Waubonsee Community College

Kamikaze diaries, reflections of Japanese student soldiers, Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-224) and index

illustrationsplates

index present

non fiction

Kamikaze diaries

bibliography

62533869

Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney

"This history presents diaries and correspondence left by members of the tokkotai, or kamikaze pilots, and other Japanese student soldiers who perished during World War II. Outside of Japan, these kamikaze pilots were considered unbridled fanatics and chauvinists who willingly sacrificed their lives for the emperor. But the writings explored here by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney clearly speak otherwise. A significant number of the kamikaze were university students who were drafted and forced to volunteer for this desperate military operation. Such young men were the intellectual elite of modern Japan: steeped in the classics and major works of philosophy, they took Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" as their motto

reflections of Japanese student soldiers

And in their diaries and correspondence, as Ohnuki-Tierney shows, these student soldiers wrote long and often heartbreaking soliloquies in which they poured out their anguish and fear, expressed profound ambivalence toward the war, and articulated thoughtful opposition to their nation's imperialism." "A salutary correction to the many caricatures of the kamikaze, this work will be essential to anyone interested in the history of Japan, World War II, or the tragedy of war itself."--Jacket

Introduction -- 1. Sasaki Hachiro "What is patriotism? ... the killing of millions of people and depriving billions of people of basic human freedom ...?" -- 2. Hayashi Tadao "All will crumble / Japan will meet its finale" -- 3. Takushima Norimitsu "Why must we fight? We no longer have any purpose for fighting." -- 4. Matsunaga Shigeo and Matsunaga Tatsuki "War is another name for murder ..." -- 5. Hayashi Ichizo "We are assigned the location of our death." -- 6. Nakao Takenori "Am I to simply die without any meaning to my life?" -- Notes -- References -- Index