From my grandfather pennant 祖父のアルバムから

As my friends know, I love the old story. but most of my families aren't interested in the family history, so there aren't many old photos. Though it's really too bad, I know some things.

When I was the art university student, I decided to making a documentary film about my family for my graduation work.
Because my mother is the officer of the city hall, I was able to look at the family register shelf from far position, but the government has shred all records of 80 years ago in Japan. It was the law of the country. There is also the way to go to ancestor's temple(graves), but our graves already moved to current place. So I took other documentary film of our roots about Edo era. However, it's not this story that I want to tell now...

After about 10 years, I borrowed from my grandfather's old album from my grandmother. I performed a close-up of a photo, so I found the name of the battleship "内川艦軍本日大" was written on his pennant. When I was a kid, he talked this name to our sisters, but we have forgotten it over 15 years. I could remember it by his album photo.

Light Cruiser Sendai

It was before 1941 that a battleship name put on the sailor hat's pennant. The gilt lettering was simplified from gold coating on November 1 in 1942. and from need to conceal the position military unit name under a war regime, the pennant changed to "軍海国帝本日大" (this era's people read it from the right to the left). Thus, "内川艦軍本日大" means that 大日本軍艦川内(Great Imperial Japanese Battleship "Sendai").

The Japanese second-class cruiser were named from river. the first-class cruiser were the mountain name. the battleship(Yamato, Musashi, Fuso, etc) was the old Japanese country name. The aircraft carrier was named from the mythical flying animal, but it turned into mountains name from 1943.　

The exercise cruiser is the name of the Shinto shrine. The destroyer is weather, the ocean, the season name. The plant name was added to it in 1943. The second-class destroyer is the plant name. The torpedo boats were the bird name. The coastal defense ship name was the island. But there is the exception, too. (info in Japanese words)

Yes, my grandfather (from my mother's side) boarded on the Light Cruiser "Sendai" in prewar. Sendai isn't Tohoku area's 仙台, Miyagi. it's the river in Kagoshima. we can write "川内".
The Sendai River's headstream is from Shiragatake in Miyazaki and debouch into the East China Sea.

My family was included family name 鹿児島(kagoshima) before, and really some of our ancestors were in Kagoshima, Kyushu.
Her Class and type was Sendai class cruiser and was completed at Mitsubishi Nagasaki shipyards on 29 April 1924. she was the flagship of a destroyer flotilla.

On "Battle of Midway", She departed with the Main Body of the Combined Fleet(連合艦隊 Rengo Kantai) for Midway on 29 May 1942. The Main Body remained 1110 km behind Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo's First Carrier Striking Force and thus did not engage American forces. She returned to Kure(呉, Hiroshima) on 14 June 1942 without having seen combat.


Maybe, he left from Sendai after this or other time. He was dispatched to Southeast Asia and became a captive there after the war. My grandmother says, "I encountered an air raid in my country. I got away from air raids occurring, but his life in that island was more happy than me!"
well, my grandfather was not a combatant because he was a paymaster(or a budget NCO). However, I was excited when I knew that he was in a part of this history.

Information: Light Cruiser Sendai