Banzai! Debunking the kamikaze myth

[oyajikun]

"Like many violent acts during wartime, the Japanese kamikaze attacks of World War II have been vilified or conveniently dismissed as a freakish aberration that cannot be understood in rational terms. The self-sacrifice of the young Japanese pilots has been written into popular history as derived from an extreme interpretation of the samurai code and the wartime belief that the Japanese emperor was a living god.

"Banzai!" or "Long Live the Emperor", was their battle cry, or so popular mythology has it. "

http://atimes.com/atimes/Japan/FK06Dh01.html

[Taro Toporific]

"But the way the pilots who survived the war tell it, their prime motivation was simply desperation to protect the people they loved from coming to harm in a war that was rapidly - and very clearly - deteriorating into defeat."
http://atimes.com/atimes/Japan/FK06Dh01.html

I've had the strange pleasure of knowing an ex-kamikaze ---I dated his granddaughter for years. An important point generally missed in most kamikaze revisionist stories is that members of the post-war Kamikaze Association became obscenely wealthly. Their kamikaze mythic mystic worked well to open up doors in the Japanese business.

[Captain Japan]

I've had the strange pleasure of knowing an ex-kamikaze ---I dated his granddaughter for years. An important point generally missed in most kamikaze revisionist stories is that members of the post-war Kamikaze Association became obscenely wealthly. Their kamikaze mythic mystic worked well to open up doors in the Japanese business.

Other kamikaze views courtesy of ninjashot...

http://ninjashot.com/blog/archives/2004/06/index.html

Which country is the most dangerous country now ? Yes, America. They really like war. They are the most strong country in the world. But before time, they are afraid Japan because of Kamikaze (God wind). Kamikaze has misterious power that help Japanese in war time. and now they help not only Japanseses but also Ninjashot lovers in all around the world. This is the evidence photo. Enjoy !

[Mulboyne]

Kyodo via Rediff: Soldiers pay tribute to dead kamikaze pilots
About 40 former Imperial Army special cadets in Japan prayed for kamikaze pilots who died during World War II at a memorial hall set in a temple in Chiran in Kagoshima Prefecture. The memorial hall exhibits pictures of dead pilots and letters written to their parents before leaving for suicide attacks on American warships...Over 2,600 army and navy personnel are said to have been sacrificed in that attack during the Okinawa battle. The former cadets recalled the attack and prayed for the families of the dead officers. Toru Hokazono, 80, of Kagoshima city, apologised to the families of other officers and said, "Parents kill their children, and children kill their parents. The Japanese have lost their beautiful heart." He has been visiting Chiran on the sixth day of every month for more than 30 years. Shigeyoshi Hamazono, 81, of Kagoshima city, was at the Senganhira Natural Park in the town of Ei on April 6. On that day 60 years ago, he left on a mission but his plane made an emergency landing on Chiran after being bombed, seriously injuring him. On April 6 every year, he is reminded of Japan's defeat, but he added, "I am very happy to be alive."

[Buraku]

'The Winds of God': It's about ordinary young men
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/arts/20060805TDY15001.htm

"I feel like I have been urged by thousands of people who died in the Kamikaze attacks to speak out in their place. And that emotion drove me to express through the show the contradiction of [views existing in] society and the nation."

[Korrito]

I've had the strange pleasure of knowing an ex-kamikaze ---I dated his granddaughter for years. An important point generally missed in most kamikaze revisionist stories is that members of the post-war Kamikaze Association became obscenely wealthly. Their kamikaze mythic mystic worked well to open up doors in the Japanese business.

The notion of ex-kamikaze is a strange concept to me. I understand the whole thing, but still.

[Taro Toporific]