2RHPZ
12-06-2005, 06:21 PM
Lieutenant Zenji Abe: A Japanese Pilot Remembers
As Lieutenant Zenji Abe left the deck of the Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi and approached Pearl Harbor in his Aichi dive bomber, he recalled that everything was proceeding 'just like an exercise.'
As told by Zenji Abe to Warren R. Schmidt
Zenji Abe, one of the pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor, was born in 1916 in a small mountain village in Yamaguchi prefecture on the southern tip of the island of Honshu, the son of a sake brewer. He grew up in a time of worldwide depression, and his father was financially hard pressed to provide for his family. Nevertheless, Abe's father saved enough to send Abe's older brother through high school and college. As Abe said, "My father was not skillful in his business, but he paid earnest attention to the education of his children."
After completing the sixth grade in primary school, Abe passed the entrance examination for the Bocho Military School, which was a private school founded and operated by general officers of the Japanese army in Yamaguchi prefecture. He subsequently attended Yamaguchi High School, financed by a fund provided by the Bocho Military School, and at age 16, Abe took the entrance examination for the Imperial Naval Academy. He was successful in spite of competition that eliminated 39 out of 40 applicants.
Abe's mother had died when he was 9, and only his father was on hand when he entered the Imperial Naval Academy in April 1933. For four years Abe pursued a curriculum of naval subjects as well as language, mathematics, physics, history and other cultural subjects in the Spartan atmosphere of the samurai. (One saying goes, "The samurai glories in honorable poverty but takes a toothpick when he has not eaten.")
As an ensign, he enrolled in the Naval Air School; he graduated a year later as a naval pilot. Abe was assigned to the carrier Soryu and flew many missions in the Sino-Japanese War. He participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor and later took part in raids on Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians, as well as battles in the Indian Ocean, Australia and the Pacific. During the Battle of the Philippine Sea on June 19, 1944, Abe flew a one-way, long-range attack mission off the carrier Junyo. He made a forced landing on the island of Rota, between Saipan and Guam, and lived in a cave on the island until the end of the war, when he was taken prisoner and held for 15 months until he was repatriated to Japan. During his time as a POW, his wife believed him dead.
HistoryNet (http://historynet.com/wwii/bljapanesepilotremembers/)
As Lieutenant Zenji Abe left the deck of the Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi and approached Pearl Harbor in his Aichi dive bomber, he recalled that everything was proceeding 'just like an exercise.'
As told by Zenji Abe to Warren R. Schmidt
Zenji Abe, one of the pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor, was born in 1916 in a small mountain village in Yamaguchi prefecture on the southern tip of the island of Honshu, the son of a sake brewer. He grew up in a time of worldwide depression, and his father was financially hard pressed to provide for his family. Nevertheless, Abe's father saved enough to send Abe's older brother through high school and college. As Abe said, "My father was not skillful in his business, but he paid earnest attention to the education of his children."
After completing the sixth grade in primary school, Abe passed the entrance examination for the Bocho Military School, which was a private school founded and operated by general officers of the Japanese army in Yamaguchi prefecture. He subsequently attended Yamaguchi High School, financed by a fund provided by the Bocho Military School, and at age 16, Abe took the entrance examination for the Imperial Naval Academy. He was successful in spite of competition that eliminated 39 out of 40 applicants.
Abe's mother had died when he was 9, and only his father was on hand when he entered the Imperial Naval Academy in April 1933. For four years Abe pursued a curriculum of naval subjects as well as language, mathematics, physics, history and other cultural subjects in the Spartan atmosphere of the samurai. (One saying goes, "The samurai glories in honorable poverty but takes a toothpick when he has not eaten.")
As an ensign, he enrolled in the Naval Air School; he graduated a year later as a naval pilot. Abe was assigned to the carrier Soryu and flew many missions in the Sino-Japanese War. He participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor and later took part in raids on Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians, as well as battles in the Indian Ocean, Australia and the Pacific. During the Battle of the Philippine Sea on June 19, 1944, Abe flew a one-way, long-range attack mission off the carrier Junyo. He made a forced landing on the island of Rota, between Saipan and Guam, and lived in a cave on the island until the end of the war, when he was taken prisoner and held for 15 months until he was repatriated to Japan. During his time as a POW, his wife believed him dead.
HistoryNet (http://historynet.com/wwii/bljapanesepilotremembers/)