Kiyoshi Ogawa
Encyclopedia
Kiyoshi Ogawa was a Japan
ese Naval Aviator Ensign of the Imperial Japanese Navy
during World War II
. As a Kamikaze pilot
, Ensign Ogawa's final action took place on May 11, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa
. Piloting a bomb-laden Mitsubishi Zero fighter during Operation Kikusui No. 6, Ogawa at the age of 22 went through antiaircraft fire and attacked the US aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17)
. He dropped a 550-lb bomb, never pulled out of the dive, and crashed deliberately into the flight deck near the control tower of the US aircraft carrier. The bomb penetrated Bunker Hill's flight deck and exploded, gasoline fires flamed up and several explosions took place, when re-armed and re-fueled planes on deck exploded and caught fire. Nearly 400 US crewmen died with Ensign Ogawa and the ship was knocked out of the war.
, located in the Kantō region
on Honshū
island, as a youngest child of the Ogawa family. Kiyoshi did well in schools, and entered the private Waseda University
, located on the northern side of Tokyo
's Shinjuku Ward, near Kagurazaka, 60 years ago the Geisha
center of Tokyo. Since 1902 Waseda is widely regarded as one of the two most well-known private universities in Japan.
Kiyoshi Ogawa graduated from Aviation Reserve Student flight training, appointed an Ensign, he was assigned to the 306th Fighter Squadron of the Imperial Japanese Navy's 721st Kokutai at Kanoya.
Ogawa then volunteered for Imperial Japanese Navy
Kamikaze Special Attack Force (tokubetsu kōgeki tai) Dai 7 Showa-tai (No. 7 Showa-tai Force).
Since the Kamikaze attacks were to be made only if the pilots had volunteered, and could not be commanded, there were two methods to collect volunteers. One was an application for all pilots in general, and another was a survey for the Special Flight Officer Probationary Cadets (College graduates like Kiyoshi Ogawa) only. The survey asked: "Do you desire earnestly/wish/do not wish to be involved in the Kamikaze attacks?" Kiyoshi Ogawa had to circle one of the three choices, or leave the paper blank. The reason that the Special Flight Officer Probationary Cadet had to answer such a survey rather than send the applications at their own will was because the military had known that the students who had come from college had a wider vision, and would not easily apply for such a mission. Some college graduates, who did not volunteer willingly, were pressured to circle "desire earnestly" in the survey.
Many former students from Japan's elite colleges such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Keio and Waseda volunteered as kamikaze pilots in World War II. An estimated one thousand Japanese student soldiers died as kamikaze pilots, so Ogawa's decision was not uncommon.
On the morning of 11 May 1945, USS Bunker Hill
, flagship of Vice-Admiral Marc Mitscher
, participated as part of TG 58.3 in carrier operations in the sea 122 kilometres east of Okinawa, supporting the Okinawa invasion. Bunker Hill and the Fifth Fleet sortie
d from Ulithi in February, 1945, for strikes against Okinawa and the Home Islands. Bunker Hill had provided aircraft for the massive effort to sink the Japanese battleship Yamato
on 7 April.
On May 11, the Japanese Navy carried out a massive kamikaze mission called Kikusui Rokugi Sakusen (Operation Kikusui "Floating Chrysanthemums" No. 6). On the early morning, pilots of the Tokkōtai suicide squadrons took off from their bases, among those pilots, there was Kiyoshi Ogawa, a member of the Dai-nana Showa-tai Squadron, flying a Zero, modified to carry a 250 kg (550-pound) bomb underneath the fuselage. That day, Ensign Ogawa was ready to make a suicide attack on American ships near Okinawa.
Off the coast of Okinawa, Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, along with Yasunori Seizo
, another Zero pilot of his squadron, sighted the Bunker Hill. On Mother's Day, May 11, 1945, Bunker Hill had been at sea and in continuous action for 58 days. With a slight lull that day, the ship was at condition One Easy, with ventilators open and the crew, including Vice-Admiral Marc Mitscher, commander of Task Force 58, trying to relax. At 1004, Marine Captain James E. Swett
, flying his F4U-1C Corsair on Combat air patrol
, frantically radioed "Alert! Alert! Two planes diving on the Bunker Hill!"
Ogawa and his comrade had just swept down on the Bunker Hill so quickly that her gunners barely had time to respond. Ogawa's wingman released a 550-lb bomb which smashed through the flight deck and out the side, exploding just above the water. The aircraft crashed into the flight deck and skidded over the side, destroying nearly all of the 34 fully armed and fueled planes parked on the flight deck. At the same time, Ogawa was completing his dive with his Zero through the AA fire, aiming for the flight deck near the bridge of the ship to cause the most damage, as kamikaze pilots were trained to do. At nearly a vertical dive, Ogawa dropped his 550-lb bomb just before impact with the flight deck, crashing near the island at about 1005 hours.
