The former bomber pilot Masamitsu Yoshiokathe last survivor among the approximately 770 crew members of the Japanese air force who attacked the US military port of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941. he died at the age of 106. His passing, as reported today by the New York Times, was announced on social media on August 28 by the Japanese journalist and writer Takashi Hayasaki. He provided no other details about the death.
“When I met him last year, he spoke many precious words with a dignified presence,” Hayasaki wrote. «Have the Japanese forgotten something important since the end of the war? What is war? What is peace? What is life? Rest in peace.” In the nearly 80 years since the end of World War II, Yoshioka, who lived in Tokyo’s Adachi neighborhood, said he has visited Yasukuni Shrine to pray for the souls of his fellow soldiers, including Japanese who died during the attack on American base in Hawaii.
He was 23 when he took part in the attack that triggered America’s declaration of war on Japan. By the time Pearl Harbor became visible, black smoke was already rising from U.S. ships hit by the first wave of Japan’s surprise attack. The crew of a Nakajima B5N2 torpedo bomber prepared for launch. The 23-year-old navigator and bombardier on board, Masamitsu Yoshioka, had practiced his part of the maneuver for months without knowing the mission. He was stunned when he was told that his carrier group would be part of a massive attack on American territory that included more than 300 Japanese warplanes.
«Blood came out of my head, recalled Yoshioka. “I knew this meant a gigantic war.” The Nakajima’s pilot stabilized his wings about 35 feet above the water, and Yoshioka released the nearly 1,800-pound torpedo in the direction of the battleship USS Utah, which was being used as a training ship. When Yoshioka and the crew of the Nakajima returned to the aircraft carrier Soryu, a total of 58 men had died aboard the Utah, among the more than 2,400 US soldiers and civilians killed and nearly 1,800 wounded in the blitz of December 7, 1941. «Now I think of the men who they were on board the ships we torpedoed. I think about the people who died because of me. They were young, just like us,” Yoshioka said in a 2023 interview with Japan Forward, which described him as the last Japanese veteran to survive the attack on Pearl Harbor. “I’m very sorry,” Yoshioka added: “I hope that let there be no more wars.”
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