It takes a lot for a government to force civilians to the front lines of combat. But it takes something else entirely, to get civilians to suicide into the enemy, with no chance for survival. This is the case for the Japanese. The Kamikaze, translated into something along the lines of ¨divine wind¨ is the act of diving a plane headfirst into enemy lines, causing massive destruction, and almost certain death. So how could a government get people to do such a thing? It seems to be an from both propaganda, and more importantly, the social atmosphere of Japan at the time.
During WWII, the people of Japan operated differently than a country like America did. Japan was very focused on such forces as honor and being part of the whole. Everything you do is not for yourself, it is for the whole, and working for the whole is how you achieve honor. This went so far, as to end up dishonoring yourself would often lead to suicide, so as to try and cleanse your dishonor from your family name. This way, I believe, is how the Japanese warlords used their civilians. Not fighting for their country meant dishonor, not dying on the front lines meant dishonor and running away if it was applicable, meant, of course, dishonor.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-kamikaze-attack-of-the-war-begins
Nice post Christian. It was interesting to read about the Kamikaze during WWII and what incentivized the Japanese people to do it. Honor was clearly a big part of Japanese culture, but it surprised me that people would even be willing to die to defend their honor. Thanks for an insightful blog post.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Christian! Had no idea how ingrained the ideal of honor was in the Japanese. Super insightful and a great little snippet of the Japanese war tactics. While I would have liked a little more detail on the Kamikazi, I think you did a fantastic job explaining how it added to the as you said social atmosphere of Japan during the time of the war. Something I found to be quite interesting is that Kamikaze planes had a low accuracy in hitting their target. Only about 14-19% of the planes ended up hitting intended targets while others missed because of pilots error or being shot down by enemy ships. And craziest of all, this type of pilot only required 40hours of training! Its interesting to think that you can join the American army if you can do 1st grade math of counting cigarettes or become a pilot with only 3ish days of training.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/5-facts-japans-deadly-kamikaze-pilots-mm.html