The 550 pound bomb penetrated Bunker Hill's flight deck and exploded. Gasoline fires flamed up and several explosions occurred. The bomb smashed through the flight deck, but did not make it through the hangar deck where it exploded. Bunker Hill's armor protecting the machinery spaces below had proven effective. A significant improvement of ESSEX Class ships like the Bunker Hill over the other US carriers at the time was that they were equipped with a more heavily armored deck, plus a second armored deck on the hangar level designed to detonate bombs before they reached the vital machinery and electronic spaces below.
Ogawa's bomb blew a large hole into the flightdeck close to the bridge. On the flagbridge, Vice-Admiral Mitscher barely escaped wounds, but lost many of his staff officers including his own medical officer.
Many of Bunker Hill's pilots died either in their planes or inside the skin of the ship during the attack. 30 fighter pilots of Bunker Hill's Air Group CVG-84 were killed in the ready room by the explosion of the bomb which immediately burned all oxygen in the room and asphyxiated the men.
His flagship in bad shape, Vice-Admiral Mitscher decided to leave the boat as long as he still could. Destroyer English (DD-696) went close alongside Bunker Hill, to help in fighting fires, and to take off Vice-Admiral Mitscher, transferring his flag to the newly repaired carrier Enterprise.
Of the Bunker Hill's crew, 373 perished, 264 were wounded and 43 were missing. Hundreds of crewmen had been either blown overboard or were forced to jump to escape the fires. Captain James E. Swett
collected about 24 of the circling airplanes, mostly F4U Corsairs, and they dropped dye markers and Mae Wests for the crewmen swimming in the oily water around the stricken carrier. The Bunker Hill finally was saved and the crippled carrier sailed the 7,000 miles to Puget Sound Navy Yard under her own steam. Upon arrival, she was called the "most extensively damaged ship" ever to enter the yard, her repairs took the rest of the war.
According to Robert Schock, a US Navy diver
on board the Bunker Hill, Ensign Ogawa's aircraft was not completely destroyed after penetrating the flight deck, but remained partially intact and did not catch fire. Instead, the wreckage rested on the hangar deck of Bunker Hill, half awash in water, with live wires sparking all around. Schock found Ensign Ogawa dead in the cockpit, and removed Ogawa's name tag from his flight suit, along with a letter Ogawa carried with him on his last mission, some photographs, a belt from Ogawa's parachute harness, and a large smashed aviator watch of the type that Japanese pilots wore around their necks.
On March 27, 2001, Yoko Ogawa, Ogawa's grandniece, her mother, and Masao Kunimine, an old college friend of Kiyoshi Ogawa, received these personal effects in San Francisco, nearly 56 years after Operation Kikusui No. 6.
In his last letter, Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa wrote to his parents:
"I will make a sortie
, flying over those calm clouds in a peaceful emotion. I can think about neither life nor death. A man should die once, and no day is more honorable than today to dedicate myself for the eternal cause. (...) I will go to the front smiling. On the day of the sortie too, and forever."
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese Naval Aviator Ensign of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. As a Kamikaze pilot
Kamikaze
The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....
, Ensign Ogawa's final action took place on May 11, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa
Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...
. Piloting a bomb-laden Mitsubishi Zero fighter during Operation Kikusui No. 6, Ogawa at the age of 22 went through antiaircraft fire and attacked the US aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17)
USS Bunker Hill (CV-17)
USS Bunker Hill was one of 24 s built during World War II for the United States Navy. The ship, the second US Navy ship to bear the name, was named for the Battle of Bunker Hill. Bunker Hill was commissioned in May 1943, and served in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning...
. He dropped a 550-lb bomb, never pulled out of the dive, and crashed deliberately into the flight deck near the control tower of the US aircraft carrier. The bomb penetrated Bunker Hill's flight deck and exploded, gasoline fires flamed up and several explosions took place, when re-armed and re-fueled planes on deck exploded and caught fire. Nearly 400 US crewmen died with Ensign Ogawa and the ship was knocked out of the war.
Early life
Kiyoshi Ogawa was born on October 23, 1922 in the Gunma PrefectureGunma Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the northwest corner of the Kantō region on Honshu island. Its capital is Maebashi.- History :The remains of a Paleolithic man were found at Iwajuku, Gunma Prefecture, in the early 20th century and there is a public museum there.Japan was without horses until...
, located in the Kantō region
Kanto region
The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. The region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. Within its boundaries, slightly more than 40 percent of the land area is the Kantō Plain....
on Honshū
Honshu
is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...
island, as a youngest child of the Ogawa family. Kiyoshi did well in schools, and entered the private Waseda University
Waseda University
, abbreviated as , is one of the most prestigious private universities in Japan and Asia. Its main campuses are located in the northern part of Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as Tokyo Senmon Gakko, the institution was renamed "Waseda University" in 1902. It is known for its liberal climate...
