日本男児、藤井一の誇り
藤井一は茨城県の農家の長男として生まれ、親は農家を継がせたかったが、本人が陸軍軍人を志願します。歩兵として入隊しますが、優秀だった藤井は陸軍航空士官学校に入校します。
卒業後は熊谷陸軍飛行学校に赴任し、中隊長として少年飛行兵に訓育を行います。藤井はパイロットではなかったので生徒に教えたのは精神訓話でした。藤井がパイロットを志願しなかったのは歩兵科機関銃隊だった頃、支那戦線で迫撃砲の破片を左手に負い、操縦桿が握れなくなったからでした。
当時の精神訓話といえば軍人精神を叩き込むことも大きな狙いであり、軍人勅諭にそった厳しい鍛錬がありました。藤井は特攻攻撃が実施される前から口癖のように「事あらば敵陣、或いは敵艦に自爆せよ、中隊長もかならず行く」と繰り返し言っていました。忠誠心が強く熱血漢の藤井は、本来心根は優しくても教育は厳しかったと言います。･･････
我が国の特攻作戦が実施されるようになると、大切な可愛い教え子を自分の手で死地へ送り込むことになります。藤井は苦しみ、自責の念にも駆られます。「俺もかならず後から行く」と言って生徒を行かせておきながら、自分はただ座して教育するだけだ。藤井の性格からすると、その繰り返しに耐えられなくなっていました。
「このままでは自分は教え子との約束を果たすことはできない」他の教官たちは何の疑問も矛盾も抱かずにやっていることでしたが、自分に厳しい藤井にはそういう自分が許せませんでした。
「自分の教えを守って、次々と将来ある純粋な教え子たちが毎日、敵艦に突っ込んで行く。あいつも、あいつも・・・。 俺はいつまでこんなことをしているのか」
藤井はついに特攻を志願します。しかし、既に二人の子どもがいる年長の将校は受け入れられませんでした。さらには学校を仕切っている重要な任務を離れられては困るからでした。「自分の立場での責任を果たせ」という軍の言い分は当然でしたが、藤井はどうしても生徒だけを死なせることができませんでした。
生徒と教師の間の命をかけた誓い、その男の誓いを藤井はどうしても破るわけにはいかなかったのです。断わられても藤井は特攻を志願します。 藤井の妻 福子は高崎の商家に生まれ、お嬢さんとして育ちました。戦争中は野戦看護婦として活躍していました。支那で負傷した藤井の世話をしたのが福子でした。これがきっかけで結婚します。
藤井は妻の福子と三歳になる一子、生後四ヵ月の千恵子の四人で暮らしていました。福子は夫が特攻を志願していることを知り驚きます。学生たちとの約束のために、妻と二人の子供を見捨てて、軍人なのだから戦場に行けば戦死することは覚悟していますが、特攻の許可が出ない立場の人間が、何度も特攻志願をするというのは、死ぬために行こうとしているとしか思えませんでした。
二人の子を持つ母として特攻志願することに納得できず、夫を説得します。しかし藤井の性格を誰よりもわかっている福子は藤井が一度決意すると最後まで変わらないこともわかっていました。
そして、昭和１９年１２月１５日の朝、藤井の家の近くを流れる荒川に、二人の子供を紐で結びつけた母子三人の痛ましい溺死体が浮かびました。晴れ着を着せた１歳の次女千恵子をおんぶし、３歳の長女一子の手と自分の手をひもで結んだ３人の痛ましい姿でした。 すぐに熊谷飛行学校に連絡されました。知らせを受けた藤井中尉は鳴田准尉と一緒に現場に駆けつけました。師走の荒川は凍てついた風が吹きつけ物凄い寒さでした。流れの中を一昼夜も漂っていた母子三人の遺体は、三人一緒に紐で結ばれたままそこに並んでいました。
うめくような声で藤井が言います。「俺は、今日は涙を流すかも知れない。今日だけは勘弁してくれ。わかってくれ」藤井は涙を隠すように、三人の前にうずくまって、やさしくこするように白い肌についていた砂を手で払います。
いつも豪快な藤井がうめくように泣く･･･。嶋田は藤井の深い悲しみが伝わって声も出ません。遺書は二枚の便箋に書かれていました。「私たちがいたのでは後顧の憂いになり、存分の活躍ができないことでしょう。お先に行って待っています」藤井の妻らしい気丈な遺書でした。
葬式は軍の幹部と家族と隣り組だけで藤井の教え子たちの姿はありませんでした。それは参列することを禁じられていたからです。この事件には新聞記者も飛びついてきましたが、記事は一切新聞やラジオにも出ません。軍と政府の通告によって正式に報道することを差し止められたからです。
藤井は葬式が終わった夜、死んでいった一子に手紙を書きました。
「冷え十二月の風の吹き飛ぶ日 荒川の河原の露と消し命。母とともに殉国の血に燃ゆる父の意志に添って、一足先に父に殉じた哀れにも悲しい、然も笑っている如く喜んで、母とともに消え去った命がいとほしい。父も近くお前たちの後を追って行けることだろう。嫌がらずに今度は父の暖かい懐で、だっこしてねんねしようね。それまで泣かずに待っていてください。千恵子ちゃんが泣いたら、よくお守りしなさい。ではしばらく左様なら。父ちゃんは戦地で立派な手柄を立ててお土産にして参ります。では、一子ちゃんも、千恵子ちゃんも、それまで待ってて頂戴」
けっして読まれることのない、死んだ娘への手紙です。･･････
すでに誰もが、藤井には死しかないと理解できました。藤井は自らの小指を切って血書嘆願による３度目の特攻志願を行います。
今度は軍も志願を受理しました。藤井中尉を特攻隊員として異例の任命をします。
藤井中尉は熊谷飛行学校で生徒達に大変人気がありました。教えは厳しいが熱血漢で情に厚いということで、生徒達は藤井中尉を信頼し、尊敬し、あこがれを持っていました。
藤井が熊谷を去る時は中隊長室に生徒を一人一人呼び、家族のことや思い出話を聞きました。そして最後には「これからの日本を頼むぞ」と言って、若い教え子たちを励ましました。
