Divine Wind - the Chiran Kamikaze Army Base, Japan (1945)

 Last month my wife and I spent a week in Japan, and one of our ports-of-call was Kigoshima on the island of Kyushu. I took the opportunity to visit the site of the Chran airbase which was the primary land based launching point for Kamikaze attacks on the U.S. Navy during the Battle of Okinawa (1st April to 22nd June 1945). It is easy to describe what I found, but less easy to interpret or understand what I saw. I will elucidate later, but first a brief history of the Japanese Imperial Army's base at Chiran. 

Kamikaze mural at the Chiran Peace Museum

The Chiran Branch of Japan's Army Flight Training School opened in December 1941 around about the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor (a topic I covered in a previous post - here). It was a large scale operation covering over 500 acres, approximately 20% larger than the modern day civilian Kigoshima Airport. Nowadays the airfield has been lost to development aside from a parcel of land on the periphery of the old site which is now given over to the Chiran Peace Museum which was set up in 1987.

By late 1944, Japan had suffered huge losses in both aircraft and experienced pilots. The fall of Saipan and the advance of American forces exposed the strategically important island of Okinawa to the threat of attack and the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) adopted the concept of tokko or 'special attack'. Pilots would crash their explosive laden aircraft into American warships and aircraft carriers. In the words of the custodian at Chiran the Battle of Okinawa was to become a fight between the material strength of the U.S. and the spiritual strength of Japan. 

Training aircraft and statue of pilot, Chiran Peace Museum

In March 1945, the Imperial Japanese Army followed the IJN's example in anticipation of an attack on Okinawa. Several dedicated Kamikaze (Divine Wind) bases were set up -  three on the island of Taiwan, and one at Chiran. Chiran being closest to Okinawa, was the take-off point for 439 Kamikaze pilots over the period 26th March to 19th July 1945. All in all, 1036 Imperial Army (as opposed to IJN) Kamikaze pilots were killed in action - all highly motivated volunteers with an average age of just 21 years. 

Many types of aircraft were used on Kamikaze missions out of Chiran but the main types were the Nakajima Ki-27 and the Nakajma Ki-84. The former accounted for 40% of the missions flown and carried a 550 pound (250kg) bomb under their right wing and a fuel tank of almost the same weight under the other wing. The flight time between Chiran and Okinawa was approximately two and half hours. Each plane carried enough fuel to cover the return journey of 800 miles. Why return? Well, if the pilots encountered bad weather or couldn't find an appropriate target then they were instructed to return to base and feel no shame in doing so. 

Reconstructed hut - Kamikaze pilot accommodation at Chiran

Many Kamikaze aircraft were shot down before they got to Okinawa - the corps made up of Ki-27s and training models were easy pickings for interceptor aircraft from the U.S. Navy. Of the approximately 50% that got through to their targets between 10 and 15% were successful in their mission.

The Peace Museum serves as a place of memorialisation for the pilots as well as a repository for documents and archives. Much of the exhibition space is given over to last letters home and family photographs - many pertaining to the 'Young Boy Pilots' and recently graduated civilian trainees. This group of very young men accounted for approximately 60% of the 1036 Army Kamikaze pilots who were killed and their personal messages and few belongings give the museum visitors a profound reason to pause and reflect.

Individual memorials to Kamikaze pilots

The so called 'Young Boy Pilots' had joined the Air Force Training Corps at the age of 14 and had trained for three or four years. According to the Chiran peace Museum guide book they were unskilled pilots who never experienced aerial combat, and they did not know that they were going to be Kamikaze pilots. However, once they knew their fate they did not hesitate to accept their duty. These pilots understood and appreciated the importance of their responsibilities and their morale was high. They believed that it would be worth dying for their country and for their parents. Clearly, the Bushido mindset was strong and the Samurai code was writ large in their lives!

The photograph shown here, by Asahi Shimbun, shows five 'Young Boy Pilots' of the 72nd Shinbu Unit. The two pilots standing at the back and the one holding the puppy in the front row were just 17 years old. the young man on the right was 18 and the one on the left, 19 years old. The picture was taken on the 26th May 1945. They all died as Kamikaze pilots at Okinawa just one day later. 

Standing in one of the accommodation huts pictured above, it was obviously impossible to comprehend the feelings of young men such as those referenced above, who faced certain death, as they spent their final night together in this enclosed space. Around the airbase, the nearby villages accommodated guest houses for parents who wished to visit their sons at the base. Some pilots kept their participation secret but for others it was very much a family affair.

