Japanese WWII Vet Sees Trouble on the Horizon
NAGANO, Japan — Kaname Harada was once a feared samurai of the sky, shooting down 19 Allied aircraft as a pilot of Japan’s legendary Zero fighter plane during World War II. Now 98 years old and in failing health, the former ace is on what he calls his final mission: using his wartime experiences to warn Japan against ever going to war again.
This has become a timely issue in Japan, as the conservative Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has called for revising Japan’s pacifist Constitution. On a recent afternoon in this alpine city near his home, Mr. Harada was invited to address a ballroom filled with some 200 tax accountants and their business clients.
After slowly ascending the stage with the help of his daughter, he stopped to hang up hand-drawn war maps and a sepia-toned photo of himself as a young pilot in a leather flight suit glaring fearlessly into the camera. It was the same face that now turned to look at the audience, creased by age, and somehow softer and wiser. His body was so frail that his suit hung loose like a sail, but he spoke with a loud voice of surprising vigor.
“Nothing is as terrifying as war,” he began, before spending the next 90 minutes recounting his role in battles, from Japan’s early triumph at Pearl Harbor to its disastrous reversals at Midway and Guadalcanal. “I want to tell you my experiences in war so that younger generations don’t have to go through the same horrors that I did.”
It is a warning that Mr. Harada fears his countrymen may soon no longer be able to hear. There are only a dwindling number of Japanese left who fought in the war, which in Asia began when Imperial Japan invaded northeastern China in 1931, and claimed tens of millions of lives over the following 14 years.
In an interview after his speech, Mr. Harada described himself as “the last Zero fighter,” or at least the last pilot still alive who flew during that aircraft’s glory days early in the war with the United States. He recounted how in dogfights, he flew close enough to his opponents to see the terror on their faces as he sent them crashing to their deaths.
“I am 54, and I have never heard what happened in the war,” said Takashi Katsuyama, a hair salon owner, who like many in the audience said he was not taught about the war in school. “Japan needs to hear these real-life experiences now more than ever.”
Mr. Harada’s talk was filled with vivid descriptions of an era when Imperial Japan briefly ruled the skies over the Pacific. During the Battle of Midway in 1942, he said, he shot down five United States torpedo planes in a single morning while defending the Japanese fleet. He described how he was able to throw off the aim of the American tail gunners by tilting his aircraft to make it drift almost imperceptibly to one side as he closed in for the kill.
He also described his defeats. He said he had to ditch his plane in the sea after Japan lost all four aircraft carriers it sent to Midway, the battle that turned the tide of the war in favor of the United States. Four months later, he was shot down over the island of Guadalcanal. He survived when his plane crashed upside down in the jungle, but his arm was so badly mangled that he never fought again. He spent the rest of the war training pilots back in Japan.
After Japan surrendered, he said, he hid from what he feared would be vengeful American occupiers. He worked for a time on a dairy farm, but found himself plagued by nightmares that made it tough to sleep. In his dreams, he said, he kept seeing the faces of the terrified American pilots he had shot down. “I realized the war had turned me into a killer of men,” he said, “and that was not the kind of person I wanted to be.”
He said the nightmares finally ended when he found a new calling by opening a kindergarten in Nagano in 1965. He said he was able to alleviate the pangs of guilt by dedicating himself to teaching young children the value of peace. While he has now retired, he said he still visits the school every day he can to see the children’s smiling faces.
He said it took many more years before he could finally talk about the war itself. The turning point came during the Persian Gulf war in 1991, when he was appalled to overhear young Japanese describe the bombing as if it were a harmless video game. He said he resolved to speak out. – He has been talking about his war experiences ever since.
“Until I die, I will tell about what I saw,” Mr. Harada concluded his speech to the accountants’ group. “Never forgetting is the best way to protect our children and our children’s children from the horrors of war.”
From a “New York Times” article, written by, Martin Fackler, and submitted to Pacific Paratrooper by Christina @ http://bowsprite.wordpress.com/
Click on images to enlarge.
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Farewell Salutes –
Doyle Baker – Cherokee, OK; USMC, Vietnam, 3rd Marine Air Wing, Lt.
Jack Bryce – Auckland, NZ; RNZ Air Force # 429941, WWII
Lawrence Ericksen – Vernal, UT; US Coast Guard, WWII, Merchant seaman
Frederic Gilbert – El Paso, TX; US Army Air Corps, WWII, Bronze Star
Riley Hammond – Lexington, SC; US Navy, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, (Ret. 30 years)
Paul Ladd – Miami, FL; US Navy, Dental Corps, Capt.
David Manwarring – Covina, CA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 457 Ordnance/11th Airborne Div.
Mel Martin – NY; US Army, Capt., Commander of West Point Medical Corps
Dempsey Syvet – Gaspe, CAN; RC Army, WWII, CBI, Royal Rifles of Canada
Edward Tice Jr. – Allentown, PA; USMC, WWII, PTO
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Personal Note –
I attempted to condense this post for the readers, but I just could not see where anything could be taken out.
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Posted on September 14, 2016, in Current News, WWII and tagged 1940's, Airborne, aviation, History, Japan, Military, Military History, Pacific, veterans, WW2, WWII. Bookmark the permalink. 166 Comments.
It’s nice to read something about a Japanese war vet for a change. I’m glad I stumbled across this article.
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Smitty always taught me to look at all sides to a situation. Without the Japanese views it would be difficult to see the full perspective of the Pacific War. I’m glad you stumbled across the Pacific Paratrooper as well. I appreciate you taking the time.
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Reblogged this on quirkywritingcorner.
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Thank you for helping to spread the message that so dearly needs to be learned.
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Loved the story of Harada. Similar to Saburo Saki also a WW2 Zero pilot. Reblogged it on linkedIn
All the best.
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Thank you for re-blogging it. We have to look at both sides of any dispute and this colossal war is no exception.
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I had a post for him as well…..
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Good message, though there is no indication that he regretted Japan’s starting the damn war…
The models depicted are interesting; a Zero, A Val dive bomber (?) never noticed the elliptical wings before, and their copy of the German Komet, a liquid fuel rocket plane.
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In Japan, the media, schools and much of day-to-day life was government controlled. By the time he was a pilot, he would know to never question why, just do as you’re told.
Yes, much of their military was copied from western Europe, even the Navy. But the Germans even taught their paratroopers long before Pearl Harbor.
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Reblogged this on Random Ramblings; Myriad Musings and commented:
This is an excellent post…something that we should all think about, and be mindful of.
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Thank you for retelling this article. This subject needs to be discussed and remembered!
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The acts of war that generation unleashed on the world nearly destroyed the world. The men from that war knew it and it has become their passion to see it does not happen again. Unfortunately for many of them those horrors were so long lasting that many of them could not tell the horrors until they were very old. If our world today, especially our leaders could learn from these men, it truly would be a much better world. Thanks for sharing!
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I was never in this war, but share the feelings of these men, so sharing this information is a must! I thank you for reading, Michael.
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I have taken my dad’s letters written during WW II to Mom and me and written a historical fiction, based on fact. I, too, what others to hear “from the horse’s mouth” about that time in history. The title is “Hard Times in the Heartland” available in e-reader and paperback from Amazon.com here. https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Times-Heartland-Late-Sooner/dp/1537083171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475199929&sr=8-1&keywords=hard+times+in+the+heartland
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Thank you for taking the time to leave us the link, Sally. And if you would care to have your father, Henry Freeman mentioned in the Farewell Salutes, just send his hometown, unit and branch of service.
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