Haranomachi Army Airfield
原町陸軍飛行場
Former Imperial Japanese Army airfield in Minamisōma, Fukushima Prefecture, established in 1936 as the Hibarigahara Airfield and converted to a military flight training facility in 1940. During the final year of the Pacific War it served as a kamikaze special-attack training base, training pilots of 14 tokkōtai units that fought in the Philippines, off Okinawa and in the homeland. The Nakoso Fu-Go balloon bomb launch base lay about 90 km to the south on the same Hamadōri coast, though no operational link between the two is documented. A memorial at Jingasaki Park Cemetery, erected in 1971, records 71 airmen from the airfield who died in special-attack units.
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History
Haranomachi Army Airfield (原町陸軍飛行場) was an Imperial Japanese Army aviation facility located in what is now Haranomachi Ward, Minamisōma City, Fukushima Prefecture, in the Hamadōri coastal strip of northeastern Honshū. Its story spans from a civilian airstrip in the 1930s to a kamikaze training base at war's end, while the same Fukushima coast also hosted a launch site of the Fu-Go balloon bomb campaign.
Origins (1931–1940)
In 1931, local aviation enthusiasts began constructing a landing field on the Hibarigahara (雲雀ヶ原, "Skylark Plain") plateau northwest of Haranomachi town center. On November 4, 1936, the Hibarigahara Airfield was officially opened with six aircraft transferred from Tokorozawa Airfield in Saitama Prefecture. Initially operated under prefectural management, the field attracted growing military interest as Japan's war in China expanded. In June 1940 the Imperial Japanese Army requisitioned the site and redesignated it as the Haranomachi Branch of the Kumagaya Army Flight School (熊谷陸軍飛行学校原町分教場), beginning its transformation into a full military training installation.
Wartime Role (1940–1945)
The airfield served primarily as a pilot training facility, cycling through several administrative reorganizations as the war intensified. After the Kumagaya school it served successively as a branch field of the Akeno, Mito and Hokota Army flight schools, the last of which was reorganised in 1944 as the Hokota Instructional Flying Division (鉾田教導飛行師団). Aircraft types stationed at the base included the Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa (一式戦闘機「隼」), the Kawasaki Ki-45 Toyrū twin-engine fighter (二式複座戦闘機「屠龍」), and the Mitsubishi Ki-51 Shūgeki ground-attack aircraft (九九式襲撃機).
As the strategic situation deteriorated in late 1944, the airfield was converted into a homeland-defense special-attack (tokkōtai / 特攻) training base. Special-attack units were formed from men trained here, and young pilots were dispatched in successive waves to fly suicide missions against Allied naval forces in the Philippines and off Okinawa. First Lieutenant Yamamoto Takumi, who led the Kinnō-tai (勤皇隊) special-attack unit, is said to have written before departing on his final sortie: "美しき思いでの原町さらば" ("Farewell to cherished memories of Haranomachi"). According to the memorial at the site, 71 men from the airfield died as members of 14 special-attack units — six that fought in the Philippines, seven in the Battle of Okinawa and one in the homeland.
Balloon Bomb Corridor
The Hamadōri coast of Fukushima Prefecture, where Haranomachi is located, was central to another of Japan's unconventional wartime programmes: Operation Fu-Go (ふ号作戦), the intercontinental balloon bomb campaign of 1944–1945. The Third Battalion's launch base at Nakoso (勿来, present-day Iwaki City), approximately 90 km south of Haranomachi along the same Pacific coastline, was one of the three sites from which approximately 9,300 hydrogen-filled paper balloons carrying incendiary and antipersonnel bombs were released toward North America via the jet stream. No documented operational connection between the Haranomachi airfield and the balloon campaign has been identified; the two are linked only by their location on the same coast.
Air Raids and Destruction
On August 9–10, 1945, American carrier-based aircraft conducted devastating raids on the Haranomachi area. The airfield's main facilities, including hangars and barracks, were heavily damaged, and aircraft caught on the ground were destroyed. Haranomachi Station and civilian areas of the town also suffered significant damage.
Post-War and Present Day
After Japan's surrender, the airfield site was dismantled during the Allied Occupation and the land returned to agricultural and residential use. Today, the former runway area in the Baba, Honjinmae, Jingasaki, and Ōkido districts of Haranomachi Ward has been largely developed, with scattered concrete remnants of hangar foundations and the former main gate visible to the observant visitor.
A memorial (原町飛行場関係戦没者慰霊碑) was erected on August 15, 1971 at Jingasaki Park Cemetery (陣ヶ崎公園墓地) in Minamisōma by some seven hundred supporters nationwide. Its bronze tablets list the special-attack dead of the 14 units — 71 men — and its inscription honors the men of the airfield and of the Haramachi area who died in the war.