BLACKENED CANTEEN SERVES AS BRIDGE FOR FRIENDSHIP AND PEACE
On the night of June 20, 1945, during a bombing raid over Shizuoka, Japan, two Army AirForce B-29s from the 314th Bomb Wing, based in Guam, collided and crashed, killing 23crewmen. The raid also claimed the lives of more than 2,000 Shizuoka citizens. A local Shizuoka businessman and farmer, Fukumatsu Ito, was at the scene of the crash, pulling U.S airmen from the wreckage who were fatally injured. Itoh buried the crewmembers alongside the citizens who were killed in the air raid. He also retrieved a blackened canteen from aircraft, distorted from the heat and bearing what appeared to be a handprint of its late owner seared onto the canteen.
A devout Buddhist, Ito believed all life is precious and bore no hatred or ill will towards American in spite of the terrible loss of civilian life in Shizuoka. Shortly after the raid, Ito built the Sengen Hill monuments at the crash site and started the tradition of conducting an annual ceremony, honoring those who had paid the ultimate price as a result of war. During the ceremony, a silent prayer was said, and bourbon whiskey was poured from the blackened canteen onto the crash site as an offering to the spirits of the fallen, both Japanese and American.
At the time of the crash, Dr. Hiroya Sugano was a young boy living with his family in Shizuoka. He experienced the horrors of that night and later visited the crash site with local townspeople. He never forgot the death and destruction that lay before him. He also witnessed Ito’s display of courage and devotion to peace even as Ito was shunned by Shizuoka residents for honoring the U.S airmen who lost their lives in the crash.
Before his death, Ito gave the blackened canteen to Dr. Sugano, who promised to carry on the tradition. Since 1972, Dr. Sugano has personally hosted the annual ceremony at the monuments on the Sengen Hill. The ceremony is held on the Saturday closest to June 20 th – the day of the crash.
In 1991, Dr. Sugano, who is also Direcor General of the Zero Fighter Admirers Association of Japan, traveled to Oahu to attend the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He conducted the Blackened Canteen ceremony abroad the USS Arizona Memorial the next year. Since then, he has attended the December 7th commemoration every year.