Kamicaze Pilots
During World War II in the Pacific, there were pilots of the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy who made suicide attacks, driving their planes to deliberately crash into carriers and battle- ships of the Allied forces. These were the pilots known as the Kamikaze pilots. Because right-wing organizations have used the Kamikaze pilots as a symbol of a militaristic and extremely nationalistic Japan, the current Japanese respond to the issue with ignorance and false stereotypes and with generally negative and unsympathetic remarks. However, the Kamikaze fighters added a new wrinkle to navel warfare.
Kamikaze expressed their feelings and thoughts about the missions through haiku poems. In many ...
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suicide attacks were those who were born late in the Taisho period (1912-1926) or in the first two or three years of Showa. Therefore, they had gone through the brainwashing education, and were products of the militaristic Japan.
In 1944 the General Staff had considered mounting organized suicide attacks, (Ikuta 25) "suicide attacks" had been made since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (Shinbusha 266) Two types of suicide attacks had been made. The first was an organized attack which would, in 90% of the cases, result in the death of the soldiers. However, if the plan had worked on the battlefield as it did in theory, there was some possibility that the soldiers would survive (Ibid 49). The other type of suicide attack that had been made was completely voluntary, and the result of a sudden decision. This was usually done by aircraft. The pilots, finding no efficient way to fight the American aircraft, deliberately crashed into them, and caused an explosion, destroying the ...
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tactic, and he believed that it would be the best and most beautiful place for the pilots to die. Onishi once said, "if they (the young pilots) are on land, they would be bombed down, and if they are in the air, they would be shot down. That's sad...Too sad...To let the young men die beautifully, that's what Tokko is. To give beautiful death, that's called sympathy" (Kusayanagi 28). This statement makes sense, considering the relative skills of the pilots of the time. By 1944, air raids were made all over Japan, especially in the cities. Most of the best pilots of the Navy and the Army had been lost in previous battles. Training time was greatly reduced to the minimum, or even less than ...
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"Kamicaze Pilots." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 21 Oct. 2004. Web. 28 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Kamicaze-Pilots/16257>
"Kamicaze Pilots." Essayworld.com. October 21, 2004. Accessed November 28, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Kamicaze-Pilots/16257.
"Kamicaze Pilots." Essayworld.com. October 21, 2004. Accessed November 28, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Kamicaze-Pilots/16257.
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