99 cannon
                    4 x 7.7mm Type 92 machine guns with another 3 in reserve
                    2 x 800kg torpedoes or
                    2000kg of bombs and depth charges
Radar         : Mark VI Model 1 ASV radar.
Compliment : 10                    
Take-off Distance 295m


The photographs below from Hasegawa Model Co show the completed 1:72 scale model of the Nishikawa H8K2 Model 12 with decals exactly as the last Emily at Kanoya. The tail code T indicates this aircraft operated out of Takuma Naval Air Station. Earlier during the War the IJNAS used the hiragana たく ( taku ) instead on aircrafts from Takuma.

Seaplane Tender Akitsushima

When writing about the H8K, it is impossible to omit the mention of the seaplane tender that maintain, resupply and repair the Type 2 flying boat in theatre. The IJNS Akitsushima ( 秋津洲 ) was a seaplane tender specifically built to handle the large seaplanes of the IJN. Its most unique feature was the 35 ton crane near the stern that was capable of lifting the 31 ton H8K. The 5000 ton ship can carry 689 tons of aviation fuel, 36 torpedoes and almost 62 tons of bombs ( 100 x 60kg, 100 x 250kg, 15 x 500kg, 30 x 800kg ). It can accommodate the H8K on its deck but only when in anchorage since the wingspan of 38m was much greater than the beam of the ship at 15.8m. It was just not possible with the rolling motion when the ship was underway.

IJNS Akitsushima with its fancy camouflage. Source Wikipaedia

 

IJNS Akitsushima with its fancy camouflage 1:700 scale. Source : Aoshima Model Co

IJNS Akitsushima with H8K on deck. Source Aoshima Model Co.

Erroneous depiction : Akitsushima underway with Emily onboard!
Not possible! Source : Aoshima Model Co 

 

Preserving Emily

As usual, in the immediate aftermath of many conflicts, the last thing in the minds of either the victor or the vanquished would be to save some war relic for future historical and heritage purposes. There were just too many other urgent and pressing issues to settle, like the demobilization and repatriation of veterans and the resettlement of refugees, food shortages, re-establishing the healthcare system, nation rebuilding etc.

The Kawanishi H8K was a brilliant piece of aero-nautical engineering representing the best of Japanese wartime aircraft design and manufacturing capabilities. It was unfortunate that only one would survived the War and would be taken away from Japan, rightfully by the Americans as the victors.

To the credit of the Americans, they did not simply discard or scrap the H8K after toying with it but instead mothballed it. Since they were short on funds, the USN could have donated the Emily to the National Air Museum ( subsequently renamed Smithsonian Air and Space Museum ) whom I am sure would be very glad to have her, especially knowing that this was the last H8K in the world. However, should that have happened, the Emily would become just another aircraft among the thousands of equally rare and precious aircrafts in the Smithsonian collection.

It would have been more meaningful for the Emily to be returned to Japan, to be treasured and to be seen by the generations of Japanese who has never experienced the horrors of war. Fortunately the perseverance of Saito Shigeta and his follow countrymen eventually saw the Emily being returned her country of origin. I cannot imagine what would have gone through the mind of chief designer Kikuhara Shizuo when he found his Emily languishing in Norfolk and the anguish of not being able to successfully negotiate for her return. It was after all his creation. After 33 years of solitude in America, it was like a fairy tale ending that the Emily was received by her last Japanese pilot commander Hitsuji Tsuneo on her return to Japan.

The Emily has out-lived her designers, builders and the airmen and technicians that maintained and flew her. At Kanoya, she will continue to inspire future generations of aeronautical engineers, airmen and educate, Japanese and foreign visitors alike, about Japan's dark wartime history.

Foot Note

A flying boat is a fixed-wing seaplane with a hull that allows landing on water. Its purpose-designed fuselage gives the aircraft buoyancy and allows it to float on the water surface. It usually does not have any sort of landing gear to allow operations on land. The wheels on the H8K, known as beaching wheels, are not designed to withstand the impact of landing on an airstrip.

A floatplane in contrast uses floats beneath the fuselage to provide buoyancy. The fuselage is lifted above the water surface by struts and supports.

An amphibious plane is a seaplane, either flying boat or floatplane, that is also fitted with landing gear that allow for take-off and landing on land


Shin Meiwa Industries has been rebranded ShinMaywa Industries since 1992 in an attempt to make the company name more pronounceable for foreigners. It currently produces the US-2 SAR amphibian, an evolved version of the US-1.

