Okinawa Kamikaze Pilot's Daughter Wants to See Father Again

   Nakagusuku, Okinawa Pref., June 23 (Jiji Press)--"I want to see my father again," says a daughter of an Okinawan man who died as a kamikaze suicide attack pilot about 80 years ago. "The last time I saw my father was when I was 6 years old."
   Mie Goya, an 86-year-old resident of Nakagusuku, Okinawa Prefecture, recalls that her father, Kotoku, a bamboo basket craftsman, was "really sweet" and made a bamboo swing for his children.
   "He played with me a lot, and I never saw him get angry," Goya went on to say.
   Kotoku was drafted around February 1945, and temporarily returned home in April of that year before heading out on a kamikaze mission. Goya remembers him patting his children including her on their heads and saying, "Take care. I won't come back again."
   Later, Goya received news of his death in battle, but the details of how and where he died are still unknown. None of his remains were found. In place of remains, a stone was buried in his grave.

(2025/06/23-18:24)

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