藤井中尉の送別会では学校の幹部や生徒達で集めたお金で軍刀を贈りました。藤井中尉は大変喜んでいたといいます。しかし、あの事件のことは公になっていないので誰も口にしません。ただ、生徒達は噂で既に知っていました。別れを惜しんで流す涙はさらにつらいものでした。 ･･････
昭和二十年五月二十七日
藤井中尉は陸軍特別攻撃隊 第四十五振武隊快心隊の隊長として知覧飛行場に進出。
五月二十八日早朝
第九次総攻撃に加わり、隊員10名と共に沖縄へ出撃。
「われ突入する」の電信を最後に、還らぬ人となりました。
藤井一 29歳。
The Pride of a Japanese Boy, Hajime Fujii
Hajime Fujii was born the eldest son of a farmer in Ibaraki Prefecture. His parents wanted him to take over the farm, but he volunteered to become a soldier in the army. Although he enlisted as an infantryman, Fujii excelled and entered the Army Aviation Academy.
After graduation, he was assigned to the Kumagaya Military Aviation School, where he served as a squadron leader and gave lessons to young airmen. Since Fujii was not a pilot, he taught the students a spiritual cautionary tale. Fujii did not want to become a pilot because he had lost control of his left hand when he was hit by a piece of mortar shell on the Chinese front when he was a member of the infantry machine gun squadron.
The main purpose of spiritual instruction at that time was to instill a military spirit, and there was strict training in accordance with the Imperial Instructions for Military Personnel. Even before the suicide attacks were launched, Fujii was fond of repeating, "If anything goes wrong, blow yourself up in enemy lines or on enemy ships, and your company commander will certainly be there. He was a loyal and hot-blooded man, and although he was gentle at heart, he was strict in his education. ・・・・・・
When our country's suicide missions began to be implemented, he would send his precious and lovely pupils to their deaths by his own hand. Fujii suffers and is also driven by remorse. He says, "I'll definitely be there later," and sends his students away, only to sit back and educate them himself. Fujii's character could no longer stand the repetition of such a situation.
Other instructors did what they did without question or contradiction, but Fujii, who was very strict with himself, could not allow himself to do so.
He could not forgive himself for being so strict. "One after another, pure and promising students were running into enemy vessels every day, following my teachings. He, he, he…. How long am I going to do this?
Fujii finally volunteered to go on a suicide mission. However, the senior officer, who already had two children, did not accept him. He also did not want to leave his important duty as in charge of the school. Although the military was right to insist that Fujii "fulfill the responsibilities of his position," he could not let the students die alone.
