Violet Island
Translated From The Japanese
By Taeko Kondo
「すみれ島」
Writer: Sukeyuki
Imanisi
今西祐行
Picture : Sadao Matunaga
松永禎郎
Published by Kaisei Sha
偕成社
Violet Island
There used to be a small school near the seashore in remote southern Kyushu. It was in the spring of 1945. Before they knew it, almost every day warplanes with the Japanese flag flew over the school.
The schoolchildren waved their hands each time the planes passed over them and cried “banzai.” The warplanes banked their wings as they flew overhead as if in answer to their cries.
The teachers of the school knew that those warplanes had only enough fuel for a one-way journey, and with their suicide bombs they were forced to attack the warships of the enemy. They were called "Special Attack Forces". That was why they bade farewell to the schoolchildren by banking their wings.
The children knew nothing about this and were pleased with the
warplanes passing over them. They
sent letters or drawings to the Special Attack Corps. In their letters they often asked, "Could you see
us from your plane? Next time, please bank your wings more
sharply."
The warplanes seemed to bank their wings more sharply after the children wrote to the members of the corps.
When the children got tired of writing to the corps
one of the girls suggested that they present a bunch
of violets instead of sending their letters or drawings.
The children picked a lot of violets in the fields and
made many bunches.
Children representing the school,
along with a teacher, took the
flowers
all the way to the airmen.
After a few days, they received the following letter:
“Thank you very much for the many lovely violets. Last night, we enjoyed them to our hearts’ content. When I was a small child, I used to play a sumo wrestling game with my friend using violets. Do you know another name for violets
“We used to call violets “sumo wrestling grass.” We twined two violet flowers around each other and pulled them from each side. The one that came off lost the game. Last night, we became children again and enjoyed the game. We were absorbed in the game till the flowers were all gone.
“We are sorry that we plucked off the flowers of those precious violets you gave to us.
“Last night, I slept under a blanket full of violets. The fragrance of violets lingered in the blanket.
“Just now, the commander gave us the order to go on a sortie.
“Thank you very much for your lovely presents.
We were really happy last night.
Take good care of yourself. Good-bye!”
The teacher finished reading the letter. Tears welled up in her eyes.
She said to the class, “By this time, this young man would have died in the South Pacific.” She wept in sadness. For the first time, she told the students the story about “Special Attack Forces” in detail.
From that time on, the children continued to send bunches of violets till all the flowers in the fields were gone. How many special fighters were sent to the bottom holding a bunch of violets?
Some of them got in trouble on the way and unknown to anyone crashed into the sea or into islands.
Some years had passed since the war was over. Violets suddenly appeared all over a small desert island in the southern sea. This was presumably because the bunches of violets received from the children contained violet seeds.
Still now, people on the seashore call the unknown island “Violet Island.”
Afterward
In the last stage of World WarⅡ, the Japanese government deployed a desperate strategy called the "Special Attack Forces". This is a story about the young men forced into such operations. In 1943, the Japanese Military Government adopted a policy of “student mobilization” to reinforce its depleted military. On December1, 1943, about 100,000 university students went to the front.
During the last phase of the war from 1944 to 1945, many young student-soldiers were killed in vain as the result of such outrageous strategies as the "Special Attack Forces". A total of 7000 Navy and Army Special Attack Forces personnel were recorded as being killed in action.
One of those fallen young university-student-soldiers, Ryoji Uehara left his feelings in the following letter written the night before the attack.
He was killed in action May 11, 1945, as a member of the Army
Special Attack Unit, striking an American mechanized division. (cf. the book, “Listen to the Voices
from The Sea”).
“It is inevitable that an
authoritarian and totalitarian nation, will eventually be defeated. Nazi Germany too has
already been defeated, and we see that all the authoritarian nations are now
falling down one by one.
“Men’s great love of liberty will
live on into the future and into eternity itself.
“In a real sense it is certainly true that a pilot in our Special Aerial Attack Force is, as a friend of mine has said, nothing more than a piece of the machine. So then we who are nothing more than a piece of machinery may have no right to say anything, but we only wish, ask and hope for one thing: that all the Japanese people might combine to make our beloved country the greatest nation possible.”
As his words shows, those fallen young university-student-soldiers were gifted both with deep human emotions and highly polished rationality.
The young men who enjoyed “Sumo Restring Game” with using violets the night before the attack, were also among those excellent student-soldiers, I guess. We never forget 3 million war-victims, including those young men, as we now enjoy freedom and peace.
May 2003
Taeko Kondo