Chiran mural showing a pilot ascending in the arms of maidens

Recovered Navy Zero at the Chiran Peace Museum

It was not possible to take photos or use a mobile phone inside the museum aside from the entrance hall and an annexe where a Zero recovered off the coast of Koshikishima island in 1985 is on display, so I was unable to run a translation app to  engage with most of the stories and labels that were presented. So what to make of the rows of photographs, the letters from parents and the artefacts on show? Similarly the rows and rows of individual shrines outside and the imposing statue of a Kamikaze pilot nearby? Were these young pilots being presented as victims or heroes?

The Yasakuni Shrine, Tokyo

The nearest I was going to get an answer, came during a visit to the controversial Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo a few days after leaving Kagoshima. My wife and wandered amongst the quasi-religious structures and blooming Cherry trees in the heart of the bustling city. It seemed to me that those who were visiting (aside from the occasional tourist such as ourselves) were on a spiritual journey. They approached the central shrine quietly and deferentially - young and old pausing at the central point before bending at the waist to pay their respects to the Japanese war dead. The nearby War Museum offered even more ambiguity, but I will cover that in a separate post.

I will leave the last words to 23 year old Kamikaze pilot Captain Toshio Anazawa who wrote to his wife to be, Chieko, just before his final (probably only!) mission.

The magnificent day of my attack sortie has arrived. Take courage, forget the past, and find a new way to be happy in the future. I, Anazawa, no longer exist in the world of reality. Here the cherry blossoms have already fallen, the young green leaves you love so much will soon come to usher in a new season of spring. From here on in, please go forward cheerfully and brightly. I too, do my best not to trip over my feelings, but will head out to battle, smiling.

My Flickr portfolio of photos from the Chiran peace Museum - here.

My Flickr portfolio of photos from the Yasukuni Shrine and Museum - here. 

The Mystery of Birnbeck Pier's Missing 'Wheezers and Dodgers' Plaque (1949)

A while ago I was sent a photograph of a missing plaque which, I was told, used to hang in one of the buildings on Birnbeck Island, Weston-super-Mare. The plaque commemorated a close association between Birnbeck Pier and HMS Vernon from 1942 to 1949. The words inscribed on the plaque speak to a unique period in the life of Birnbeck Pier, for in 1941 the pier, and the island to which it is linked, was requisitioned by the Admiralty for secret war time weapons testing. The story of the Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development (DMWD) and the men and women who were employed by this most secret of military organisations is a fascinating one (the personnel at HMS Birnbeck, as it was designated by the Admiralty, were known as the 'Wheezers and Dodgers'). In considering how best to learn more about the DMWD, as a small first step I made it my mission to try and discover the whereabouts of the plaque. 

HMS Vernon / Birnbeck Pier Plaque

The most obvious place to look would be Birnbeck Pier. The pier is currently undergoing a multi-million pound restoration but since its' closure in 1994, on safety grounds, the buildings on the island have fallen into a state of disrepair. Indeed, there is not much left apart from a clocktower and the walls of roofless buildings. When I visited the island in 2017 the interior of the buildings were a sea of debris and rubbish. Anything of value had long since gone - removed at the time of closure, stolen or simply lost. So where to begin the search? As a starting point I enlisted the help of Peter Lander of the Birnbeck Regeneration Trust, a man with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Birnbeck Pier's history. Peter introduced me to a local woman, Jean Sugar, whose mother had the foresight to retrieve an old photograph album from a skip in Locking (near Weston-super-Mare) when the nearby RAF base closed in 2000.

The Plaque in the Birnbeck Pier Refreshment Hall - 1949 (Jean Sugar Collection)

The album is a treasure trove of information about the DMWD, and amongst the gems therein, I discovered a series of black and white photographs showing the plaque in its' original position adjacent to the bar in what was know in the 1940s and 50s as the Birnbeck Pier Refreshment Hall. Above the plaque the photograph shows a mural or very large picture of HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship, in Portsmouth Dockyard. An appropriate pairing given that the anti-submarine warfare establishment designated as HMS Vernon sits within the dockyard complex. 

