Pulled from the Wreckage of a B-29 in Japan, a Battered Canteen Has Become a Symbol of Healing
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THE BLACKENED CANTEEN Pulled from the wreckage of a B-29 in Japan, a battered canteen has become a symbol of healing. BY DENNIS HOLLIER ON DECEMBER 6, THE DAY BEFORE the offi cial understand why, we have look back to events that commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the attack happened 70 years earlier, in the last weeks of what on Pearl Harbor, a different kind of ceremony will the older veterans still call simply The War. take place at the USS Arizona Memorial. It will likely be one of those sparkling, clear Hawaiian mornings, ON JUNE 19, 1945, 137 B-29s from the 314th not so different from that fateful winter day in 1941. Bombardment Wing of the U.S. Army Air Forces As many as 150 people will gather in the shade of thundered off the runway in Guam, headed for the the memorial to listen to a series of speeches about coast of Japan. Their target was the port of Shizuoka, world peace and friendship between former enemies. a modest city about halfway between Tokyo and Military brass will attend, as will representatives Osaka. Up to that point in the war, Shizuoka had faced from the Japanese Consulate and even a few nona- only sporadic bombing; this time would be different. genarian aviators. But the keynote speaker will be Shortly after midnight on June 20, 13,217 incendiary an elderly Japanese doctor named Hiroya Sugano, bombs rained down on the sleeping city. Shizuoka, who will deliver his brief, poignant remarks in halt- like most Japanese cities of the time, was dominated ing English. At the end of the ceremony, Sugano will by homes made largely of wood and paper, so the step to the rail, twist the cap off a battered, blackened confl agration destroyed the center of the city in a canteen, and, joined by World War II veterans, pour matter of minutes. Nearly 2,000 civilians died that a couple of pints of good Kentucky bourbon into the night; 20,000 more were injured. glittering harbor. The Americans also suffered a catastrophe. During It will be a modest ceremony, much simpler than the air raid, two of the B-29s collided over Shizuoka, the rituals of the following day. Even so, some of the crashing to the ground on a farm along the banks of veterans in the audience will be moved to tears. To the Abe river. All 23 airmen died. HUBENTHAL/USAF CHRISTOPHER SGT. STAFF 6 | AIR & SPACE airspacemag.com SUGANO WAS 12 YEARS OLD the night of the At the USS Arizona Memorial in December 2015, Shizuoka air raid. Speaking over the phone, with Ryoji Japanese physician Hiroya Sugano, assisted by Koike, a Japanese interpreter at the Pacifi c Aviation World War II veterans, pours bourbon from a canteen Museum, acting as translator, he describes the expe- (opposite) pulled from the wreckage of two B-29s. rience. “I was still in the sixth grade, but I remember that night very clearly because it was so terrible.” close as possible, but the soldiers had the area secured. Sugano says he and his family were in a bomb Still, I saw at least three of the airmen burned on the shelter by the river when the two B-29s collided. “I ground. You know, the Japanese were pretty small at remember someone screaming, ‘Something is falling that time, so my fi rst impression, as a 12-year-old, was, down from the sky!’ There was this mid-air collision, ‘How come these Americans are so huge?’ I clearly and we all heard something crash into the ground remember thinking two things. The fi rst was: What with a big boom. I was very scared. The crash was only kind of food were they eating, because they were big, about 100 meters from the shelter, so it was very loud.” muscled guys. In Japan, at the end of the war, there In the morning, the survivors emerged to survey was almost no food. I remember having nothing to the ruined city and investigate the bomber wreckage. eat but leaves sometimes, so I was kind of jealous of Young Sugano rushed to the crash site. Like many the Americans. Japanese boys at the time, he loved airplanes, and “The second thing I remember thinking was about his heroes were Zero fi ghter pilots. The carnage in my grandfather. He was a military doctor during the the fi elds affected him deeply. second Russo-Japanese War. Japan won that war, but “It was probably fi ve or six hours after the col- my grandfather took care of the wounded soldiers on lision,” he says, “but the aircraft were still on fi re. I the Russian side, not just the Japanese. My grandfa- PACIFIC AVIATION MUSEUM AVIATION PACIFIC remember the smell from the fuel. We tried to get as ther told me, ‘When the enemy is wounded or loses PEARL HARBOR 75 COLLECTOR’S EDITION AIR & SPACE | 7 From November 1944 until war’s end, B-29s by the hundreds took off from the Marianas to strike Japanese targets. In March 1945, the Superfortresses began fi rebombing and burned whole cities to the ground. his life, he’s no longer the enemy, he’s just a man.’ ” remained there had the war not ended a few weeks Hiroya Sugano wasn’t the only one thinking later. On August 15, 1945, when Japan surrendered, this way. One of the fi rst civilians on the scene that all the prisoners were released. Now it was time to morning was Fukumatsu Itoh, 53, a Shizuoka city rebuild the ruined country and create a new national councilman. His elder brother owned the farm where idea for the Japanese people. Itoh had an idea what the aircraft had crashed, so he was there to see the that future should look like. volunteers collect the bodies and lay them out by “After the war ended,” Sugano says, “Mr. Itoh the river. He was also there for the mass cremations, kept the wooden cross on his elder brother’s farm. of the Japanese and the American dead. According to Every year, on June 20, Mr. Itoh would hold a private Sugano, even though Itoh was Buddhist, he offered ceremony for both the Japanese civilians who died to take the cremated remains of the Americans and and for the B-29 airmen. Sometimes he prayed alone; give them a proper Christian burial. sometimes a few people would come to pray with him. The other civilians were very angry with him, After saying his prayers, Mr. Itoh would pour a little Sugano says. “But Mr. Itoh said, ‘Even enemy soldiers, whiskey from the blackened canteen onto the cross.” when they lose their lives, their spirits become the same as anyone else.’ So he made a wooden cross for YEARS AFTER THE WAR, YOUNG SUGANO left them and started to pray. Later—I can’t remember Shizuoka for medical school. He wanted to become a if it was two or three days after the crash—Mr. Itoh doctor, like his grandfather. He also indulged his love found the American canteen among the debris at of airplanes by joining an auxiliary group of the offi - the crash site. It was black and distorted from the fi re cial Zero pilots association. His membership allowed and appeared to have the imprint of someone’s hand him to meet some of his old aviation heroes, includ- melted into its surface. But Mr. Itoh kept it.” ing the vice president of the association, renowned In the angry aftermath of the bombing, Mr. Itoh’s ace Saburo Sakai, whose autobiography, Samurai!, respect for the Americans was deeply unpopular co-written with American author Martin Caidin, had among the citizens of Shizuoka, and after he buried been published in the United States. Through Sakai their remains, he was taken to jail. He might have and some of the other Zero pilots, he also got to know NARA 8 | AIR & SPACE airspacemag.com several American aviators who had fought in World before so several participants could meet one another War II. These contacts would become useful later. and develop personal relationships. The next day, on In 1971, Sugano, then 38, returned to Shizuoka to the mountain, Itoh would loosen the cap of the black- open a medical practice. One day the young doctor ened canteen and pour a little Kentucky bourbon on was hiking on Shizuhata when he came upon a pair the memorials. There would be speeches and warm of memorials: one for the 2,000 Japanese who died in feelings and the occasional tear. This small ceremony the attack he experienced as a boy and one for the 23 had become a symbol of a growing friendship between dead American airmen he had seen in the smoldering two former enemies. wreckage. Immediately he tried to learn more about “It was a big success,” Sugano says. “Now the these markers. Someone told him about Itoh—now a Shizuoka families understand this is a joint com- Buddhist monk—and his unusual ceremony. The next memoration between the two countries. Nobody day Sugano went to introduce himself to the old man. talks about ‘the enemy’ anymore.” “Mr. Itoh was able to acquire land on Shizuhata Mountain, a hill in the middle of Shizuoka city. It EACH YEAR, THE CEREMONY CONTINUED to grow, took nearly 20 years, but he did it all with his personal and the friendship between young doctor and old money. In today’s money, [the land] would cost almost monk grew with it.