Figure 1.--The major Japanese military code was unyielding allegiance to Emperor and country. There was no shortage of voluteers to fly Kamikaze missions, although not all the pilots were truly volunteers. There were three times the number of volunteers as there were available planes.

The Kamikaze pilots were generally recruited from young, often idealistic students. They were youth not men. Most were older teenagers drafted before completing their studies. TYhis included many university students and even some high school students. Many had at least some training in science and technology making them more suitable for pilot training than the uneducated peasantry or unban youth with klimited schooling. Most of the Kamikaze pilots were students. Some believed that because of their sacrifice for the Emperor God, that the the Kamikaze campaign would save Japan from defeat. But regardless of thast, the Americans were depicted as such monsters that they believed they had no real choice, but to resuist. There were, however, a wide range of feelings. Some of the pilots saw the War as lost, but felt duty compelled to then to sacrifice themselves. Others were youths anxious to be treated as adult men. They were not, as often depicted mindless fanatics. Their country through no fault of their own was imperiled and they saw resisting the Americans as their duty, to both protect their country and their people. The overwhelming characteristic is the normality of these young men and the families from which they came. A good example is an unidentified middle-class family in 1944. It seems very lkely that young Americans confronted with similar circumstances, mamely facing invasion by geniocidal invaders, would have reacted similarly. Of course the Americans were not genocidal monsters, but that is what these young men had been told and believed.

Created: 12:29 PM 8/2/2023
Last updated: 12:29 PM 8/2/2023