As a kamikaze pilot and member of the 72nd Shinbu Squadron, Araki died on May 27, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa when he deliberately crashed his bomb-laden Mitsubishi Ki-51 into the USS Braine.

At the age of fifteen he joined the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service's Youth Pilot Training Program.

It has been speculated that his plane was one of two that struck the USS Braine, killing 66 of its crew; however, the ship did not sink.

[1][2] Araki had been home in April 1945, and left letters for his family, to be opened upon the news of his death.

In 2004, Tsuneyuki Mori published Araki's biography, entitled Yuki Died at 17 in a Kamikaze Attack (ユキは十七歳 特攻で死んだ – 子犬よさらば、愛しきいのち).