Fujii could not break the man's oath, the oath of life between student and teacher. Even though he was rejected, Fujii volunteered to go on a suicide mission. Fujii's wife, Fukuko, was born into a merchant family in Takasaki and grew up as a young lady. During the war, she worked as a field nurse. It was Fukuko who took care of Fujii when he was injured in Shina. This led to their marriage.
Fujii lived with his wife, Fukuko, their three-year-old son Ichiko, and four-month-old Chieko. Fukuko was surprised to learn that her husband had volunteered to go on a suicide mission. He abandoned his wife and two children in order to fulfill a promise he made to his students. As a military man, he was prepared to die in battle, but for a man in a position where he could not get permission to go on a suicide mission to repeatedly volunteer for a suicide mission, it seemed to me that he was trying to go there to die.
As a mother of two children, she is not convinced that she should volunteer to go on suicide missions, and she tries to persuade her husband. However, Fukuko, who knew Fujii's character better than anyone else, knew that once Fujii made up her mind, she would not change until the end.
Then, on the morning of December 15, 1944, a tragic drowned body of a mother and her three children, two of them tied together with a string, floated in the Arakawa River near Fujii's house. They were carrying on their backs their second daughter, Chieko, who was one year old and dressed for the occasion, and the hands of their eldest daughter, Kazuko, who was three years old, and their own hands tied together with string. The Kumagaya Flight School was immediately notified. Upon receiving the news, Lt. Fujii rushed to the scene together with Lt. The Arakawa River was extremely cold with a freezing wind blowing. The bodies of a mother and her three children, who had been floating in the current for a day and night, lay there, tied together by a string.
Fujii said in a groaning voice, "I might shed a tear today. I may shed a tear or two today. Please don't let me cry just today. Fujii, hiding his tears, crouched down in front of the three men and gently rubbed the sand from his white skin with his hands.
The always dynamic Fujii groaned and cried…. Shimada could feel Fujii's deep grief and could not speak. The will was written on two sheets of letterhead. We will not be able to play an active role in the future if we are here. I will go ahead and wait for you." It was a stout will, typical of Fujii's wife.
The funeral was attended only by military officers, family members, and neighbors, and none of Fujii's students were present. Fujii's students were not present because they were forbidden to attend. Newspaper reporters jumped on the incident, but no articles appeared in any newspapers or on the radio. The military and the government had notified them that they were officially forbidden to report the incident.
On the night after the funeral, Fujii wrote a letter to Kazuko, who had died.
On a cold December day when the wind blows, my life is extinguished by the dew on the Arakawa riverbank. I wish for the life of my father who was martyred along with my mother in the blood of martyrdom, who was martyred ahead of my father, who was sad and pathetic, who was happy as if he were smiling, and who disappeared along with my mother. My father will soon be able to follow in your footsteps. I hope you will not be reluctant to sleep in my father's warm bosom this time, holding him in your arms. Until then, please wait without crying. If Chieko cries, protect her well. Well then, good-bye for a while. Father will go to the battlefield with a great achievement as a souvenir. So, Kazuko and Chieko, please wait until then.
This is a letter to his dead daughter, which will never be read. ・・・・・・
Everyone could already understand that Fujii had no choice but to die. Fujii cut off his own pinky finger and volunteered to go on a suicide mission for the third time in a written plea in blood.
This time, the military accepted the petition. The military accepted his application, and assigned Lt. Fujii as a member of the Kamikaze Pilots, an unprecedented step.
Lt. Fujii was very popular among the students at the Kumagaya Flight School. He was strict in his teaching, but passionate and compassionate, and the students trusted, respected, and admired him.
When Fujii left Kumagaya, he called each student to the company commander's office and asked them about their families and memories. Finally, he encouraged his young students by saying, "Take care of Japan from now on.
At the farewell party for Lt. Fujii, we presented him with a military sword using money raised by the school's executives and students. Lt. Fujii was said to have been very pleased with the gift. However, since the incident had not been made public, no one spoke about it. However, the students already knew about it through rumors. The tears they shed as they said goodbye were even more painful. ・・・・・・
May 27, 1945
Lt. Fujii advanced to Chiran Airfield as the commander of the Army Special Attack Force 45th Fuributai Kaishin Tai.
Early morning of May 28
Joined the 9th General Offensive and sailed for Okinawa with 10 men.
He died at the end of the mission with the message, "We are going in.
Hajime Fujii was 29 years old.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