Ozushima : Kaiten's Last Sanctuary

Kaiten Type 1 replica, Kaiten Memorial Museum.

Towards the last years of the Pacific War, with its once powerful Imperial Japanese Navy ( IJN ) close to total annihilation and its maritime supply lines strangled by the unrestricted submarine warfare waged by the US Navy, the Japanese high command resorted to the deployment of various types of suicide weapons in a desperate but futile attempt to reverse the fortunes of war. One of those so called special attack weapons was the Kaiten, also known as the human torpedo, the underwater equivalent of the Kamikaze.

Despite the high human cost, the Kaiten only achieved limited success throughout its short operational history and was largely forgotten after the War. Of the several hundred operational as well as prototype Kaitens produced, only a handful were ever preserved and displayed in museums in Japan and the United States. Fortunately, at least two former Kaiten training bases at Ozushima and Oga escaped the fate of demolition and are today heritage sites where visitors can learn about the tragic history of those special attack units. Between them Ozushima is better known for its Kaiten Memorial Museum and the ruins of the torpedo launching facility.

I visited Ozushima on a cold rainy winter's day on 7th December 2018* and discovered a quiet and desolate island with hills overlooking the surrounding Seto Inland Sea. A somber and sad place befitting to be the last sanctuary of the Kaiten .....

Kaiten In A Nutshell

The Kaiten was essentially a suicide submarine created by modifying a heavy weight torpedo, inserting a compartment to accommodate a human operator to the mid-section and enlarging the warhead. Several could be carried onboard a mothership, usually a fleet type submarine, and they would be launched when a worthwhile enemy vessel was within range. The Kaiten operator would steer his suicide craft underwater towards the target and pop up to periscope depth for a mid-course correction before the final high speed intercept run. It was the brainchild of two naval lieutenants Kuroki Hiroshi and Nishina Sekio.

Kaiten ( 回天 ) literally meant return to the sky or return to heaven but its original meaning in Japanese as envisaged by Kuroki pertained to the reversal of the will of heaven and regaining the edge on the battle front. It was Vice Admiral Omori Sentaro, then director of the Special Attack Division, who named the weapon after the Kaiten Maru ( 回天丸 ), a steam-powered warship which once served in the navy of the Tokugawa shogunate in the final years of the Edo period. The project was top secret and was given the code name Maru Roku Kanamono ( ㊅金物 ), which roughly translates to zero six hardware.

Key to the construction of the Kaiten was the Type 93 ship launched high-speed wakeless torpedo which used compressed oxygen ( instead of air ) as its propellent. Known as the Sanso Gyorai ( 酸素魚雷 oxygen torpedo ) and nicknamed the Long Lance torpedo by western media, it had a high explosive warhead weighing 490kg and was the most advanced torpedo of its time.

Conceptualized as a special attack weapon in late 1943 and approved for trial production by the naval high command in Feb 1944, Kaiten prototypes were quickly tested and readied for mass production by July 1944. That same month special Kaiten base units were also setup and the first Kaiten training base at Ozushima was operational by 1st September. More training bases were subsequently built all over the coastal areas of the Seto Inland Sea and also around Kyushu Island.

The first combat operations took place in Nov 1944 where Kaiten units of the Kikusui strike group successfully sunk the fleet oiler USS Mississinewa at Ulithi Harbour, Caroline Islands. The only other successes were the sinking of an infantry landing craft in Jan 1945 by the Kongo group and the destroyer escort USS Underhill in July 1945 by the Tamon group.

Of all the Kaiten variants, only the Type 1 saw combat operations. Type 2,4,5,6 and 10 only existed as prototypes and were never used operationally. The Type 10 was developed with coastal defense in mind and was the only variant based on the lighter Type 92 torpedo.

In Japanese, the term ningen gyorai ( 人間魚雷 ) or human torpedo, is synonymous with the Kaiten special attack weapon. In fact they are frequently combined like an adjective before a noun - the human torpedo Kaiten ( 人間魚雷回天 ).






Kaiten ( Maru Roku Kanamono Type 1 )
Displacement 8.3 tons Length 14.75m Speed 30 knots
Engine Power 550hp Warhead 1.55 tons
Source:  Kaiten Museum



Where In The World Is Ozushima?

