詫間海軍航空隊跡 - Mitoyo

Only Kamishima Chemical Industry can be seen

You will leave when you finish the old stone.

It's like a resting place on the coastal road, but this is where the Kamikaze special attack team took off. There is a tunnel-like hole on the wall that separates the road, but it is a trace of an air defense fence. There are still remains of watercraft slides on the nearby coastline. I came to this place 70 years after the war.

This is the base of the Japanese Navy's seaplane training unit, which is now a home campus of Kagawa National College of Technology. The area around the tennis court was a maintenance pit for various seaplanes. There are still photos of the type 2 boats being maintained. The platform on the slope of the ground is as it was at that time. The current classroom is in the place where the barracks were built at the time.

Around the 50's of the Showa era, it was the place where the Arichirope building was. I would like to go and see when such a facility was built!

According to the information board, construction was announced in 1964, and 136 residents were evicted. The hardship at that time is expressed by the expression “the hardships associated with relocation are hard to beat”. It seems that the main model was a sea reconnaissance aircraft and a flying boat because it is a Navy Air Corps. According to the information board, the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps was announced in February 1945 with all small aircraft. Speaking of special attacks, I imagined a zero battle, but for the first time I learned that it was also a small water reconnaissance aircraft. I was stunned by the history of 25 young men entering the US warship and 57 young people. Type-0 water reconnaissance aircraft and type 94 water reconnaissance aircraft were used for the attack. Both are old-fashioned slow aircrafts. I just hope that this disaster will not happen again.

The Takuma Navy Air Corps was established on June 1, 1943. It is thought that it was difficult to say that it was during the war, as it says, "When building the base, 136 local residents were evacuated and the hardships associated with the relocation are hard to describe." Initially, we were training seaplanes for practical use, but in response to the tight war situation and in preparation for the Battle of Okinawa, it became a major base for flying boats. From April 1945, the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps made its first sortie from this base. The aircraft that sortieed were the 97-type seaplane reconnaissance aircraft and the 0-type seaplane reconnaissance aircraft, both of which are old-fashioned aircraft and do not seem to be fast, so it seems to be a harsh command. By the end of the war in August, 57 precious young lives had been lost. Currently, the site is the Kagawa National College of Technology Takuma Campus (former Takuma Radio) and a factory of a local company. The Takuma Navy Air Corps Memorial is located along Prefectural Road 232 overlooking the school and factory. There are about four air raid shelters left on the cliff on the other side. In addition, there are 4 slopes (3 for large boats and 1 for small boats) left along the coast, which is a very valuable historic site. Seventy-five years have passed since the end of the Pacific War, but now that the number of people who know the war has decreased, I think that we will not leave such a historic site in order to convey the misery of the war to posterity.

It was opened in 1943 as a seaplane training ground for the former Japanese Navy, and pilots practiced hard here every day. In addition, many models of seaplanes were operated here, and at that time there was a repair shop near the current Takuma Junior High School, which was a sanctuary for seaplanes in Japan. And, boasting a large size and high performance, it is called an empty battleship by the US military, and the feared Type 2 large boat also flies from here. The only existing two-type large boat in the world is the actual one at the Kanoya Air Base Historical Museum in Kagoshima, but it is also an aircraft that took off from here. From 1945, due to the deterioration of the war situation, he was transferred to the 5th Air Fleet and guided the Ulithi Atoll Assault Team. And, just before the end of the war, we also made four sorties in a special attack operation with a seaplane. Since seaplanes do not require a runway, they are regarded as important in Japan, which is an island country surrounded by the sea on all sides, and the performance of seaplanes was one of the best in the world, but that is just the story of seaplanes. Because of the float, it was disadvantageous for fighting with general aircraft. It boasts high performance for its original use as a seaplane (sea reconnaissance, etc.), but while it is aerodynamically disadvantageous, how much battle results can be mentioned as a special attack aircraft? My chest hurts when I think of the pilots who took off from here. Schools and factories are now built, and the structures of the time can only be seen in the air raid shelters and the concrete gliding belts on the coast. The gliding zone is for small aircraft on the east side and for large aircraft on the other three locations on the west side.