Yukio Araki
{{short description|Japanese Kamikaze Pilot}}
{{Infobox military person
|name=Yukio Araki
|birth_date={{birth date|1928|03|10}}
|death_date= {{Death date and age|1945|05|27|1928|03|10}}
|birth_place= Miyamae-cho, Kiryū, Gunma, Japan
|death_place= {{USS|Braine|DD-630}}, off Okinawa, Empire of Japan
|image=Yukioarakikamikazepilot17.jpg
|caption=Portrait of Corporal Yukio Araki. c.1943
|nickname=
|allegiance= {{Flag|Empire of Japan}}
|branch={{army|Empire of Japan}}
|serviceyears=1944–1945
|rank=Corporal
|commands=
|unit= 72nd Shinbu Squadron
|battles=
{{tree list}}
- World War II
- Battle of Okinawa{{KIA}}
{{tree list/end}}
|awards=
|family=
|laterwork=
}}
File:72nd Shinbu 1945 Kamikaze.jpg
Yukio Araki ({{langx|ja|荒木 幸雄}}, Araki Yukio, March 10, 1928 – May 27, 1945) 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 died on May 27, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa when he deliberately crashed his bomb-laden Mitsubishi Ki-51 into the USS Braine. It is speculated that Araki and one other pilot hit and damaged the ship, killing 66 of its crew. At 17, Araki was one of the youngest kamikaze pilots.
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.{{cite web|url=http://www.kamikazeimages.net/books/japanese/yuki/index.htm|title=Yuki wa juunanasai tokkou de shinda (Yuki died at 17 in a kamikaze attack)|publisher=Kamikaze Images|access-date=22 March 2016|archive-date=25 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225172659/http://www.kamikazeimages.net/books/japanese/yuki/index.htm|url-status=live}} 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 (now known as Pyongyang), Korea.{{cite web|url=https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Kamikaze-Attacks-Pacific-Theater-WWII|title=Kamikaze Attacks – Pacific Theater, WWII|last=Bos|first=Carole|publisher=AwesomeStories.com|access-date=22 March 2016|archive-date=4 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404210653/https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/Kamikaze-Attacks-Pacific-Theater-WWII|url-status=dead}} On 27 May 1945, Araki took off from Bansei Airfield, at Bansei (now part of Minamisatsuma), Kawanabe District, Kagoshima Prefecture in a Mitsubishi Ki-51 on a kamikaze mission.{{cite web|url=http://www.kamikazeimages.net/writings/araki/index.htm|title=Last Letters of Corporal Yukio Araki|last=Gordon|first=Bill|date=May 2005|publisher=Kamikaze Images|access-date=23 March 2016|archive-date=16 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216011446/http://www.kamikazeimages.net/writings/araki/index.htm|url-status=live}} 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:
:Please find pleasure in your desire for my loyalty to the emperor and devotion to parents.
:I have no regrets. I just go forward on my path.
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.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}
Cultural references
In 2004, Tsuneyuki Mori published Araki's biography, entitled Yuki Died at 17 in a Kamikaze Attack {{Nihongo|2=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.[http://www.kamikazeimages.net/books/japanese/yuki/index.htm Yuki Died at 17 in a Kamikaze Attack] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225172659/http://www.kamikazeimages.net/books/japanese/yuki/index.htm |date=2018-12-25}} from the Kamikaze Images website accessed on June 12, 2016.
See also
References
External links
- {{Commonscatinline}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20090306053547/http://www.tcr.org/tcr/essays/EPrize_Kamikaze.pdf "Who Became Kamikaze Pilots, and How Did They Feel Towards Their Suicide Mission" by Mako Sasaki (1997, 36 pdfs)] makes use of Araki's diary and letters
{{DEFAULTSORT:Araki, Yukio}}
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Category:Japanese military personnel who died by suicide
Category:Japanese World War II pilots
Category:People from Gunma Prefecture
Category:People from Kiryū, Gunma
Category:People of the Shōwa era
Category:People from the Empire of Japan
Category:Imperial Japanese Army personnel killed in World War II