A picture of a handsome pilot taken from a World War II LIFE MAGAZINE . Sadly, he isn’t the man that Suhuho Kurita, pilot in the Imperial Army from 1938-1945, was trying to find for 43 years to thank him for his mercy during the war.
Here’s the back story. It was sunset on January 23, 1945 in the Philippines. War in the Pacific was ongoing. Lieutenant Kurita received orders to pick up VIP’S at Laoag Airport, located on northwestern Luzon. Along with his flight engineer, Warrant officer “I” they flew south on Basen Channel at an extremely low altitude in order to avoid enemy radar. They landed the K1-67 bomber successfully on a grassy field. Kurita taxied over to the waiting VIP’S and bedraggled Japanese soldiers. Just then, the aircraft inclined and was stuck in the soft ground. Kurita added power to get free but the plane sunk even deeper. He shut down the engine and both he and his flight engineer got out of the plane and saw that it was stuck in a large hole caused by a shell.
Rising smoke nearby was evidence that a Japanese plane had been shot down by a P-38 just minutes before Kurita had landed. His plane had to be pushed out of the hole so they could get out of there fast. With brute force and a powerful will to live Kurita and the Japanese soldiers pulled the aircraft out of the hole.
Suddenly, approaching their location they heard a whirring sound. Kurita shouted, “Oh no! An enemy plane. Lie down!” Everyone ran in all directions and dropped, their eyes and ears covered waiting for the shooting to start. Looking up they saw a big two engined flying boat with floats.The pilot made a 360 degree turn over Kurita and the Japanese soldiers. Kurita could almost reach the pilot as he was flying at such a low altitude. Kurita saw the American symbol, a star, and the blue winged silver body – a beautiful aircraft. The American pilot wearing sunglasses and smiling waved at Kurita and the Japanese soldiers on the ground. One of the Japanese gunmen stood and was ready to shoot at the enemy plane. Kurita yelled, “Don’t shoot!” The gunman replied, “That’s the enemy. Let me shoot!” Finally he listened to Kurita’s order. At that moment, Kurita took out a white scarf from his plane and waved at the enemy pilot to thank him for not killing him and the others. He was grateful for the mercy shown by the “great warrior.”
As the pilot disappeared in the south sky, he waved the wings of the aircraft as if to say good luck and have a safe trip home.
This blog is dedicated to my brother, Arthur aka ART Minas Sarkisian, who loved planes. In Junior high School, he wrote a report the size of a huge encyclopedia complete with his original drawings of fighter planes from World War I and World War II.
My connection to my brother and his love of fighter planes is my work as a volunteer librarian at the Alameda Naval Air Museum.
I invite you to visit us at: alamedanavalairmuseum.org.
