Yukio Araki

Yukio Araki (Araki Yukio in Japanese 荒木幸雄) (March 10, 1928, Kiryo, Japan - May 27, 1945 at sea performing his mission or crashing into the USS Braine) was a Japanese military aviator and one of the youngest kamikaze pilots of World War II.

Araki was born on March 10, 1928 in Kiryu, Gunma Prefecture, Japan. At the age of fifteen he joined the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service's Youth Pilot Training Program. 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), in Korea. He became one of the youngest kamikaze pilots during the Second World War when, at the age of seventeen, Araki took off with his outfit, 72nd Shinbu Squadron (第七十二振武隊 Dai 72 Shinbu-tai or 第72振武隊 Dai Nanajūni Shinbu-tai), from Bansei Airfield, at Bansei (now part of Minamisatsuma), Kawanabe District, Kagoshima Prefecture on the Satsuma Peninsula of Kyushu, Japan in a Tachikawa Ki-54 twin-engine training aircraft on 27 May 1945. It has been speculated that his plane was one of two that struck the destroyer USS Braine (DD-630), 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:

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.

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