Ozushima ( 大津島 ) is a Y-shaped island lying approximately 10km off the coast of Shunan City in Yamaguchi Prefecture of Japan. Granite extraction and export used to be the main industrial activity providing sustenance to the island. Endowed with sheltered bays which form natural ports and surrounded by shallow seas, it was here that the Imperial Japanese Navy chose to set up its torpedo testing facilities in 1937 and subsequently the first Kaiten training base in 1944. The base infrastructure included command buildings, living quarters, mess hall and kitchen, guard houses, clinic and sickbay, maintenance workshops, storage areas, seaplane hangars, gun placements and bunkers. Several of these military structures including the torpedo testing pier and the hilltop torpedo observation post survived to this day, though in various degrees of dilapidation. In the post-war years a Kaiten monument was erected on a hill overlooking the former base. The Kaiten Memorial Museum was later built adjacent to the monument. It has a collection of more than a thousand artifacts relating to the Kaiten. Today, with the demise of its granite industry and a greying and declining population**, Ozushima markets itself as Kaiten Island, with the hope to lure in tourists keen to discover the obscure history of the Human Torpedo.

Ozushima and Shunan City

Ozushima Kaiten Base. Existing relics 1 Kaiten Museum 2 Stairs of Hell
3 Torpedo Ignition Test Site 4 Hazardous Material Storage
5 Transformer Station 6 Seaplane maintenance area entrance
7 Torpedo observation station 8 Tunnel 9 Torpedo Launching Facility.

Tokuyama Ferry Terminal : Gateway to Ozushima

To get to Ozushima, you will have to find your way to the Tokuyama Ferry Terminal in Shunan City which fortunately is within walking distance from Tokuyama Station, accessible by the Shinkansen bullet train. Return tickets cost ¥710 ( US$6 ) and it takes about 18 minutes to reach the island by the fast ferry.

The ferry terminal is difficult to miss as there is a replica of the Kaiten prominently displayed at the entrance to the parking area. This life sized replica was used to film the Kaiten movie Deguchi no nai umi or The Sea Without Exit in 2006. It looked and felt like the real thing, black, metallic and menacing, complete with the emblem of the Kikusui strike group on both sides of the flow deflector next to the periscope. I could have been fooled if not for the information inscription in front of the Kaiten.

However, instead of just placing the replica next to an ugly old building by the road side in a restrictively narrow area, the Kaiten could have been better displayed on its own perhaps in a small park next to the ferry terminal.

Kaiten Type 1 life-sized replica, Tokuyama Port, Yamaguchi. 

Kaiten replica with Toyoko Inn Tokuyama
and Shinkansen Station in the background.

Inscription explaining the origins and purpose of the Kaiten replica.
 It was used in the 2006 movie Sea Without Exit.

Kaiten Island

The moment you set foot on Ozushima, you would notice that it is extremely quiet with hardly a soul in sight. The single asphalt road that leads away from the pier is almost devoid of vehicular traffic. There is no bus or taxi service on this small island. A huge sign proclaims Ozushima the Island of Kaiten ( 回天の島 kaiten no shima ) and a map at the bottom lists the various points of interest on the island.

Ozushima from the ferry pier.
The building with the green roof marks the site of the former Kaiten base.

Sign reads Welcome to Otsushima - Kaiten Island

Just by the roadside near the Kaiten Island sign is a small monument with the statue of the Buddist goddess Kannon ( 観音 ) and the words Kaiten memorial ( 回天供養 kaiten kuyo ). A small donation box is prominently placed directly in front of the goddess statue. Fresh chrysanthemum flowers adorning the monument indicates regular upkeep by the islanders. I am guessing that Kannon, being the Goddess of Mercy and also being regarded by the people of coastal East Asia as Goddess of the Sea, the protector of fishermen and sailors, must have been the patron saint of the Kaiten operators, perhaps even the entire Japanese Navy.

The roadside Kaiten memorial with the statue of the sea goddess Kannon.

Behind the statue of the goddess and carved into the stone wall are the lyrics of two songs commemorating the Kaiten and the deeds of its operators, " Mother of Kaiten - Human Torpedo " by composer and singer Utagawa Fumiko ( 回天の母～人間魚雷～ ) and " Peace Kannon Folk Song " by Aoyama Rumi ( 平和観音音頭 ). The lyrics of Utagawa's song is also found on the polished stone slab erected beside the Kannon statue.

Lyrics of Utagawa Fumiko's Mother of Kaiten - Human Torpedo
 is found on this stone slab and on the wall behind it.