Beneath the plaque four women are sitting enjoying a pot of tea whilst at the mirror backed bar a white-coated barman is chatting to two men. But that is not all that Jean Sugar's album had in store. The collection also includes a series of photographs showing HMS Vernon's commander, Captain W.J.Robertson, presenting the plaque to Mr W. J. Jesseman, the managing director and secretary of the Birnbeck Pier Company on the 17 March 1949.

Birnbeck Pier in the 1940s (Postcard)

The Plaque Presentation (Jean Sugar Collection)

With the date in mind, my next step was to interrogate the British Newspaper Archive. Sure enough, the event was covered by several newspapers. In particular there was an extremely descriptive report in the Weston Gazette dated 19 March 1949. In his speech at the event, Captain Robertson explained why Birnbeck Pier had been chosen for weapons testing. 

Torpedoes and mines, by their very nature, were required to be recovered after trial. One might drop them in the sea and use divers, but in that way recovery is not certain. This part of the Bristol Channel, with its strong tides and full ebb, was ideal for our purpose. I need hardly remind you that in two wars we have come very near indeed to losing because of our failure to cope with the submarine.

The report goes on to recount some of what the Birnbeck Pier Company's chairman said in response.

Mr. Jessemann paid tribute to the work of the Piermaster, Capt. K. J. Wide, who had been commissioned as a Lieutenant, R.N.R. during H.M.S. Vernon’s occupation. The hole and splat near the Pier used during the experiments had been constructed at very short notice under his supervision.

The late Captain Wide's daughter, Cathy Keep, was able to provide a picture of her father (the piermaster) and her mother outside the boarded up - for wartime - main gates. Edgar James Wide (or 'Jack' as he was known) worked in close collaboration with the Naval authorities and, as mentioned above, during the war years was given the rank of Lieutenant, Royal Naval Reserve so he could exercise authority over military personnel working on the pier. Cathy told me that her father had been awarded an MBE in the 1970s, in recognition of his service during the Second World War and for his leadership on Birnbeck Pier generally. She also mentioned that her father had been awarded a certificate by Weston-super-Mare's Alderman in 1946 for his work in the town during the conflict. 

Captain Wide and his wife, Catherine (Cathy Keep Collection)

Whilst the Pier Company Directors were quick to offer the pier for military use in time of national emergency at least one was not impressed with the fees paid by the Admiralty. £350 per year, not even enough to pay the pier's insurance premium! Indeed, in examining the Birnbeck Pier Company's cash book in the Somerset Archives (A/DUY 2/3) the foregone income was considerable.

Having established the circumstances under which the plaque was handed over, the question remains as to what happened to it. The next step was to find images of the Refreshment Rooms bar and see if the plaque remained in situ over subsequent years. In the Somerset Archive I discovered a plan, dated 1948, showing a proposed alteration to the bar area. It is not known exactly what alterations were made in the ensuing years but we do know that prior to the 1970s, the plaque was moved. The picture below (from the 1970s) shows the bar area with a staircase installed directly in front of the HMS Victory mural. The plaque is not in its' original position so at the time the steps were put in it was either relocated or removed entirely. My guess is the former, but that can't be proven in the absence of further evidence.

The bar area without plaque (Peter Lander Collection)

The same spot in 2017 (Phil Curme Collection)

Furthermore, by a happy coincidence, I took a photo of the wall space in question during my visit in 2017 - no HMS Victory, no HMS Vernon plaque, no Victorian event place settings, no white coated barman, no happy tea drinkers ... just a shell of a building and a broken down piano.

So what can be concluded about the whereabouts of the plaque? Well, we know where it was installed and we know it was subsequently moved. As to what happened then, the mystery remains. is it amongst the broken roof remnants on Birnbeck Pier? was it thrown into the sea? is it on a wall in someones office or house? Is it hidden away in a loft somewhere? Your guess is as good as mine! One newspaper report described the plaque as being inscribed on brass and another that it had a wooden frame. Maybe the material was reused?

I will finish with an unattributed 1949 newspaper report which stated that the plaque was now treasured possession of the Birnbeck Pier Company. Treasured it may have been, but for now we must consider it lost. The story it references though, is far from lost - and will no doubt be brought to life as part of the 'interpretation' work which will be undertaken for North Somerset Council's project to restore Birnbeck Pier.  

My thanks to Jean Sugar, Cathy Keep and Peter Lander (Birnbeck Regeneration Trust) for their help in compiling this story.