Kamikaze

Commentary | COUNTERPOINT Sep 9, 2017

Abe's extremism undermines Japan's interests

by Jeff Kingston

Alas, Japan's extremists have still not given up trying to find honor in the nation's 1945 wartime defeat and and the ideology that led to it.

National / History Aug 4, 2015

86-year-old recalls her WWII job: waving goodbye to suicide pilots

by Yuri Kageyama

As young army pilots took off on suicide missions in the closing days of World War II, the schoolgirls in this Kyushu town waved handkerchiefs and branches of pink blossoms. "Remembering that still makes me tremble," said Chino Kuwashiro, now a tiny 86-year-old with a ...

National / History Jun 28, 2015

Kamikaze survivors debunk stereotypes in stories of sacrifice

by Yuri Kageyama

The pilots filed into the room and were presented with a form that asked if they wanted to be kamikaze. It was multiple-choice, and there were three answers: "I passionately wish to join," "I wish to join" and "I don't wish to join." This was ...

Issues | JUST BE CAUSE May 3, 2015

Japan-U.S. effort to tell suicide pilots' stories dodges controversy, wins praise

by Debito Arudou

JBC sits down for an interview with Dr. M.G. Sheftall of Shizuoka University about the kamikaze phenomenon and what makes this exhibition unique.

National Apr 12, 2015

USS Missouri hosts Kamikaze exhibit to mark 70th anniversary of attack

A kamikaze exhibition opened Saturday aboard the USS Missouri, now a memorial in Hawaii's Pearl Harbor, to mark the 70th anniversary of a Japanese pilot's suicide attack on the battleship during World War II. The exhibition shows how young Kamikaze pilots lived before crashing their ...

National Mar 3, 2015

Two kamikaze pilots, two late reprieves, one pacifist view

by Maiko Takahashi

Hisashi Tezuka knew his life had been spared when he heard the Emperor's voice crackling through the wireless. As Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's wartime surrender on Aug. 15, 1945, the young kamikaze pilot was on a train to the island of Shikoku to carry out ...

National / History Nov 5, 2014

Philippines man leads lonely quest to honor kamikaze pilots

by Ronron Calunsod

Seventy years after Japan formed its first kamikaze unit in the Philippines, one local resident remains adamant that the suicide pilots were noble warriors who should be honored in the nation their military occupied. Daniel Dizon, 84, is co-founder of the Kamikaze Memorial Society of ...

National / History Aug 14, 2014

Surrender had lasting impact on many Japanese after war's end

by Ayako Mie

Many Japanese people remember Aug. 15 as the day World War II ended. Sixty-nine years ago today, in a speech broadcast on the radio, Emperor Hirohito announced that Japan had notified the Allied powers of its acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration. But the war did ...

National May 15, 2014

Taiwanese kamikaze looks back

by Ko Shu-Ling

Toward the end of World War II, following a series of military defeats, and faced with a rapidly deteriorating ability to defend the homeland, Japan began launching aerial suicide attacks on Allied forces in the Pacific. These were called kamikaze attacks, which had a dramatic ...

National / Science & Health | NATURAL SELECTIONS Mar 15, 2014

Historical ifs and weathers or not

by Rowan Hooper

To suggest that history is shaped by chance weather events and climatic variation doesn't lend it quite the same gravitas as if it were wrought by great leaders. It certainly isn't as inspirational. But such processes can be just as important — and the ...