Lyrics of the Peace Kannon folk song by Aoyama Rumi
on the wall behind the Kannon statue.

I follow the signs and head towards the Kaiten Memorial Museum which should be less than a kilometer from the ferry pier. The path goes past the Ozushima Fureai Center, a campground of sorts but it is understandably empty at this time of the year. It then goes behind a couple of school buildings which are also quiet and unoccupied. A large empty grassy field can be seen beyond the school compound. I will soon learn from a signboard by the path that this is the actual site of the former Ozushima Kaiten Training Base. A long concrete high wall which separates the footpath from the site of the former base still stands to this day. It served to prevent Ozushima islanders from observing the activities on the base when they are walking past the area during the war years.

Ozushima Elementary School was built at the site of the former Kaiten base
 after the War. In its last year of operation in 2015, the school had
only 1 student, 3 teachers and 1 staff member.

This structure beside the main school building is probably the
assembly hall. The field where the torpedo maintenance shed
once stood can be seen in the background.

This school field was the site of the main kaiten base.

 

The partially sealed hazardous material storage area is seen built into the cliff side.
The small structure to the right of the school hall is the old transformer station.

Signboard compares former and current structures where the kaiten base once stood.



Passageway lined with sakura trees leading to Kaiten Museum.
The atmosphere will be very different by late March and early April.

The footpath then becomes steep and ends up at the top of a low hill where the Kaiten Memorial Museum is located. Two granite columns mark the entrance to the long passageway leading to the museum. On both sides of the pavement are two neat rows of stones bearing the names of the deceased Kaiten operators.

A large bronze bell with a long striker can be seen hanging from a shelter in front of the museum building. This the Bell of Peace Prayer ( 平和祈念の鐘 Heiwa Kinen no Kane ). A plaque on the outward facing side of the pillar proclaims it was constructed in 1974 with donations from the Lions Club of Tokuyama. Another plaque on the inward side directly facing the bell bears even more interesting information, all in Japanese only, as usual. It states that the material used to cast the bell included about 100kg of gunmetal ( 砲金 hokin ) from the cartridge cases ( 薬莢 yakkyo ) salvaged from the number 3 turret ( 三番砲塔 sanban hoto ) of the IJN battleship Mutsu ( 陸奥 ). The Mutsu sunk with the loss of 1121 lives after suffering a mysterious internal explosion in the very same turret while moored at the Hashirajima fleet anchorage in June 1943. The anchorage lies within the Inland Sea about 60km east of the Kaiten museum as the crow flies. The bell has a diameter of 90cm, weighs 850kg and is crafted after the famous Uji Byodoin Bell of Kyoto, with embossed designs of celestial figures, lions and Chinese-styled words. On 15th August every year, the anniversary of Japan's surrender during World War II, the bell would be struck by visitors with the hope that the sounds would bring peace to the world and appeasement to the lost souls in the southern seas.



Bell of Peace Prayer with Kaiten monument and Kaiten replica
 in background and ginko leaves.

100kg of gunmetal : The link with Battleship Mutsu

The Kaiten Monument

Behind the Bell of Peace Prayer lies the Kaiten Monument, a monolithic greyish granite structure of about 2 meters in height with an altar in front of it and flanked on both sides by stone slabs carved full with words. The plaque on the left lists the submarines lost or sunk during Kaiten operations giving details such as vessel name, operating base, departure date, wreckage site, captain's name and numbers of sailors who perished with the submarine. For example the last entry read : I-165 Submarine, departed Hikari Base 15th June 1945, lost east of the Marianas, captain Ono Yasushi with 104 crew members. Of the 32 submarines involved in Kaiten operations, 8 were lost. The plaque on the right bears the names of all the Kaiten operators who had lost their lives during training or actual combat.

Kaiten Monument



Kaiten Monument overlooking the Seto Inland Sea.

List of submarines and submariners lost during Kaiten operations 

 

List of 145 Kaiten operators and maintenance personnel
 killed during operations or training.

The location of the monument is almost at the edge of a cliff overlooking the Shin Ozushima Ferry Terminal, its breakwaters and the Seto Inland Sea beyond. By this time of the year the trees have mostly shed their leaves leaving bare branches pointing forlornly skywards. The cloudy and rainy weather helps make an already bleak atmosphere even more depressing. I wonder if this despondent feeling was how the Kaiten operators felt before their final departure from Ozushima.

