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.

暴走軍國：近代日本的戰爭記憶 (沙青青)

This book was almost in my 2-star list when I started. The author tried to trace the rise of pre-war Japanese militarism to the Russo-Japanese War but started off talking about Japan's Longest Day, almost an abridged version of Kazutoshi Hando's book of the same title. Hando's book happens to be one of my favourite, this abridged version does it no justice and only succeeded in looking like a hastily done summary. The following chapter on the Russo-Japanese War was factual, but not very enlightening. This was followed by Chapter 3 that talked about the rivalry between the Imperial Sect and the Control Sect centering around the 226 rebellion. This is an interesting chapter but again, the events have been even better handled by Kazutoshi Hando in his book Showa Shi.

And then came a change. The author continued to narrate the story behind Japan's slide into militarism but this time added his own analyses and insights. I found myself sticking a lot more Post-it slips because he begins to provide some intricate insights to the Japanese psyche. Here's one example: in Chapter 5 when talking about the different military men known to be very knowledgeable about China, he explained why some of them started off Chinese-leaning in their early careers but transformed into people who became tremendously angry with China, accusing it of betrayal or dishonesty (pg. 186). While this view of the author might be right or wrong, he made a persuasive case and that's what I like about the later part of the book. I do not agree with him all the time, but I respect his views and especially the way he argues for them.

The chapter on post-war Japanese psyche, especially the one on the Yasukuni Shrine displays his formidable intellect through his clarity of thoughts and articulation. Why do the japanese continue to honour the Class-A war criminals? Why does the rest of the world have a problem with them? You'll find the answers here.

The final chapter was a pleasant surprise. The author took a look at current Japanese attitudes towards the Japanese's pacifist constitution through Japanese a popular cultural product - anime. Admittedly he focused only on Patlabor 2 - The Movie, but few "serious historians" took this path. As one who recently took an interest in linking anime to Japanese's post-war narrative, I find this chapter entertaining and well-considered.

This book is an easy read mainly because of the author's style. If the first few chapters are a little simplified, the rest are both educational and thoughtful. Those of us who are interested in understanding pre-war japanese militarism and who are equally interested in where the Japanese might go from here would benefit much from this book.

台湾走过烽火边缘 (王景弘)

This is quite an interesting book about how Taiwan suffered collateral damage in WW2 as a result of the US's plans in the Pacific. Taiwan's position at that time was not ambiguous, she was a colony of Japan after she was annexed by the Japanese after the First Sino-Japanese War. Based on the book, there were 80433 Taiwanese who served in the military under the Japanese, not a huge number. But while the islands in the Pacific such as Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa were ravaged by fighting, Taiwan did not see battles on the island. And this brings us to one interesting but relatively unknown fact - the USA did consider quite seriously invading Taiwan. In fact, the 10th Army made extensive preparations for it. But in the end when it came to the decision between invading Taiwan and the Philippines, it was the latter that was chosen because of General MacArthur's argument that the US owes an obligation to the people in the Philippines.

However, while Taiwan was spared the invasion, she had to suffer numerous bombings by the US 5th Air Force because the invasion of the Philippines requires immobilising the airfields of the Japanese in Taiwan, this later extends to the war-related industrial compounds.

This book offers a few interesting pieces of information and some thought-provoking questions. First of all, there are actually very few sources that talks about the role of Taiwan in the Second World War, so a comprehensive discussion like this one is quite valuable. Secondly, the last chapter that discusses the fate of Taiwan after the war is especially instructive. That lack of clarity with which she was dealt with would result in her equally unenviable situation today, 75 years after the Japanese surrendered. The question of how the Taiwanese looked at the Second World War was much a result of that aftermath and also that of the Chinese Civil War when the KMT retreated to the island. Given the reprieve, Taiwanese looked at the Second World War as the Eight Years of Resistance (八年抗战). But the author asked, how was it eight years or resistance? Was there resistance at all for the indigenous Taiwanese in the first place?

One more question, something counterfactual, is what if the Americans had invaded Taiwan instead of the Philippines? If the Americans did that, it is likely that they would continue to occupy the island and would the KMT have the option of retreating to that island after the Civil War? If not, what would become of Taiwan then?

This is a useful book insofar as the Taiwan parts are concerned. However, there are parts that are less useful and I wonder if they should even be in the book if not for the sake of completeness. Parts like how the Japanese started the war, their conquests in Southeast Asia, and how they came to surrender are better addressed elsewhere. Their presense in the book neither relates to the Taiwanese situation nor did they add anything to existing knowledge, given their rather skimpy treatment. There is one inaccuracy when the author was describing what happened in that Imperial Conference when Tojo reported that war with the USA was inevitable. The author said that the Emperor heard the news and did not say anything (pg. 44, 一言不发) when we know that he went on to read a poem written by his grandfather. This mistake is a costly one, for it calls into question the accuracy of the information in the book, this being quite a noticeable one. The other one is of course, the common one about the guns in Singapore facing the wrong direction that has been comprehensively debunked by other scholars (Hack 2003).

In view of the dearth of information on Taiwan's role in the Second World War (admittedly relatively minor), this book is a good addition to the small pool. Unfortunately, it spends about a third of the book trying to complete the picture of the War in the Pacific distracting the reader and extending it achieving no better outcome.