Middle-class Japanese Family: Naval Pilot Trainee (1944)
Figure 1.-- This is a portait of a midle-class Japanese family, we belive in 1944. It was from a a photograh album kept by the eldest son, many of the trainees kept these albums, He apparently enlisted in the Navy during early-1944. This of course was not the best time to enlist in the Japanese military. Click on the image to see the eldest son's Yokaren class. What strikes us in looking at the family is the normality of the image, except of course the military iniform which in 1944 was not unusual. Note that there is bo overt sign of affection among family members such as holding hands.
This is a portait of a midle-clas Japanese family, we belive in 1944. It was froma a photograh kept by the eldest son. He apparently enlisted in the Navy during early-1944. This of course was not the best time to enlist in the Japanese military. The youth was trained at Yokaren Naval Aviation Training School. He was in the 13th class. We thought that might mean 1943 as the facility was opened in 1930, but the dealer was sure about 1944. Numerous Yokaren-trained pilots carried out Kamikaze suiside attacks on Allied ships. One reportt suggests that about 80 percent of the graduates of the Yokaren died in battle. And most of the forces of the special attack (Kamikaze) formation in the last years of war were made up of 13th generation students. W normally only see the young men ritually drinking a cup of saki and then flying off to their death and then as they descended on the American hips, Thus glimpse of the normality of the families from which they came is fascinating. The album does not have any images of flight training, perhaps that came later. Wedo not know the name of the family or where they lived. Rgre is wruing on many pages, but we can not read it.
