Sunday, August 3, 2008

Kamikaze have feelings too.


This sounds like a very interesting exhibit. I never gave much thought to how kamikaze pilots felt about being ordered to their deaths (literally), or even considered it in those terms. I had always assumed they were just crazy pilots, brainwashed by patriotism and happy to blow themselves up, and not, say, 20-year-old kids given a death sentence by their government. These letters sound very interesting.

I'll quote the story in full from The Japan Times:

Letters from kamikaze translated

KAGOSHIMA (Kyodo) The Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots has introduced a touch-panel display system with English translations of final letters and songs left behind by pilots who mounted suicide attacks during World War II.

The system provides photos and profiles of the pilots as well as photos of their final letters and songs with transcriptions in Japanese and English.

Many of the letters and songs were written in brush and ink with archaic terms. To help young people understand them, all kanji in the Japanese transcriptions are accompanied by kana to indicate their pronunciation.

The museum in Minamikyushu, Kagoshima Prefecture, has decided to provide the English translations as well in view of an increasing number of visitors from overseas, museum officials said.

"I want many people to know how the pilots felt when they wrote about their internal conflicts before leaving Chiran on kamikaze missions," said Takeshi Kawatoko, a museum official in charge of the English translations.

The town of Chiran, now part of the city of Minamikyushu, served as the Imperial Japanese Army's main air base for kamikaze attacks on ships near Okinawa.

The museum has also published "Mind of the Kamikaze," an English guidebook about the feelings of kamikaze pilots and how the Imperial army began suicide attacks.

1 comment:

the people downstairs said...

I saw a WWII movie ages ago that I can't recall the name of that had a brief scene in which a Japanese pilot was ordered to Kamikaze and the pilot was clearly nervous and almost teary eyed but without hesitation followed orders and climbed into the cockpit awkwardly.