Summer is the time of year when the Japanese remember the dead, most notably during the Bon festival, and the end of World War II, though the collective memory of the latter fades with each passing year. The Japanese are probably better at forgetting than other people in the world (indeed, the culture insists on it, sometimes, holding that a clean slate is the most ideal state of being), but there are some who want to look back, ponder, and keep the flame burning.
When Risa Morimoto learned that her late uncle had been a kamikaze pilot, she had one of two choices: behave like other members of her family and gently avoid discussing the issue, or try to find out about her uncle and others like him. Her filmmaker instincts told her to go for the latter and she decided to come to Japan for the first time in 11 years.
"Tokko (Wings of Defeat)" is an intriguing and revelatory work about tokkotai survivors (that there were several hundred kamikaze pilots who trained for their missions but never flew, due to aborted missions and ultimately the Japanese surrender, is little known outside of Japan) and the way they had dealt with their lives and past since 1945.