Proposed sakura name for new middle school in Japan draws complaints for kamikaze overlap

This isn’t the cherry blossom image the committee was going for.

As Japan’s population shrinks and housing densities shift, sometimes the decision is made to merge two preexisting schools into a single new one. That’s what’s on the schedule for Hakko Middle School and Amagi Middle School, a pair of public schools in Omuta, a city in Fukuoka Prefecture with a population of around 105,000 people.

Since this is meant as a merger of equals, not one school absorbing the other, the local board of education wants to retire both schools’ names and give the combined institution a new moniker. For that purpose, a committee was formed by the two schools’ principals and PTAs, which then solicited suggestions from students and residents of the city. A total of 340 names were suggested, and after internal discussion and voting, the committee made its recommendation to the Omuta municipal board of education on December 17: Ohka Middle School.

At first glance, Ohka might seem like a very fitting name for a school. It’s written in kanji as 桜花, with the characters for “sakura”/”cherry blossoms” (桜) and “flower” (花). One could argue that it’s redundant, but just “Sakura Middle School” would sound a little too on-the-nose to Japanese ears, and a single kanji name of 桜 is sort of lacking in gravitas. As for the fixation on sakura, while the cherry blossoms are most famous as a symbol of spring in Japan, they’re also a symbol of schools. With the Japanese school year starting and ending in the spring, sakura are often in bloom during graduation and opening ceremonies, and the short but beautiful blossoming period is often seen as a metaphor for youth itself.

▼ A stock photo of a woman underneath cherry blossom trees with a graduation diploma case in her hands.

So with all that, getting the Ohka Middle School name approved by the board of education should be a slam dunk, right? Well, there’s one thing the committee didn’t consider: Ohka was also the name of a kamikaze aircraft developed and deployed by the Japanese military in World War II. On top of that, the Ohka could be considered the most deplorable form of suicide weapon used in the conflict, as it was in effect a flying bomb.

The MXY-7 Ohka, which was loaded with explosives in its nose and carried a single pilot, had no engine. Instead, it had to be flown to the combat zone by a bomber and then dropped once in range of its target, after which the pilot would steer and engage rockets to accelerate the craft towards its attack point. There was no mechanism for the pilot to eject before impact, as the understanding with the Ohka, as with all the Japanese military’s tokkotai (kamikaze) weaponry, was that the pilot would die. The vast majority of pilots tended to be in their early 20s or teens, recruited or coerced into the assignment from lower ranks. As for why anyone would name a suicide weapon over a pretty springtime flower, among the many cultural connotations sakura have is that they’re tragically short-lived, and the romanticized image of a beautiful death for the greater good was one of the propaganda tactics used by the Japanese military to make kamikaze tactics more palatable to the general public at the time.

Following the public announcement of the council’s recommendation of Ohka Middle School, 12 different civic groups in Omuta have contacted the board of education asking them to find a different name for the school, saying it’s inappropriate for a place of children’s education. It’s worth noting that “sakura” does not appear as part of the name of any of the neighborhoods or districts in the vicinity of the school, nor is the area particularly famous for cherry blossoms, so the Ohka name wouldn’t represent a continuation of local traditions.

Following the negative reactions, the head of the committee, who is also the principal of one of the two schools to be merged, said “During our selection process, the topic of the [Ohka Middle School] name overlapping with a tokkotai weapon did not come up. I apologize, but I myself was also not aware of the overlap. If I had known of it, we probably would have taken that into consideration.”

At 57 years old, the head of the committee was born more than two decades after the end of World War II, and the Ohka Middle School suggestion itself was submitted by two different students of one of the schools to be merged, who are at least a generation further removed from the time when the Japanese government was actively encouraging young people to go and die for their empire. However, their lack of awareness of this dark chapter in Japan’s history is perhaps all the more reason that Ohka Middle School might not be the best choice, especially considering the Japanese education system’s less than total forthrightness about what was going on in the country and its leadership during the 1930s and 1940s.

There is, coincidentally, already another school named Ohka Middle School in Japan. However, the Ohka Middle School in Tokyo’s Higashimura district uses the alternate kanji character 華 for “flower,” as opposed to the 花 used in both the recommended name for the new Omuta school and the Ohka flying bomb. There’s also the fact that the Tokyo Ohka Middle School was founded 134 years ago, long before the start of the kamikaze projects.

Following the requests from civic groups, the Omuta board of education says that it will be further discussing the matter at its next meeting, and that a final decision on the new school’s name will be made in February, with plenty of time to spare before its scheduled opening in the spring of 2027.

Source: Nishi Nippon Shimbun via Livedoor News via Golden Times, Mainichi Shimbun, Nittaidai Ohka High School
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Pakutaso, Wikipedia/Dybdal~commonswiki
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