No special attack. Major Tadasi Minobe, Fuyo Troops

Fuyo (Hibiscus mutabilis)

Hi, Dear Folks!

A really interesting article has been serialized in the blog of Nezusan, Yoshiyuki Onagi. This seems to be very helpful for people all over the world to know what happened in the Japanese Air Force in the era of Pacific War or WWII. So, I translated it into English by using the Google translator with some corrections.

特攻せず。芙蓉部隊美濃部正少佐

No special attack. Major Tadasi Minobe, Fuyo Troops

The late Air General Minobe has a very good face. Being patient with whatever you say and enduring with "I understand it for those who understand", there is a good feature like this god of Air General Minobe. It seems like that.

Air General Tadashi Minobe
Image source = https://www.jiji.com/jc/v4?id=fuyou201508b&p=14-1-sakai


The Japanese Navy has a squadron called the “Fuyobutai”(Fuyo troops) that played a major role until the end of the war.
This squadron is introduced as
"Air Corps full of humanism that refused to special attack"
by NHK, Fuji TV, TV Tokyo, etc.

Indeed, this corps does not make a special attack, accumulates strength until the end of the war, and continues to aggressively attack the US military, but the captain and the founder of the corps is Tadashi Minobe.
However, the Navy Major clearly denies the humanism theory by saying:
“There are people who often criticize the special tactics after the war.
It's a bad idea to win or lose
It is just a post-war compliant leadership philosophy after the war.
For those who were in the military register at that time,
you must say that the tactics you can lose are out of the question.
As long as there is no alternative I should be able to do
I am still thinking about the special attack again.
The severity of the battle is not so easy
to be able to be criticized by humanism.
--- Tadashi Minobe "

Major Minobe survived after the war, was placed in the Air Self-Defense Force, and was finally given the guidance of the next generation as an air general.
Tadashi Minobe has his maiden name as Ota.
Married in November 1941 (Showa 16), the last name changed to Minobe.
The Naval Academy was in the 64th period and was initially a pilot of a water reconnaissance aircraft.
In November 1943(Showa 18), he was appointed as the flight commander of the Air Corps equipped with a seaplane from the Solomon Island, where he used a sea reconnaissance aircraft to conduct night attacks against enemy nights and enemy bases, and gained great results.
In January 1944(Showa 19), he bombed the enemy airfields by just one surface plane with a great success.
I think that a little explanation is necessary about this, so I will derail a little.
At the turning point of the Great East Asia War, after the war, many intellectuals raised the “Midway Battle” in June 1942(Showa 17).
On Midway, the Imperial Navy, which had been a series of consecutive wins, had a great defeat, so there may be no help for it.
However, it was only four aircraft carriers and 285 aircraft that the Japanese Navy lost on Midway.
At this point, the Imperial Navy still had enough power.
In fact, it was the Battle of the Solomon Islands that took place after the Midway Sea Battle that Japan had consumed much more.
This battle took place over a year from August 1942(Showa 17) to November 1943(Showa 18). Japan lost 80,000 soldiers due to the death of the war, and lost 50 ships and 1500 aircraft.
Of course, the US military side has done a lot of damage, and 11,000 people were killed in the US military announcement, 40 ships lost and 800 aircraft were lost.
In short, both the Japanese and US troops fought in a devastating battle, and eventually Japan abandoned its base such as Guadalcanal, and the front was reduced and withdrawn.
So why did both troops fight so much in Solomon Islands?
The reason is that the US military “switched tactics” in a word.
Until then, the U.S. Army had been primarily engaged in operations by the U.S. Navy's MTF to advance into Japanese territory.
However, the Japanese side that looked down as a yellow monkey is too strong.
The US Navy was bombarded, shut down and sunk one after another by aircraft carriers, ships, and aircraft.
So the US military thought about the construction of an airfield on land.
First, build an airfield behind the Japanese army.
From there, launch an airplane and hit the Japanese base.
Build a US airfield on the front while the Japanese army is fighting.
If you are an aircraft carrier, you will be sunk by a powerful Japanese air fleet, and you will build an airfield on land.
Since the southern islands are flea islands, the basic land is flat.
Bring a bulldozer there, cut down the trees at once, spread the iron plate and make a runway.
Ordinarily, even from the viewpoint of our modern sensation, creating a single airfield in Narita can imagine a large construction that requires an enormous amount of time.
They realized it overnight.
For the Japanese army at that time, it was an event of “No way”.
The land runway was easily disguised by placing a net with dead leaves on it.
So from the Japanese army, I don't know where the US military planes will fly from.
It's a very simple and easy-to-understand strategy, but with this simple strategy, Japan has lost over 7000 aircraft and 7200 pilots.
It was not a midway ratio.
With this US military operation, Japan would withdraw all remaining air force from the region in a year and a half.
Major Minobe, who returned to the inland in December 1944(Showa 19), intends to reverse this operation performed by the US military to protect the Japanese mainland.
He first realized the construction of an aircraft base for front line attacks behind the mainland of Japan.
It is not an air defense base for mainland defense.
A base for attack.
The place is Fujieda City, Shizuoka Prefecture, the current Air Self-Defense Force Shizuhama Base.
From December 1944(Showa 19) to January 1945(Showa 20), first, excellent pilots were collected at this base.
In addition, “Suisei(meaning Comet)” equipped with a water-cooled engine, which had been neglected due to many failures while being produced as a shipboard bomber, was gathered at this base.

