I used to teach Self Defense Force members at their base in Kengun so am aware of its role in WWII, but this article from Kumanichi expanded my knowledge on the, uh, expansion of its airfield.
Apparently, British prisoners of war from a nearby POW camp (commonly known as Kumamoto POW camp) were rushed to build an airfield. A now-elderly man who witnessed the construction remembers it as such: “Prisoners of war dig up the hill while the military police watch every 50 meters. The prisoners seemed hungry and made a gesture of eating. I stole the eyes of the military police and gave the prisoners the wild grass that grew on the roadside, and I was very happy to see them eat it.”
I didn’t know that the airfield took part in the “kamikaze attacks” on Okinawa at the end of the war as part of the “Giretsu Ukutai”(義烈空挺隊) - literally, “exhausting duty corps”). On May 24, 1945, 12 heavy bombers flew from Kumamoto to Okinawa; only one made it. The field was also used for bombing runs on Saipan in 1944.
After the end of the war, the airfield was requisitioned by the US Army. It was returned in 1960 and relaunched as Kumamoto Airport until 1971, when the airport moved to its current location in Mashiki.
Kumanichi reports on the rediscovery of a runway on land which was later used to construct Kokutai Dourou, adjacent the Red Cross Hospital. The article is an interesting peek into Kumamoto’s not-so-distant past. - William
