21-05-2025
Former Army Pilot Hopes for World Without War; ‘War Produces Nothing But Victims'
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Reiji Kitajima talks about his wartime experiences while showing pictures from his days at the Mito army aviation school, on April 18 in Fujisawa.
During the Pacific War, Reiji Kitajima was sent to Manila and other battlefronts in the south as an army fighter plane pilot.
At 102 years old, Kitajima, who lives in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, recalls why he became a pilot: to fulfill his childhood dream of flying. He also remembers how he gradually came to see shooting down enemy fighter plane as a matter of course.
With almost 80 years having passed since the end of the war, there are fewer and fewer people who can share their wartime experiences. 'War produces nothing but victims,' he said. 'We must continue to think about what we can do to stop war.'
Kitajima was born in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1923, the sixth of nine children to parents who were green tea farmers. After graduating from a higher elementary school, he left his parents' house in search of a stable life and began working at a post office in present-day Fujisawa.
Although the Sino-Japanese War had begun in 1937, he believed wars had nothing to do with him. However, his life totally changed when he was 18 years old. He saw a call for volunteer soldiers in a newspaper and was inspired to become a pilot so he could fly out of the small world he had lived in so far. He volunteered for the military without a sense of the realness of war.
He passed a test and was admitted to a pilot training school. After studying at the school, he went on to the Mito army aviation school, where in addition to receiving flight training and classroom lectures on meteorology and other subjects, he listened to sermons by a Buddhist monk. The monk lived in the neighborhood and visited the school every day to preach the teachings of militarism. 'Your honorable death in battle will help protect your family and Japan,' the monk said. Kitajima started to become more aware of the war, and his fear of death diminished.
Courtesy of Reiji Kitajima
A group photo taken when Kitajima was in the Mito army aviation school
In March 1943, he graduated from the aviation school and was assigned to an Army Air Force unit in the south. While in the unit, he mainly flew a Hayabusa Type 1 Fighter and a Shoki Type 2 Single-Seat Fighter and experienced aerial dogfights in Manila, Java, New Guinea and other places. He always displayed a photograph of his father and mother in the cockpit. During combat in the air between Manila and Borneo, his plane experienced engine trouble and made an emergency landing on sea. He thought no one would come to save him, but he was eventually rescued by a ship and narrowly avoided death.
Whenever news of a comrade's death reached his base, he always thought, 'That will be me someday.' For respite, he enjoyed Java chocolates, which he had never tasted in Japan, the sweet flavor distracting him from the war.
Around the beginning of 1945, fewer than 20 Japanese fighter planes had to intercept twice as many enemy fighter planes at a higher frequency than ever before. Kitajima felt strongly that the war was deteriorating for Japan. Many of his fellow pilots who had headed back to Japan on resupply missions did not return, sparking concerns over a shortage of war supplies. Every time this happened, he would come close to losing all hope. However, he encouraged himself by thinking, 'We have to win.'
End of war
Courtesy of Reiji Kitajima
Reiji Kitajima when he was in the army
Kitajima learned that the war had ended when he was in Java. Tears fell from his eyes as he thought, 'I can return to Japan alive.' He spent six months as a captive in Singapore before returning home to his parents in Shizuoka Prefecture. His mother welcomed him with a hug.
After the war, he worked at a machinery component manufacturer in Fujisawa until he reached the age of retirement. In addition to being involved in activities that contributed to the community, he helped to establish the Chiran Peace Museum in Kagoshima Prefecture since he had experiences in escorting fighter planes on the kamikaze special attack mission during the war.
Kitajima now lives in a nursing home in Fujisawa. Even after 80 years, he still recalls being in the cockpit, pushing a button with his left hand to shoot and seeing an enemy fighter plane hit by the bullets falling slowly. During the war, he thought he did what he had to do. Now, however, he feels that killing is absolutely something that must not be done.
'I only survived the war by chance,' he said. 'I want our society based on the fundamental principle of not waging war.'
