Yukio Araki


Yukio Araki was a Japanese aviator of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. As a kamikaze pilot and member of the 72nd Shinbu Squadron, Araki's final mission took place on May 27, 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa when he flew his bomb-laden Mitsubishi Ki-51 to deliberately crash into the USS Braine. It is speculated that Araki and one other pilot are responsible for hitting the ship, killing 66 of its crew. At 17 years old, Araki is one of the youngest kamikaze pilots of World War II.

Biography

Araki Yukio was born on March 10, 1928 in Miyamae, Kiryu, Gunma Prefecture. At the age of fifteen he joined the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service's Youth Pilot Training Program. In or around September 1943, he began training at the Tachiarai Air Base. After he graduated he started working at Metabaru Air Field, and in 1944 he got work at Heijo, Korea. On 27 May 1945, Araki took off from Bansei Airfield, at Bansei, Kawanabe District, Kagoshima Prefecture in a Mitsubishi Ki-51 on a kamikaze mission. At the age of seventeen, Araki is one of the youngest known kamikaze pilots. It has been speculated that his plane was one of two that struck the USS Braine, killing 66 of its crew; however, the ship did not sink.
Araki had been home in April 1945, and left letters for his family, to be opened upon the news of his death. The letter to his parents noted:
Prior to his mission, and in accordance with the custom of the kamikaze pilots, Araki cut a lock of his hair and clipped his fingernails, which together were to be sent to his parents following his death. These were sent to his family for burial in a cemetery in Kiryu.

Cultural references

In 2004, Tsuneyuki Mori published Araki's biography, entitled Yuki Died at 17 in a Kamikaze Attack2=ユキは十七歳 特攻で死んだ - 子犬よさらば、愛しきいのち. Mori is one of Japan's most noted authors of books about the kamikaze pilots and their world.