Author Topic: The Japanese Kamikaze (Read 2110 times)

Lorenzo · « **on:** September 17, 2010, 05:50:47 AM »

An analytical view.

In 1944-45, the Japanese were heavily influenced by Shinto beliefs. Among other things, Emperor worship was stressed after Shinto was established as a state religion during the Meiji Restoration. As time went on, Shinto was used increasingly in the promotion of nationalist sentiment. In 1890, the Imperial Rescript on Education was passed, under which students were required to ritually recite its oath to offer themselves "courageously to the State" as well as protect the Imperial family. The ultimate offering was to give up oneâ€™s life. It was an honor to die for Japan and the Emperor. Axell and Kase pointed out: "The fact is that innumerable soldiers, sailors and pilots were determined to die, to become eirei, that is â€˜guardian spiritsâ€™ of the country. Many Japanese felt that to be enshrined at Yasukuni was a special honour because the Emperor twice a year visited the shrine to pay homage. Yasukuni is the only shrine, deifying common men, which the Emperor would visit to pay his respects". Young Japanese people were indoctrinated from an earliest age with these ideals.

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Lorenzo · « **Reply #1 on:** September 17, 2010, 05:52:50 AM »

WHAT THE KAMIKAZE PILOTS THOUGHT OF THEIR ACT

Lieutenant Suga Yoshimune

"Life has now become for me a true pleasure, - he said. - What a joyous spring it has become for us - those who are included in the [Special shock] compound: a much warmer and softer than the sad outside world!"

April 20 [1945], the day of departure Tembu, we have six new people, all full of confidence. When we posed for a commemorative photo, holding a branch of a cherry-red, I looked at his twig, which still had flowers, and said to myself: "What happiness, Yokota Yutaka, that you were born a boy! Woman could never feel this! "Zeal overwhelmed us. Shinkai and I swore to each other and sank the biggest ships, which only can be found. I thought about my age - nineteen - and the maxim "To die, when people still mourn your death, to die, when you clean and fresh - this is the true bushido." Yes, I went through a samurai. My eyes were shining, when I once again boarded the I-47. I am happy to remember how Andzay Nobuo quoted a poem, telling me that I "will fall as pure as the cherry blossom", which I now hold in my hands. My thoughts overflowed by the fact that so many times told me Lieutenant Fujimura Sadao, one of the instructors based in Tsutiura: "Never turn away the face of death. If in doubt - to live or die - always better to die ... "We have again embarked on the" Kaiten ", waving their swords, until escorting boats, from which came the good wishes, did not turn back. Then I got into the "Kaiten" and put the ashes Yadzaki and branch with cherry blossoms near the seat.

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Lorenzo · « **Reply #2 on:** September 17, 2010, 05:55:52 AM »

JAPANESE PEOPLE'S VIEW OF KAMIKAZE

The Japanese people who said farewell to kamikaze pilots saw them wave goodbye with smiles and remembered them with affection. Those left behind saw nothing of either their being shot down from the sky or their crashing into American ships, so they remembered the pilots as young heroes who bravely went to their deaths in defense of their homeland.

When the war ended, the public's image of kamikaze pilots changed drastically. The Japanese public criticized kamikaze pilots and other special attack force members who carried out suicide attacks. One surviving pilot says, "After the war all of us surviving Special Attack pilots were not only looked on askance or indifferently, but were also disparaged by being called 'Special Attack degenerates' and 'those ex-Special Attack fanatics'". Ex-servicemen "pleaded that the public had to make distinctions between soldiers or military men (gunjin) and the 'military cliques' (gunbatsu) who were ultimately responsible for the war and its conduct" , but many Japanese people still regarded the kamikaze pilots with contempt.

Over the decades since the end of the American occupation in 1952, kamikaze pilots gradually have regained the status of national heroes that they once enjoyed during the final stages of the war. Much of this turnaround in public opinion came about through the efforts of the Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots, which opened in 1975 on the site of the former Chiran Air Base with the purpose "to commemorate the pilots and expose the tragic loss of their lives so that we may understand the need for everlasting peace and ensure such incidents are never repeated"

http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/japanese/index.htm

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Lorenzo · « **Reply #3 on:** September 17, 2010, 05:58:36 AM »

EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF A KAMIKAZE ATTACK

Jap planes were coming at us from all directions. Before the attack started we did not know that they were suicide planes, with no intention of returning to their base. They had one thing in mind and that was to crash into our ships, bombs and all. You have to blow them up, to damage them doesn't mean much.

Right off the bat a Jap plane made a suicide dive at the cruiser St. Louis there was a big explosion and flames were seen shortly from the stern. Another one tried to do the same thing but he was shot down. A Jap plane came in on a battleship with its guns blazing away. Other Jap planes came in strafing one ship, dropping their bombs on another and crashing into another ship. The Jap planes were falling all around us, the air was full of Jap machine gun bullets. Jap planes and bombs were hitting all around us. Some of our ships were being hit by suicide planes, bombs and machine gun fire. It was a fight to the finish.

While all this was taking place our ship had its hands full with Jap planes. We knocked our share of planes down but we also got hit by 3 suicide planes, but lucky for us they dropped their bombs before they crashed into us. In the meantime exploding planes overhead were showering us with their parts. It looked like it was raining plane parts. They were falling all over the ship. Quite a few of the men were hit by big pieces of Jap planes.

..Planes were falling all around us, bombs were coming too close for comfort. The Jap planes were cutting up the water with machine gun fire. All the guns on the ships were blazing away, talk about action, never a dull moment. The fellows were passing ammunition like lightning as the guns were turning in all directions spitting out hot steel...The deck near my mount was covered with blood, guts, brains, tongues, scalps, hearts, arms etc. from the Jap pilots. The Jap bodies were blown into all sorts of pieces. I cannot think of everything that happened because too many things were happening at the same time."

"Kamikaze Attack, 1944," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com

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Lorenzo · « **Reply #4 on:** September 17, 2010, 11:09:14 PM »

The Last Sortie,

One cannot help but have an eerie compassion for them...
Such bravery and conviction.

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Author Topic: The Japanese Kamikaze (Read 2110 times)

Lorenzo

The Japanese Kamikaze

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Re: The Japanese Kamikaze

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Re: The Japanese Kamikaze

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