, located on the northern side of Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
's Shinjuku Ward, near Kagurazaka, 60 years ago the Geisha
Geisha
, Geiko or Geigi are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.-Terms:...
center of Tokyo. Since 1902 Waseda is widely regarded as one of the two most well-known private universities in Japan.
Service in World War II
After Graduation from Waseda, Kiyoshi Ogawa departed as a gakuto (student-soldier, a college student who became a soldier or officer during his academic years) and received his training as a 14th graduate of Aviation Reserve Student. Special Flight Officer Probationary Cadets (the graduates from college) tended to have more liberal ideas, not having been educated in military schools, and also were more aware of the world outside Japan. Although some officers were kind to student soldiers during training, many acted harshly toward them; once on the base, many Reserve Students were subjected to harsh corporal punishment on a daily basis, as any minor action that irritated a superior could be a cause for severe corporal punishment.Kiyoshi Ogawa graduated from Aviation Reserve Student flight training, appointed an Ensign, he was assigned to the 306th Fighter Squadron of the Imperial Japanese Navy's 721st Kokutai at Kanoya.
Ogawa then volunteered for Imperial Japanese Navy
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...
Kamikaze Special Attack Force (tokubetsu kōgeki tai) Dai 7 Showa-tai (No. 7 Showa-tai Force).
Since the Kamikaze attacks were to be made only if the pilots had volunteered, and could not be commanded, there were two methods to collect volunteers. One was an application for all pilots in general, and another was a survey for the Special Flight Officer Probationary Cadets (College graduates like Kiyoshi Ogawa) only. The survey asked: "Do you desire earnestly/wish/do not wish to be involved in the Kamikaze attacks?" Kiyoshi Ogawa had to circle one of the three choices, or leave the paper blank. The reason that the Special Flight Officer Probationary Cadet had to answer such a survey rather than send the applications at their own will was because the military had known that the students who had come from college had a wider vision, and would not easily apply for such a mission. Some college graduates, who did not volunteer willingly, were pressured to circle "desire earnestly" in the survey.
Many former students from Japan's elite colleges such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Keio and Waseda volunteered as kamikaze pilots in World War II. An estimated one thousand Japanese student soldiers died as kamikaze pilots, so Ogawa's decision was not uncommon.
Ogawa's kamikaze attack
USS Bunker Hill (CV-17)
USS Bunker Hill was one of 24 s built during World War II for the United States Navy. The ship, the second US Navy ship to bear the name, was named for the Battle of Bunker Hill. Bunker Hill was commissioned in May 1943, and served in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning...
, flagship of Vice-Admiral Marc Mitscher
Marc Mitscher
Admiral Marc Andrew "Pete" Mitscher was an admiral in the United States Navy who served as commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force in the Pacific in the latter half of World War II.-Early life and career:...
, participated as part of TG 58.3 in carrier operations in the sea 122 kilometres east of Okinawa, supporting the Okinawa invasion. Bunker Hill and the Fifth Fleet sortie
Sortie
Sortie is a term for deployment or dispatch of one military unit, be it an aircraft, ship, or troops from a strongpoint. The sortie, whether by one or more aircraft or vessels, usually has a specific mission....
d from Ulithi in February, 1945, for strikes against Okinawa and the Home Islands. Bunker Hill had provided aircraft for the massive effort to sink the Japanese battleship Yamato
Japanese battleship Yamato
, named after the ancient Japanese Yamato Province, was the lead ship of the Yamato class of battleships that served with the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She and her sister ship, Musashi, were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed, displacing...
on 7 April.
On May 11, the Japanese Navy carried out a massive kamikaze mission called Kikusui Rokugi Sakusen (Operation Kikusui "Floating Chrysanthemums" No. 6). On the early morning, pilots of the Tokkōtai suicide squadrons took off from their bases, among those pilots, there was Kiyoshi Ogawa, a member of the Dai-nana Showa-tai Squadron, flying a Zero, modified to carry a 250 kg (550-pound) bomb underneath the fuselage. That day, Ensign Ogawa was ready to make a suicide attack on American ships near Okinawa.
Off the coast of Okinawa, Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, along with Yasunori Seizo
Yasunori Seizo
Lieutenant Junior Grade Yasunori Seizo was a Japanese student who joined the Imperial Japanese Navy, and on May 11, 1945 was ordered to fly a kamikaze mission during the Battle of Okinawa near the end of World War II. Kamikaze pilots were generally 18-20 years old, poorly trained, and flew poorly...