Suisei

And in January, we established a saddle unit that officially has three squadrons, and we conduct drills of intense descent bombing based here.
In March of that year (Showa 20), the Battle of Okinawa began.
Major Minobe will advance the front base of the troops to Kanoya in Kagoshima Prefecture.
The US Mobile Task Force, gathered in Okinawa, tried to bomb the Japanese air force from the Kyushu area to the Seto Inland Sea with over a thousand aircraft, and tried to give a big blow.
The Japanese side launched a special attack on the US fleet and intercepted the US Air Corps with an elite unit by the new fighter “Shiden Kai”.

Shiden Kai

On March 19, 1945(Showa 20), the special attack aircraft attacked the US large aircraft carrier Franklin and the Wasp, wrecked Franklin, raised the battle of 832 people killed, and the Wasp also wrecked and killed 302 people. I give you.
In addition, on May 11th, the US military's large aircraft carrier, Bunker Hill, was wrecked.
There is also a remarkable result of the troops during this period.
At Kanoya Airfield where the Fuyo Corps advanced, in order to avoid air raids on the airfield, not only was it used, but temporary huts and trees were placed on the runway and camouflaged, and livestock was drawn into the runway to make it look like a ranch The plane was also completely hidden by tree branches, and all gasoline was removed from the plane that arrived to minimize damage from fire.
And when the special attack aircraft flew away, the special attack aircraft was sprinkled with metal pieces scattered in the airspace completely different from the attack direction of the special attack aircraft so that the radar was not supplemented by the US military, leading to the successful special attack.
We also actively introduced rockets and new bombs that explode in the air and flicker debris.
Thus,
On the 6th April, 1945(Showa 20), we sank the US cruisers around Kadena Coast.
On the 12th, bombed the Kadena base occupied by the US military.
On the same day, the bomb was dropped on Kadena and Yomitan bases on the same day.
From the 20th to the 26th of the same day, they acted on the enemy, intercepted the enemy aircraft,
On the 27th, they bombed the North Airfield, bombed the US forces at the Naka Airfield and Iejima Airfield, shot the US fleet in Kerama, and destroyed the planes that were moored.
On the 30th, the enemy night fighter was speared out and pulled to the end of the fuel, attacked the airfield and wrecked the enemy aircraft carrier.
In this way, until the day before the end of the war on August 15th 1945(Showa 20), the Fuyo troops made 630 aircraft and made a huge battle.
The damage to the battle results is only 47 aircraft.
Moreover, at the end of the war, there were still 50 remaining forces.
In the end of the war, when the supplies were scarce and the war became harsh, the Samurai Corps did not specially attack, but bombed and intercepted with the tactics of human knowledge.
After the war, the Japanese brainwashing plan by GHQ started, and in Japan, the media and the left-wing experts were bad at this, it was all the military that caused the war, special attacks etc. There was a growing tone, such as proof that the life was disregarded.
Rather than (note), ethologists with such a theory actively appeared in the media, tailored publications as bestsellers, and performed public opinion operations. Meanwhile, the opinions of scholars and scholars who are decent have been completely sealed off. These top-level advertising works still have a strong influence on our country, and as a result, the opinions that are highly evaluated by the world at this moment (so-called trendy opinions) have been completely removed after five years. I was told that it was a lie. The fact that the plating peels off in just 5 years means that anyone can tell you that it is a lie if you think a little. The reason why I don't understand it is that Japanese people stopped thinking and lost their insight.
When this happens, it is not the special attack until the end that is attracting attention, but the presence of the Samurai unit that has been committed to regular attacks and has achieved great results, and the presence of Major Minobe.
