As a child growing up in California in the 1980s, I learned my share of Japanese words. Sushi, which my family would get for a treat on birthdays. Mochi (chewy rice cake), ramen and karaoke — all encountered at the Japanese shopping arcade downtown.
And then there was kamikaze. I don’t know where I learned that word. I think it must have been burned so deeply into America’s collective consciousness during World War II that even a child 40 years later absorbed it automatically.
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KEYWORDS
Taiwan,
Kyushu,
Kagoshima,
Kamikaze,
Satsuma domain,
HMS Formidable,
Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots,
Chiran,
Battle of Okinawa,
tokkou,
Mongol invasion,
divine wind
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