During the early dawn on March 18, 1945, Mrs. Misato Nishiyama had a dream that she clung to her son Norio and then in an instant he disappeared. Perhaps on his journey to death he became a spirit and returned to his hometown to embrace his mother. They say that on July 30, 1943, the night before Norio Nishiyama left for Kagoshima to enter the Naval Flight Training Program, he said, "Mom, I want to sleep next to you." He quietly took her hands as he said, "Mom, I hope you'll be fine." His mother Misato says that the warmth of those soft hands still remain even now after more than fifty years have passed. I was the youngest of six children, so I was spoiled as a child. I remember sleeping together with my mother until I entered elementary school. From Norio's position as the oldest son, he had to be patient as each day his sister and brothers born after him received affection from his mother. Then at his final parting, he probably wanted to be hugged by his mother and receive all of her affection. What dreams may the mother and son have had that night?
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The inspection by Prince Asaakira Kuni is recorded as
happening between March 9 and 14. After the inspection was completed, the
students in the Naval Flight Training Program graduated. Norio wrote to his
family while remembering the faces of each one when he left his family after
his last visit. This letter was delivered on March 27, 1944, to his home in
Yokoshima Village in Tamana-gun, Kumamoto Prefecture. His father says that
perhaps his son wrote it on the evening of his sixteenth birthday on March 24.
Next, a postcard from Shanghai was delivered on April 16, 1944, via the Sasebo Post Office. There was also a postcard delivered on November 26 from Toyohashi Naval Air Base in Aichi Prefecture where he had been posted after completing the flight-training program. This postcard said that he was working hard in training together again with Mr. Hiroo and Mr. Yamaguchi, classmates of his at Tamana Middle School. On March 9, 1945, a brief post card arrived from Toyohashi Air Base that said, "Since I am going to Miyazaki, I will stop by home on the way. I do not need a short sword but rather a muffler." Other than this, nothing like a last letter ever was delivered. Probably there was no time to write a last letter because a special attack unit was formed suddenly based on reports that the enemy task force was approaching Kyushu. Our class that entered the Navy in August did not receive New Year's vacation, but we were granted a special one-week vacation at the end of February before graduating from the Flight Training Program. After this, almost nobody received formal permission for a break to return home. There were some who returned home briefly on the way from one assignment to another, but these were special cases. |
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