Letter To Tome Torihama (1902-1992) Poem by Jan FitzGerald

Letter to Tome Torihama (1902-1992)
Owner of Tomiya Restaurant, near Chiran Air Base, who
cared for kamikaze (tokkotai)pilots hours before their last flight
(and later, for American GIs.)


How grateful
mothers must have been to you, Tome-san,
your tears hidden by clouds of steam,
stirring your special rice
stained red by azuki beans,
for their sons' last meal.
Nothing too good for your boys,
your fireflies.

What were your thoughts
as you watched these young men in flight suits
drink miso soup, and stroke the family cat?
How did a mother's heart cope with this,
knowing that out on the airfield
their flying coffins awaited?

It must have been painful
to hear Hiroshi play his bamboo flute
under your soft paper lanterns,
and Katsuo say,
I'm going to the next world at twenty,
but of the years I should have had,
I leave them to you.

How did it feel to watch them
walk off into the night towards the airfield,
their white scarves in the moonlight,
final letters to their mothers
in your hand?

In the morning
it was you, Tome-san, at the runway,
waving a tattered Rising Sun, calling
Goodbye Nobutaka, Chuji, Yukitoshi! Saburo!
as they roared into a sky
that finished at Okinawa.