Interview about Kamikaze pilots

John Stewart interviews Maxwell Taylor Kennedy, the author of Danger’s Hour: The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot Who Crippled Her:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM – Th 11p / 10c

Maxwell Kennedy

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[via Victory Manual]

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14 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - January 14, 2009 at 8:04 am

Categories: General Japan Tags:

Onigiri

I don’t necessarily think the pilots were Kamikazes for nothing. They did it for their pride in their country. I know this guy wrote a book on this subject, but he doesn’t seem to embrace the Japanese cultural perspective on things in my opinion.
http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

He interviewed survivors. A lot of what he’s talking about is from their perspectives.

Are you familiar with the background of the Kamikaze forces? Basically, the pilots were told that if they came back to Japan alive it would be a shame worse than death for them and their families.

“he doesn’t seem to embrace the Japanese cultural perspective on things”

You mean he doesn’t seem to embrace the modern romanticism of demanded human sacrifice from a government that knew they were going to lose because their ambitions crossed the line years before.

No, Mr. Kennedy embraces a lot more than that, like the idea that the former rulers of Japan wasted many of their best and brightest to satisfy their own pride and egos.

Onigiri

Well, the Japanese view of death is very different from the other countries. Two great examples would be Japanese Samurai in Feudal Japan committing ‘Seipuku’ or suicide. They did that for honor, much like a Kamikaze would do the same for honor as well. Another example would be the Japanese suicide rate as well as the way they choose to kill themselves. For many, throwing themselves in front of a moving train is not a pleasant way to die; however, this happens in Tokyo on an almost daily basis.

I understand what you are saying, but not all Japanese had the perspective of the people the author interviewed.

What about when the Japanese troops would charge a bunker and yell ‘Banzai!!’ and just keep running even though they would all be gunned down? Were they threatend before they did that? Or on Iwo Jima when they killed themselves with grenades, was that because they were threatend? No, it was pride in themselves, their country, and their unwillingness to become prisoners of war.

There is a cultural influence there, whether you like it or not. I’m an American and while I can’t fathom doing that they did, I find the influence of culture very interesting in the whole situation.

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

You have a very Hollywood vision of Japan.

Sounds good on paper, doesn’t it? But have you ever been to a Japanese funeral? The bereaved are still very somber and painfully aware of their loss.

Japanese soldiers were unwilling to be taken prisoner by U.S. forces because they were lead to believe (by the emperor and his gov’t) that life in a U.S. prison camp would be hell on earth, literally worse than death itself. It was an outright lie, and the opposite was actually true – Japanese prisoner camps were even worse than camps in Europe. Fear is a powerful tool.

You mentioned seppuku – The accounts are very romanticized. They were forced to disembowel themselves, and if they didn’t do it then someone would “do it for them.”

Bottom line: All mothers weep for their dead sons.

The Overthinker

“You have a very Hollywood vision of Japan.”

Damn right.

“Were they threatend before they did that? Or on Iwo Jima when they killed themselves with grenades, was that because they were threatend?”

Probably. Check out the controvery over the Okinawa history school texts and whether the army forced or merely suggested in a very strong way that civilian should blow themselves up.
Concerned Filipino

I like to think the Emperor was not responsible for most of Japan’s actions in WWII, but there’s no doubt that Japanese soldiers committing suicide instead of surrendering owed as much to propaganda-invoked fear of the Allies as bushido. Now, the US wasn’t exactly a paragon of racial equality at the time, which helped.

Does “embracing the Japanese cultural perspective” mean that he should accept the idea of kamikazes as moral? Or for that matter, the idea of Japan having one of the highest suicide rates in the world even today, with people jumping in front of trains daily? (I don’t know if this is really true) It’s enough for me that the author look at it in an objective manner.
The Overthinker

Japan is 11th.

“I don’t know if this is really true”

Then why not look it up?

Suicide in WW2 was only indirectly linked with Bushido, and it was a pretty romanticised idea of Bushido in the first place.

djsick

Disappointed too, He does not even say what about happened to those Kamikaze who neglect doing the job…
He does not seem very convince of what he wrote… too bad
cameron

I have to disagree with what he said about the emperor, that is completely wrong.
http://www.duzodesign.com Timothy

@Onigiri, you are completely right. As someone from a completely different culture looking into such an act you must ask why a person is willing to do this. There are obvious reasons, such as pride for one’s country. Nobody would just fly a plane into something just to do so. There are always incentives and motives.
jmadsen

Why did so many young British, Americans and French “go over the top” of the trenches in WWI, knowing there was nothing but barbed wire and machine guns in front of them?

It’s not a Japanese thing – it’s called being a soldier in war.

Once you realize that our grandfathers did the same things that Japanese grandfathers did, you realize that there may have been other things they shared in common.

Then you realize the reverse – they may have shared things that they both did NOT do or feel.

So, if our grandfathers charged the machine gun nests without fanatical love for the Queen or President, perhaps Japanese grandfathers did it without fanatical love for the Emperor.

That is the beginning of stripping away the “romantic notions” we have of the Japanese soldiers.

LB

As someone who has served (never in combat, fortunately, but still…), most of us had no grand notions about fighting for “country” or “President” or any such grandiose notion. If we had been ordered to fight, we would have, that was our job. And if we had, and someone asked us what we were fighting for, one of the more likely answers was “to stay alive, and keep my buddies alive”. I came >this< close to going off to Sandbox Wars 1. If I had I damn sure would not have been fighting for “the freedom of Kuwait” (they didn’t have any to start with) or “democracy” (another non-existant concept among the desert-dwellers). I would have been doing my job so I could come home, along with Benny, and Woody, and Romans and a lot of other friends.

I believe for the most part our (great)grandfathers in the trenches back then were the same.

Now, the guys who chose to fly their planes into ships and certainly kill themselves in the process, they were “different”.

hoihoi

‘My Thoughts’ – The will of Kamikaze Pilot
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=brJlQuammvw
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Interview about Kamikaze pilots

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