View of the bleak Inland Sea and leafless sakura tree
on a cold winter's day from behind the Kaiten Monument.



Kaiten Type 1 Replica

A life-sized Kaiten Type 1 replica can be seen next to the Kaiten Monument in front of the museum building. Just like the replica at Tokushima Ferry Terminal, it features the emblem of the Kikusui strike group on its flow deflectors. The fact that the Kaiten Museum does not even have a real Kaiten specimen and has to rely on a replica for display is telling of the very small numbers that were preserved after the War. Then the priority was the de-establishment of the armed services, disarming, demobilization and repatriation. Probably very little thought or room was left for the preservation of war relics and anything that could be scrapped would be scrapped. After all, much raw materials were required for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of a war torn nation. By the time the Japanese society has again prospered and the trauma of war has somewhat faded to the extend that the general populace can embrace the idea of commemorating the war dead, most of the artifacts are already lost or forgotten.

As far as I am aware, the only complete Kaiten specimens in Japan can be found in the Yushukan War Museum of the Yasukuni Shrine ( Type 1 ) and the Kure Maritime Museum a.k.a. Yamato Museum (  Type 10 ). In addition, Yushukan has the hull of a Type 4 and the History and Folklore Museum of Yamaguchi has the hull of a Type 2.




Kaiten replica and sakura tree next to monument



Kaiten replica with museum courtyard behind



Kaiten replica with museum behind

The Kaiten Memorial Museum

The idea of a memorial museum was first mooted in 1962 during a kaiten interest group meet in Tokyo. The intended purpose of the museum was to collect, preserve and display artifacts belonging to the deceased kaiten operators. Funding campaign for the construction of the museum began in 1965 and a total of 19.62 million yen was collected. The museum opened its doors in Nov 1968.

Among its collections were more than a thousand items including letters, last wills, photographs and uniforms. One of the most remarkable exhibit was a replica of Kuroki and Higuchi's last testament written on the inner wall of their sunken kaiten before they died of asphyxiation from oxygen depletion. It was a routine training mission on the evening of 6th Sep 1944 that went terribly wrong with the Kaiten stuck in the muddy seabed after an unexpected dive. Trapped under 18 meters of water without much hope of being rescued, the two officers were giving a detailed account of what went wrong and were even suggesting improvements for subsequent models. The sunken kaiten was only located the next day by which time both officers were dead. Kuroki was four days from his 23rd birthday.

Replica of Kuroki and Higuchi's last testament.
Source : Kaiten Memorial Museum

After 30 years in operation, the museum underwent a major renovation in 1998 at a cost of 47.33 million yen. A section of the Kaiten hull used to film the 2006 Kaiten movie Deguchi no nai Umi is displayed in front of a wall full of photographs of deceased Kaiten pilots. Because the museum has a no photography policy, I did not take any photographs when I was inside the museum.

The normal entrance fee is JPY300 ( about US$3 ) for adults but the museum will waive admission fee on two occasions every year. The 15th of August is the anniversary of the surrender of Japan during WWII and on this day visitors will strike the Bell of Peace in the museum's courtyard. Also on the second Sunday of  every November where a memorial ceremony is held in front of the Kaiten Monument. In recent years the number of visitors to the museum hover between 12000 to 16000 annually.

Admission ticket to Kaiten Museum dated 2018 Dec 7th.

Kaiten Tunnels And Launching Pier

Apart from the Kaiten Memorial Museum, the other major attractions of Ozushima are the ruins of the torpedo testing and kaiten launching pier as well as the tunnels that connect it to the main base.

By 1937, weapons engineers producing the Type 93 Long Lance torpedo at the Kure Arsenal had wanted better test facilities to replace the existing one at Dainyu. Ozushima was selected because it could provide a wider and longer test range. The pier to launch the torpedoes was made of steel reinforced concrete and was completed in 1939 at a cost of 830000 yen. It has 2 levels with cranes and 2 launch bays. Construction of its foundations required the use of 8 caissons and another 5 for the foundations of the passageway. The main structure has a height of 10m, length of 12m, width of 7.5m and a draft of 7.5m. Its estimated weight was 700 tons. Before the tunnels were built, portions of the coastal cliffs were hacked away to build a path over rocky outcrops so that the torpedoes could be hauled to the pier from the maintenance workshops. Construction of the tunnels with rail tracks made the transfer much easier.