, another Zero pilot of his squadron, sighted the Bunker Hill. On Mother's Day, May 11, 1945, Bunker Hill had been at sea and in continuous action for 58 days. With a slight lull that day, the ship was at condition One Easy, with ventilators open and the crew, including Vice-Admiral Marc Mitscher, commander of Task Force 58, trying to relax. At 1004, Marine Captain James E. Swett
James E. Swett
James Elms Swett was a United States Marine Corps fighter pilot and ace during World War II. He was awarded the United States' highest military decoration— the Medal of Honor — for actions while a division flight leader in VMF-221 over Guadalcanal on April 7, 1943.Subsequently he...
, flying his F4U-1C Corsair on Combat air patrol
Combat air patrol
Combat air patrol is a type of flying mission for fighter aircraft.A combat air patrol is an aircraft patrol provided over an objective area, over the force protected, over the critical area of a combat zone, or over an air defense area, for the purpose of intercepting and destroying hostile...
, frantically radioed "Alert! Alert! Two planes diving on the Bunker Hill!"
Ogawa and his comrade had just swept down on the Bunker Hill so quickly that her gunners barely had time to respond. Ogawa's wingman released a 550-lb bomb which smashed through the flight deck and out the side, exploding just above the water. The aircraft crashed into the flight deck and skidded over the side, destroying nearly all of the 34 fully armed and fueled planes parked on the flight deck. At the same time, Ogawa was completing his dive with his Zero through the AA fire, aiming for the flight deck near the bridge of the ship to cause the most damage, as kamikaze pilots were trained to do. At nearly a vertical dive, Ogawa dropped his 550-lb bomb just before impact with the flight deck, crashing near the island at about 1005 hours.
Ogawa's bomb blew a large hole into the flightdeck close to the bridge. On the flagbridge, Vice-Admiral Mitscher barely escaped wounds, but lost many of his staff officers including his own medical officer.
Many of Bunker Hill's pilots died either in their planes or inside the skin of the ship during the attack. 30 fighter pilots of Bunker Hill's Air Group CVG-84 were killed in the ready room by the explosion of the bomb which immediately burned all oxygen in the room and asphyxiated the men.
His flagship in bad shape, Vice-Admiral Mitscher decided to leave the boat as long as he still could. Destroyer English (DD-696) went close alongside Bunker Hill, to help in fighting fires, and to take off Vice-Admiral Mitscher, transferring his flag to the newly repaired carrier Enterprise.
Of the Bunker Hill's crew, 373 perished, 264 were wounded and 43 were missing. Hundreds of crewmen had been either blown overboard or were forced to jump to escape the fires. Captain James E. Swett
James E. Swett
James Elms Swett was a United States Marine Corps fighter pilot and ace during World War II. He was awarded the United States' highest military decoration— the Medal of Honor — for actions while a division flight leader in VMF-221 over Guadalcanal on April 7, 1943.Subsequently he...
collected about 24 of the circling airplanes, mostly F4U Corsairs, and they dropped dye markers and Mae Wests for the crewmen swimming in the oily water around the stricken carrier. The Bunker Hill finally was saved and the crippled carrier sailed the 7,000 miles to Puget Sound Navy Yard under her own steam. Upon arrival, she was called the "most extensively damaged ship" ever to enter the yard, her repairs took the rest of the war.
According to Robert Schock, a US Navy diver
United States Navy Diver
A Navy Diver refers to a member of the community of Unrestricted Line Officer Officers, Medical Corps Officers and enlisted personnel in the United States Navy who are qualified in underwater open/closed circuit breathing apparatus, deep sea type diving apparatus and saturation diving. Personnel...
on board the Bunker Hill, Ensign Ogawa's aircraft was not completely destroyed after penetrating the flight deck, but remained partially intact and did not catch fire. Instead, the wreckage rested on the hangar deck of Bunker Hill, half awash in water, with live wires sparking all around. Schock found Ensign Ogawa dead in the cockpit, and removed Ogawa's name tag from his flight suit, along with a letter Ogawa carried with him on his last mission, some photographs, a belt from Ogawa's parachute harness, and a large smashed aviator watch of the type that Japanese pilots wore around their necks.
On March 27, 2001, Yoko Ogawa, Ogawa's grandniece, her mother, and Masao Kunimine, an old college friend of Kiyoshi Ogawa, received these personal effects in San Francisco, nearly 56 years after Operation Kikusui No. 6.
In his last letter, Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa wrote to his parents:
"I will make a sortie
Sortie
Sortie is a term for deployment or dispatch of one military unit, be it an aircraft, ship, or troops from a strongpoint. The sortie, whether by one or more aircraft or vessels, usually has a specific mission....
, flying over those calm clouds in a peaceful emotion. I can think about neither life nor death. A man should die once, and no day is more honorable than today to dedicate myself for the eternal cause. (...) I will go to the front smiling. On the day of the sortie too, and forever."