終戦記念日を前に鹿児島県知覧
にある、知覧特攻平和記念館に
行ってきました。
若い時から、子供ができたら
連れて来たいと思っていた
場所のひとつでした。
この基地は、高校生、大学生
くらいの若者が特攻した
前線基地でした。終戦する
直前まで、1036名の若者が
沖縄の空に散ったのです。
旅立つ前に愛する両親…
特に母親や妻に送った遺書は
涙に値します。戦争という
理不尽な国の都合で、
愛する人達と永遠に別れな
ければならない気持ちの中
には、本心を隠しながら
今まで育ててくれた感謝や
なにひとつ親孝行が出来
なかったお詫びが綴られて
いました。涙しました。
私の父親も少年飛行兵で16歳の
時に終戦を迎えたので
、あと半年も戦争が続いて、
いたら、私は出生してい
なかったらと思います。
この様な戦争を記録して
ある資料館の閉鎖が相次い
でいます。広島長崎の様な
被爆地の核廃絶のアピール
とは違い、日本人の心の奥
にある武士道、自己犠牲の
精神はなかなか海外の方には
理解できないと思いますが、
日本人に伝承する事は大切な
ことと思いました。
Before the anniversary of
the end of the war, I went to the Chiran Special Attack Peace Memorial Museum in Chiran, Kagoshima Prefecture.
Since I was young, it was one of the places I wanted to take my children to when I had them.
This base was a frontline base where young people around high school and college students made special attacks. Just before the end of the war, 1,036 young people died in the sky of Okinawa. The wills he sent to his beloved parents, especially his mother and wife, before he left were tear-jerking. In the feelings of having to part with his loved ones forever due to the unreasonable convenience of the country, he hid his true feelings and wrote his gratitude for raising them and his apologies for not being able to show his filial piety in any way. I cried.
My father was also a boy pilot and was 16 when the war ended, so if the war had continued for another six months, I would not have been born.
Museums that record wars like this are being closed one after another. Unlike the appeals for nuclear abolition made in atomic bomb-stricken cities like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I think it is difficult for people overseas to understand the samurai spirit and self-sacrifice that lie deep in the hearts of Japanese people, but I believe it is important to pass this on to Japanese people.