Fanfic: The Flying Cloud

[dannavy85]

By the end of the day, the boys had the engine pulled out and sitting on a work bench Astro had carried from the automotive shop. They gawked at it for a bit before splitting up for home, Astro walking with Reno before returning to the Doctor’s house and sitting in his room to study the diary some more.

“Wrote Yukie today, what else can you say about this lonely place in the middle of the Pacific? Hiraku was lost today along with two of our rookies, rumors that an American task force is patrolling not far from here near Truk. Same food today as for the past week, how many times can you prepare Haring?”

Astro half-smirked. “Ask the Doctor about Haring.” He thought to himself as he turned a few pages and studied a crude art sketch. “This must be his squadron commander…or maybe the garrison commander. Well he wasn’t very popular was he?” Astro said to himself as his face contorted. The picture was a little “deviant” in nature.

“Major Araki is a stupid pinhead.”

“No kidding! I guess the picture did him justice.” Astro remarked as he rolled over and put the diary on his nightstand. “I’ll visit the records office tomorrow and see what I can find out about this pilot.”

Next Day
Municipal records building
Asahi Prefecture near Atsugi

Astro stopped to watch an American F-18 Hornet zoom over the top of the records building and was reminded that Atsugi Air Base nearby was once the central hub of the Imperial Naval Air Arms Service. Most if not all of the pilots in the Japanese Navy before 1941 were trained at the base and he thought they might still be keeping records in some storehouse. He walked to a green payphone and pushed a card into the pay slot.

“Is Mister Rejiro Ichi there? Uh….tell him it’s “Cup Cake’s” friend, he’ll know me.”

A man replied on the other end. “I suppose you need a favor?”

“Yeah.” Astro replied. “Do they still have old records of the Imperial Naval Air Force at Atsugi? I’m doing a school project.”

“I think so. I’ll need to check.”

Astro nodded. “Thanks….and how’s Cup Cake?”

“She’s not out causing car accidents. Thank you for not pushing the repair bill.”

“You’re lucky I have extra chasse bottoms in stock, my butt’s a little pricy.” Astro grinned widely as he bad good day and hung up. He giggled as he walked into the library office thinking cats and cars don’t mix too well…nor did his butt with a speeding bumper. That front page picture of him skidding on asphalt and sending up sparks like the American 4th of July was hilarious…and what was with that goofy face, it looked like he was sliding into home plate of the World Series and saying “Look Ma I’m on fire!”

He got shooshed when he started laughing his head off. “Oops….uh…I’m trying to get some information for a school project, can you help me find any information on a Japanese soldier? His last name was Tsugasa. He was probably in the Naval Air Force from 1940 to 1945.”

The desk clerk searched her computer. “We have several Tsugasa’s registered as war returnees, none with specific ranks or titles.”

Astro scratched his head. “What about after the war? Any of them married a wife with the first name Yukie?”

She searched her computer again. “No information on marriages locally. We know that there were 9 registered returnees named Tsugasa who came back here and mustered out of the service. 4 gave forwarding information because they had no immediate families or their families had resettled to the country side.”

Astro played with his lips and sighed. “Should I try Atsugi Base then?”

“It would probably give you a better chance though hopefully they didn’t destroy the records as in so many other places after the war.”

Atsugi Naval Base

Rejiro Ichi met Astro at the front gate and walked him to the main administrations building two blocks away. “So what has you so interested in a Japanese pilot from World War II?”

“I found a Zero a couple days ago and we’re going to restore it.” Astro handed Rejiro the little diary. “This belonged to the pilot Tsugasa and I wanted to see it got back to the family. I’m hoping he survived the war.”

Rejiro thumbed through the book. “It’s possible. Most of the air arms officers returned here to be processed out. Some of them were able to fly for the JMSDF when it formed in 1949, some of them went on to JAL airlines. So what was the condition of the Zero?”

Astro played with his fingers. “It’s….beat up and needs a lot of work. If I can get it flying, it’ll make a good toy for our club.”

[tonigirl1000]

Thanks Dannavy85, love that part about Astroboy and his picture in the newspaper. hugs
PS- Makes Astroboy seems so realistic, thanks

[dannavy85]

Both of them walked across the football field to a single story building where the base library and college were. Ichi took Astro around the back to the storage building where the history files were kept. “I would have made you get an appointment but since you’re such a good kid, I can be accommodating.”

Ichi walked past the rows of cabinets and into an office where a computer desk and other hardware were stuffed into a small desk surrounded by endless amounts of paper. “Thank God I don’t have this job.” Ichi said smiling. “The guy who does, spends his whole day getting bad wrist from documenting all these papers.”

Astro frowned. “I’ll be here for weeks.”

“Not so. We were lucky the historical division started working with personal files before anything. Most of the pilots who were trained here before the war to 1944 are on the computer.”

Astro raised a finger. “If you got a USB port on there I can go through the files a lot faster.” Pulling a USB cable from his chest door, Astro sat and plugged it into one of the ports on the side of the tower. His scanning only took 5 minutes and left him a little depressed. “There’s 27 Tsugasa’s in the record. 13 survived the war. 7 returned here for processing and re-patriation. Five of them served on Rongulap as pilots in the Naval Air Force.”

Ichi took a moment to look through the small diary. “Perhaps he talked about his plane? Maybe he described mechanical problems or specific things about the plane he flew and that might tell you which Tsugasa’s the right one?”

Astro took the diary and smiled. “Might be worth a shot. By the way, would you have any records from the 17th Area Control Squadron?”

“That’s going to take time to locate in here. But I don’t think many squadron records survived intact. Most were lost with the units on ships and when the Americans ripped an island to shreds.

[tonigirl1000]

Thanks love the way Astroboy wants to learn about the history involve in this story. hugs