The director and producer of a new film on Japan's WWII suicide pilots tell The Japan Times that the doomed warriors of myth were actually teenagers made to die for a lie.
The big question in the feature-length documentary "Tokko" is: Who exactly were the fabled tokkotai?
For 60 years, Western media has portrayed Japan's kamikaze pilots as fierce zealots steeled by the Bushido spirit of the samurai and eager to vaporize themselves and others for the glory of the Emperor. Closer to home and more recently, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's film "Ore wa Kimi no Tame ni Koso Shini ni Iku (For Those We Love)" this year recalled them as pure-spirited heroes on an idealistic crusade to free Asia from Western domination.