Okinawa kamikaze pilot’s daughter wants to see father again

Nakagusuku, Okinawa Pref. (Jiji Press) — “I want to see my father again,” says a daughter of an Okinawan man who died as a kamikaze suicide attack pilot about 80 years ago. “The last time I saw my father was when I was 6 years old.”

Mie Goya, an 86-year-old resident of Nakagusuku, Okinawa Prefecture, recalls that her father, Kotoku, a bamboo basket craftsman, was “really sweet” and made a bamboo swing for his children.

“He played with me a lot, and I never saw him get angry,” Goya went on to say.

Kotoku was drafted around February 1945, and temporarily returned home in April of that year before heading out on a kamikaze mission. Goya remembers him patting his children including her on their heads and saying, “Take care. I won’t come back again.”

Later, Goya received news of his death in battle, but the details of how and where he died are still unknown. None of his remains were found. In place of remains, a stone was buried in his grave.

“When I see other parents and children talking happily, I remember my father,” Goya says. As she grew older, she wanted to see his face again. “I wish I had at least a picture of him.”

Recently, she has learned from a television program that artificial intelligence can animate still photos.

Kiyonori, Goya’s 63-year-old second son, realized his mother’s strong feelings for her father when she said, “I may be able to see my father moving if I have a picture.”

“My mother is about to turn 90 years old. So I want to show her (an animated image of) her father while she is still healthy,” says Kiyonori, who plans to search for any pictures of Kotoku this summer in Kagoshima Prefecture, where a principal sortie base for kamikaze pilots from Okinawa existed.

Goya said she was excited to hear that a photo might be found. At the same time, she underscored the importance of peace.

“In order not to create children who can’t see their fathers like me, no one should start a war,” she notes. /asu