Wings of Defeat - Tokko
I saw the Japanese trailer for akamikaze survivor documentary movie titled Wings of Defeat. The Japanese title is 特攻 (tokko) which literally translates to “special attack”, but in Japan, when speaking about tokko in the context of WWII, most people will imagine the Kamikaze pilots.
The Japanese on the front of the flier translates roughly as: “I wanted to live.” “I didn’t want to die.”
This movie looks really interesting. I’m going to have to drag myself down to the theater and pay the 1700-ish yen or so to see it! It starts July 21 in Japan.
By the way, a friend brought to my attention a book that is out of print, but available on Amazon called I was a Kamikaze. I have never read it, but it looks interesting.
Surviving suicide missions. . . That’s heavy. Apparently the author, Nagatsuka was a French literature major at Tokyo university, so he originally wrote this book in French, and later it was translated into English.
Even better, John W. Dower is in the movie. Dower wrote the amazing Japanese post-war history book, Embracing Defeat. This book is as fat as a textbook, but is so interesting it reads like a novel. Highly recommended!
Just last night I watched the new season premiere of the History Channel’s show “Dogfights,” it was a two hour show on kamikaze tactics as employed by the Japanese.. AND the Germans. The show is quite stunning in its computer graphics reconstructions of battle scenes, it’s definitely worth watching. The depiction of Japanese kamikaze tactics is about as good as it gets.
Anyway, I was surprised to learn that the Germans used suicide tactics late in the war, the Luftwaffe Squadron Elbe was a special group of fighter aircraft that tried to knock down American bomber aircraft by RAMMING them, and then parachuting to safety. That’s the strangest WWII story I ever heard.
July 17th, 2007 at 9:30 am_Blossoms in the Wind_ is a fairly recent English language book out about the Tokko. Mostly interviews with survivors–most would seem to indicate they were willing and ready to die for family and nation (but not really the Emperor).
July 18th, 2007 at 1:51 amThe controversial “Yasukuni Shrine” issue is related to the sentiment that people feel sorry for those kamikaze pilots. “Meet again at Yasukuni” was the farewells among former soldiers. The state Shinto-ism helped the Yasukuni shrine myth. Emperor Hirohito, state Shinto-ism(Emperor system) and Yasukuni Shrine(holly spirit) might be the “Trinity” of Japan in WW2.
There is a book titled “Wadatsumi no Uta わだつみ詩”. This is the collection of diaries of Kamikaze pilots. It reads they were quite normal people. Many of them knew that they would die in vain, because the victory seemed hard to come. They were willing to die bravely. Actually they were forced to attend the special attack. It was almost impossible to reject it under the soldier discipline “never surrender but die”. (It’s crazy enough for me.)
Each soldier died in war could become a holly spirit in Yasukuni shrine. (And in Buddhist doctrine, he could also become a kind of Buddha.) It’s similar to Islamic suicide bombing attack in the name of jihad. It’s worse that is voluntary act. It’s so terrible and awkward for the opponent.
July 18th, 2007 at 7:31 am“Holy Ghost” is correct English(not holly spirit).
July 18th, 2007 at 10:50 am