The tunnel measure about 250 meters and the entrance is not far from the Ozushima Elementary School. At present the rail tracks have been paved over and even the walls of the tunnel looks coated very neatly with fresh concrete. At the mid-point the tunnel widens and has a side opening to the sea where the Kaiten launching pier could be seen not far away. This section of the tunnel also has old photographs of the Kaiten and its operators and audio explanations of the Kaiten's history. The tunnel ends in front of the Kaiten launching pier and a concrete connecting path brings the visitor to the pier.

The tunnel entrance.

Rail tracks are paved over. Wall have been replastered.

Side opening to the sea

Seaward view of tunnel side opening

Mid-portion of tunnel with photo gallery

Tunnel exit and link way to the Torpedo Launching Pier.

The Kaiten base at Ozushima was officially opened on 1st Sep 1944 and training commenced just 4 days later. The torpedo launching pier was then used to launch Kaitens for their training practice in the sea. The internal torpedo launching bays within the structure were designed to accommodate the Type 93 torpedo with a diameter of 61cm. They were too narrow to launch the kaiten which had a diameter of 1 meter. Instead, the kaitens were hoisted into the water from the side of the concrete pier by cranes. The rusted remnants of such a crane can still be seen at the edge of the pier to this day. Note that embarkation for combat operations do not take place at this pier. Instead, other piers over at the main base were used.

Currently, the torpedo launching bays and the upper level of the pier are out of bounds and fenced up. A signboard explains about the Type 93 torpedo. A granite marker stands near the beginning of the link way to the pier and proclaims it the ruins of the torpedo launch site.

Because it is the only surviving structure for Kaiten training built during World War II in the whole of Japan, it is deemed a war heritage and it was conferred the Heritage Award by the Japan Society of Civil Engineers ( JSCE ) in 2006. Here is the JSCE explanatory note to its selection in Japanese.

Sign at exit of tunnel proclaims the area
the Torpedo Launching Facility Relic

The Type 93 Torpedo Launching Facility and Kaiten Training Relic

The two storey concrete structure with two launch bays behind the fence.

Signboard explains the origins of the torpedo test site

These bays are for launching the 610mm Type 93 torpedoes.
The Kaiten has a 1000mm diameter and would not fit.

Remnants of the foundation of the Kaiten hoist at the side of the pier

Torpedo Observation Station

On a hilltop overlooking the sea to the west lies the ruins of the torpedo observation post ( 魚雷見張所 gyorai miharisho  ). A fairly strenuous climb through a bamboo forest is required before reaching this site. It is a single storey building by the cliff with large windows to observe torpedo firing during the War. All its windows are now gone and only the window frames remained. The walls are bare and a few wires dangle from the ceilings, with the electric devices they power long gone. This ruin is generally quite free from graffiti and relatively clean.

Signboard explains about the torpedo observation station

Rear view of the dilapidated building 

The building has a commanding view of the surrounding seas

Bare, doorless and windowless but still standing after 8 decades.

An anti-aircraft gun placement site is located to the north of the museum but I did not have time to explore. It was supposed to have consisted of a 150cm search light, one single barreled 13mm anti-aircraft gun and 3 twin-barreled 12.7mm guns to provide the Kaiten base with some protection against air attack. It will have to wait for another visit to the island in the future.






I-58 with Kaiten Human Torpedoes on deck.
Box art from Tamiya.

The Legacy

The Human Torpedo Kaiten was a suicide weapon system unlike any other and unique to the Imperial Japanese Navy. It never quite achieved the success and notoriety of its aerial counterpart, the Kamikaze Special Attack. The only reason that it did not result in more deaths apart from the several hundred operators and submariners who died during combat operations was because the end of the War came swiftly. All Kaiten operations ceased by 15th Aug 1945 with the unconditioned surrender of Japan. Though they did not manage to turn the tide of war and save their country, the sacrifices of these young men may not have been entirely in vain so long as the message of peace is passed on to the future generations.

Today, 75 years on, the world might have forgotten about the Kaiten. However, in the quiet backwaters of the Seto Inland Sea, Ozushima continues to bear silent witness to this tragic legacy which happened so many years ago. Its schools might be closed, its population might be greying and dying, its industries might be gone, but here at Ozushima the Kaiten endures ...


* The day after my visit to Alley Karasukojima in Kure.
* 7th December is also the eve of the anniversary of the Pacific War to the Japanese because of time zone differences.

** In 2017 the population of Ozushima was 275. Of these 78.9% were above the age of 65.