FUKUOKA--For 20 years, former TV director Akiko Baba harbored uncertainty over a documentary she made about the men who trained to pilot a Japanese suicide speedboat in World War II.

The former pilots of the "Shinyo" attack boats she interviewed expressed regrets that they could not die gallantly but were relieved to have survived the war.

While making the TV program, Baba had not understood their "conflicted suffering," but later realized it was causing her own heart to ache.

So, after she retired, she revisited her former stories and published a nonfiction book about the Shinyo survivors, called “Daremo Shiranai Tokko: Shimao Toshio no Shinyo Taiken” (Suicidal attack which nobody knows: Toshio Shimao’s “Shinyo” experience) last fall.

Baba, 69, a Fukuoka resident, is a former TV director of Television Nishinippon Corp. (TNC) who made documentary programs, including those about the Imperial Japanese Navy's Shinyo speedboats, developed near the end of World War II. 

She graduated from a university in the prefecture in 1973 and joined TNC as an announcer. But Baba wanted to make documentary programs, so she moved to the production section in 1993.

She made a documentary program on the New Guinea battlefields during the war, called “Hotaru no Ki” (Firefly trees), and received the education ministry’s Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists in fiscal 1997.

HIGH-SPEED SUICIDE BOATS

The Shinyo were loaded with explosives in the bow and designed to be driven at high speeds and rammed into enemy ships.

About 27,000 soldiers among 113 units were ready to undertake a suicide attack, but most did not have the chance before the war ended.

One of the men was the novelist Toshio Shimao (1917-1986). He was the 18th Shinyo unit leader in the naval base on Kakeromajima island, south of Amami-Oshima island.

Based on his experiences at the time, Shimao published his novels including “Shuppatsu wa Tsuini Otozurezu” (The day to attack didn’t come after all) and “Shinyo Hasshin” (Shinyo starts).

Baba is a big fan of Shimao and made a documentary program on Shimao and his wife, Miho (1919-2007), with an affiliated station.

After that, she also made the program on Shinyo, called “Senso no Yokoana: Maboroshi no Tokkotei Shinyo no Sokuseki” (War cave: History of phantom suicidal attack boat Shinyo) in 2002.

Her purpose to make this documentary was to document the Shinyo project, which has been virtually forgotten today. She assembled the program mainly through interviews with about 20 former soldiers.

When she finished making it, she felt that she accomplished her purpose and was satisfied with her product. But later on, she began thinking that she should have explored deeper what was in their minds for the show.

REVISITING THE SHINYO

Two years ago, Baba obtained a miniature book of Toshio Shimao’s short story, called “Onihage” (Demon story). Tatsuo Ikeda, a painter she knows well, drew the book's illustrations.

Ikeda was also a former suicide attack soldier in the Imperial Japanese Navy. This coincidence made her feel that she has to leave a written record of the Shinyo for posterity.

When she was writing the book, she reread the interviews she had done for the TV programs and researched memos from that time.

The only person she was able to make contact with among those she interviewed 17 years before was Shiro Arai, who lives in Saitama Prefecture.

Arai, 92, published a photo book titled “Ningenheiki Shinyo Tokkotai” (Human weapon: Shinyo suicidal attack troop), making a great effort to document the existence of the Shinyo.

“Now, no one knows about suicidal attack soldiers,” he said. “Furthermore, who knows Shinyo?”

Arai seemed to have been resigned to recording the memories of the Shinyo suicide attack units.

So, Baba felt that if she did not pass on their legacy, no one would remember them.

She wrote her book, based on the descriptions about Shinyo in Shimao works, and included the interviews with former soldiers done 17 years before, additional content she uncovered for the book and her own opinions.

Many people helped her when she made documentary programs. She started writing her books after her retirement because she wanted to leave something behind in gratitude for the people who talked to her honestly and those whose footage was not aired in the TV programs.

Her previous books were “Hotaru no Ki” published in 2012, “Chikuho Ikari Tateko Monogatari” (Chikuho Ikari vertical mine tunnel story) in 2013, and “Kaiko no Shiro” (Silkworm castle) in 2015.

The book on Shinyo is her fourth published work.

“I have already written on all the subjects I should pick up,” Baba said. “My health is not very good, so the book on Shinyo could be my last one.”