「後世に伝えていきたい」　特攻隊員を演じる俳優・中山優馬さん　鹿屋市の戦跡を訪ね感じたことは？ (25/06/13 19:00)

Actor Nakayama Yuma will be playing a kamikaze pilot who was assigned to Kanoya at the end of the Pacific War in a stage production in Tokyo and Osaka this summer, and visited the war site in Kanoya to prepare for the role. Actor Nakayama Yuma (31) "It's the portraits of the deceased, isn't it? Looking at everyone's faces, some of them are really young, and many of them are younger than I am now, but they protected the Japan of today, so it's cruel, but the thing that made the biggest impression on me was that we shouldn't turn our eyes away." On this day, actor Nakayama Yuma visited the Kanoya Air Base Museum, where the suicide notes and belongings of kamikaze pilots are on display. Nakayama Yuma "I think everyone knows about it, and that of course there's a vague knowledge that this happened, but when you actually visit, you feel like you've encountered the atmosphere, personality, and soul of that person." Singer and actor Nakayama is 31 years old and is active in various programs and stage productions, and is very popular, especially with women. In 2025, 80 years after the end of the war, he will be starring in the play "Ah, My Cherry Blossoms," which depicts the lives of kamikaze pilots, and visited Kanoya City, the frontline base of the kamikaze operations depicted in the play, with screenwriter Ueda Hirohiro. Ueda Hirohiro, who wrote the screenplay for "Ah, My Cherry Blossoms," said, "The director Nishikori said, 'I think the actors' hearts will be very different depending on whether they know the real story or not.' Yuma himself said, 'I want to see it,' so we came this time." A kamikaze operation is a strategy in which people on board an airplane crash into an enemy battleship. It was carried out near the end of the war, when Japan's defeat was becoming more and more likely, and many young people lost their lives. During the war, Kanoya City had three airfields, and 1,271 young people died in kamikaze operations, the highest number in the country. A dome-shaped structure stands alone in the middle of a field. Plants grow on the concrete, and it looks like a hill from the sky. This is called a "bunker," and it was used to hide and protect the planes used in kamikaze attacks and other missions from the American military. Nakayama Yuma "Yes, they were stored here." Ueda Hirohiro "They say there were about 200 planes here." Nakayama stared at the bunker, thinking back to those days. Next, Nakayama visited the telegraph room where the kamikaze pilots communicated. Nakayama Yuma "Wow, that's amazing, this is amazing." We went down the stairs and into the basement, where we found a large space. It was here 80 years ago that the last Morse code messages sent by the kamikaze pilots were received just before they charged into the enemy ship. Nakayama visited four places this time. After witnessing the reality of war, he talked about his mission as an actor playing a kamikaze pilot. Nakayama Yuma "I think it's important to pass it on to future generations. But the events and history are there, so I want to convey them correctly, without expressing them in a weird way, as they are, and I think that's my role." Nakayama's play "Ah, My Cherry Blossom Friends" will be performed in Osaka and Tokyo in the summer of 2025.