Memoirs of a Kamikaze: A World War II Pilot's Inspiring Story of Survival, Honor and Reconciliation (Kazuo Odachi, Shigeru Ota, Hiroyoshi Nishijima, Alexander Bennett (Translator))

This is a short book (163 pages) on the life of a Kamikaze pilot and I mean life as in his whole life. The book is therefore not purely about his days as a Kamikaze pilot in the Second World War. The book is divided roughly into two parts: the first half is on his experience in War and the second is about his life after the war, which is mostly about his days as a policeman and his passion for Kendo.

The intention of the authors is not write a book exploring the use of Kamikaze as a "special attack" force or to tell the history of those who were recruited into the force. Rather, they wanted to record the story of a surviving Kamikaze pilot who is in the twilight of his years in the hope of telling his story to let future generations understand the plight and the complex psyche of a Kamikaze pilot.

And complex they are.

Depending on which end you stand looking at them, one can either think of them as fanatics (for after all, who would volunteer for such missions knowing that there is zero chance of survival) or as more current Japanese view tries to paint them, teens who did not want to die but did not have a choice.

So what did an actual Kamikaze pilot say?

"None of us had the audacity to reject this 'volunteer proposal' even though we were told it was to be a 'personal decision.' " (pg. 55)

And yet a few pages on,

"They did it! I will too! Give me a carrier to smash into!" (pg. 58)

How does one reconcile these two sentiments coming from the same person?

He did give a glimpse into how they actually looked at it. He related the times when fellow pilots were chosen for missions for the following day they were sitting around trying to bid each other farewell. There was no exuberance one would expect from people eager to hit the enemy. Instead, the "chosen ones" were telling the rest what they have bequeathed, cigarettes in one case, some food in another. There was this air of resignation, those going on their missions trying to psyche themselves to die honourably, those staying behind wondering if they would be next.

Overall, this is not a bad book but it was not able to delve deeper into the Kamikaze part because it is after all, the story of one man. But this leaves the reader feeling unsatisfied. On top of this, there are also a few things that might seem trivial, but really need to be tightened up. If the authors refer to what is now East Malaysia and Kalimantan as Borneo, they should not refer to Malaya as Malaysia, which would not be in existence for another 20 years. Also for such a short book, there are quite a few editorial mistakes, hardly in keeping with the spirit of Kendo which was so much brandished around in the book.