The media and left-wing scholars managed to pull out Major Minobe to make him a hero who resisted the special attack of “disregarding human life” during the war.
However, Major Minobe did not compromise the public opinion trend at all.
No matter how much public opinion, he did not bend his belief that he grew up as an imperial soldier.
In this way, Major Minobe entered the Air Self-Defense Force when it was organized, and finally climbed up to the air general.
He says:
"Human education at the Naval Academy before the war
and human relationship after graduation
were much more excellent
than those of any post-war educational institution or organization. "
Air general Minobe is a genius air general who was born in Japan.
He continued to nurture junior pilots silently without talking about his activities in the media, without bragging at all, and without being danced by left scholars and biased media. I passed away.
It is said that the post-war generation has become a generation that cannot understood anything unless you phrase something.
Japanese people in our time after the war has a tendency to think as
"I don't know unless I explain it properly"
"If you don't know, it's better not to explain properly"
If you are silent, you will only make a mistake.
I don't know what to say.
I don't know if I look at the manual for my company.
I'm doing it according to the manual, so if it fails, it's because of the manual, not my fault ...
However, the culture originally in Japan is not.
"I understand without saying"
"The person watching is watching"
"If you don't know what you can understand without saying it, you don't learn enough if you don't understand it."
It was the old Japanese who thought so.
Our generation is the one that was said
"That is the reason that only Japanese people can use.
Not valid in an internationalized society"
and have grown up.
So this is the common sense of generations.
But is that true?
The Shosoin, a national treasure, does not have a sturdy key.
All that is there is a paper seal.
The key is just paper.
There's just paper on it, and nobody tries to steal it.
Even if you don't have a manual, there are no notes, warnings, etc., there's just a piece of paper on it, and no one will think it will be stolen.
"It's natural to say nothing,"
I think it was Japanese society.
Isn't it a society that is ideal for humanity?
Air General Minobe does not take pride in his personality until he dies, and his normal attack is only modest to win along with his special attack.
Some scholars tried to use that feat as a tool for criticism of the special attack and the military, but Air General Minobe did not try to deal with it.
There seems to have been stress.
So, lateAir General Minobe has been performing stomach ulcer surgery several times.
However, he still doesn't excuse or explain, “If you know it, you can understand it.”
The late General Minobe has a very good face.
Being patient with whatever you say and enduring with "I understand it for those who understand", there is a good feature like this god of Air General Minobe.
It seems like that.
People are relieved when they are good.
But once you get down, you are said by very harsh words.
This was the case with former Imperial soldiers.
However, he refused to respond to such criticism, slander, or the invitation of unscrupulous people trying to use it.
"I understand it for those who understand".
He died after fulfilling his mission.
The old Japanese culture that the post-war generation denied may, in fact, be a culture with universality that the world really needs.
I think that way.
And we will pursue a really busy road all the way to the final moment.
This is what it means to live as a Japanese, and I think it is the most needed now.
* This article is a renewal of the October 2011 article.
Thank you for reading.

Thus, I think Westerners and people all over the world should know real histories before, during and after Great East War as well as Pacific War. Of course, so should we the Japanese as well.