Clearing the Air on Kamikaze Culture

The Clarksvillian ^ | 12/31/2021 | Eric Fisher

[dmam2011]

The honor and dignity of Japanese culture carefully hides dubious aspects of their WW2 military operations. Why would a culture place such a high priority of respect onto legacies of kamikaze pilots, suicide submarine missiles, and underwater suicide mine bombers? In short, families of these soldiers knew the personal realities behind the warrior myths.

[DesertRhino]

https://youtu.be/pcXPYwKPqK0?t=33

I think you are correct about them almost viewing it as space aliens. Look at this one small clip in a cartoon they made about it. It literally looks like something out of Godzilla or a ScyFi.

https://youtu.be/pcXPYwKPqK0?t=33

[DesertRhino]

Good observation about the airwings on Japanese carriers. Compare that to our system of escort carriers constantly replenishing losses on the big carriers.

The 1957 movie “The Wings of Eagles” went into detail on this.

[DesertRhino]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAgmvjJCtI

Wrong link, this is the one I meant to send you. Watch a minute or so and it’s exactly as you said. Like an alien invasion in their eyes. They were utterly unprepared mentally.

[M1903A1]

I remember watching “Barefoot Gen” about 25 years ago. A local UHF channel used to feature full-length anime movies late on Friday nights. (With good reason...a lot of anime definitely ain’t for kids!) I’d read plenty of accounts of the Hiroshima bomb, but seeing it depicted (even in anime) was something else entirely.

A detail that stood out to me in the English-language release was that, in the opening overlays, they identified how many cities were bombed, night after night after night, in the confined territory of the Home Islands...there was no avoiding the threat. The accounts in “Japan at War” really brought home what a shock it was to the interviewees.

[M1903A1]

If that’s the book I’m thinking of, I recall a particular section about the Kawasaki Ki.61 fighter...which (I did not know this before reading the book) was at its core a licensed copy of the German Me-109. The 109 was established technology for the Germans, maybe even a little dated, but for the Japanese it was so advanced that they barely understood it. When it worked, it was fantastic...but when it first appeared in 1943, it usually didn’t.

And like you said, the support infrastructure was almost nonexistent, with the nearest supply depot being in Indonesia or Singapore, and the nearest facility for an engine change or overhaul all the way back at Clark Field in the Philippines. As “Soldiers of the Sun” observed, the best Japanese officers all wanted to get into operations...logistics and supply were viewed with disdain.

[Tijeras_Slim]

I was familiar with the bombing campaign, but the late war shelling from the Navy and it’s extent was a revelation.

[Nailbiter]

#6 book titles