Blossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze (69 page)

[79]
Columbia Records remained in business in Japan – name unchanged – after the opening of hostilities, and went on to churn out some of the war’s most effective propaganda music before switching quickly back to jitterbug and love songs in time for the GIs to arrive for the Occupation. Like many other American corporate subsidiaries trapped in Axis territory during the war, Columbia (now owned by Sony) continued doing business as normal in its host country and co
llaborating with the local war effort as it saw fit.

[80]
Lyrics by Yatsuto Saijō, music by Yūji Koseki. Columbia Records (Japan), 1943.

[81]
Ohnuki (2002), p.162

[82]
There were three types of Yokaren, designated using the classical Japanese sequential nomenclature of Kō, Otsu and Hei, respectively. Kō cadets were boys who had at least three years of post-elementary school education, whether at junior high or vocational school level. Otsu cadets were boys who had only completed compulsory education. Because of the difference in educational background, the Otsu programs were longer, and their graduates were not promoted as quickly as Kō personnel. Hei cadets were from enlisted ranks of active servicemen, and were thus several years older than their Kō and Otsu count
erparts. See Tagaya (2004) for detailed treatment of Yokaren program.

[83]
The Japanese and American versions differ melodically, but are similar in length and tempo. Visitors to Yasukuni can hear it at regular intervals over the shrine’s loudspeaker system.

[84]
In Japanese,
seishinbō
and
battā
, respectively.

[85]
See Tagaya (2004) for details of Yokaren expansion.

[86]
Unlike the Darwinian policies that doomed “washouts” in American pilot training and other elite training programs to military careers which could be metaphorically likened to “shoveling shit in Louisiana,” in Patton’s immortal phrase, the shame of Yokaren failures was only temporary. Administrators would recycle physically capable washouts to the next class group coming in and these cadets would be given extra instruction until they succeeded. This “no member left behind” educational philosophy is a salient feature of the so-called Japanese group mentality Western observers – and Americans in particular – so often interpret as being robot-like, cold and inhuman. What – if any – effect this approach may have had on overall ability and esprit de corps of IJN pilots vis-à-vis their American counterparts is interesting to contemplate.

[87]
In both IJA and IJN pilot training programs in the later stages of the war, time spent in the observer or “passenger” seat of an Akatonbo was counted in solo flight hour tallies for log book entries to insure that cadets could meet requirements for pilot qualification on schedule. This policy of “doubling up” also helped to conserve fuel and
reduce wear on engine parts more desperately needed at the front than in rear area training schools.

[88]
Isshiki rikkō is short for Isshiki Rikujō Kōgekiki or “Type One Land-based Attack Plane.” The aircraft’s most famous WW2 deployments were during the brilliant Takijirō Ōnishi-planned mission that sank the British battleships Repulse and Prince of Wales off of Malaya in December 1941. Admiral Yamamoto was riding one when shot down over Buin in the Solomons in April 1943. Like so many other IJN designs, it
had superlative range and good speed which it enjoyed at the cost of sacrificing protective armor and self-sealing fuel tanks. The aircraft were called “Flying Lighters” by pilots of both sides of the conflict for their habit of exploding into fireballs as soon as they sustained hits in combat. See Yuzawa (1996) and Watanabe (2003) for more performance information on this aircraft Davis (1969) and Hammel (1992) provide graphic assessments of the aircraft’s performance from the perspective of Americans who shot it down

[89]
See Yuzawa (1995) and Nohara (2000) for performance details of the Shidenkai.

[90]
Takei, personal correspondence.

[91]
First sons and only children, in the traditional Japanese family model, are expected to assume responsibility for carrying on the family name and caring for parents in their dotage. The importance of this role is reflected in the special attention, respect and privileges afforded such children both inside and outside of the family. 

[92]
Kimata (2001), p.88.

[93]
Common Japanese written symbol of strong approval or enthusiastic praise, often used by teachers on pupils’ calligraphy practice sheets.

[94]
Kimata (2001), p.89

[95]
Japanese code names for projects or proposals often use this
maru
- prefix+key element suffix nomenclature convention.
Maru
, which means “circle”, refers to the circle actually drawn around the key element character when this nomenclature is written as a symbol. “Dai” in this case is taken from an alternate reading of Ōta’s name.

[96]
This top secret fuel was code named FTD6, and was a mixture of 60% cotton fibrous stabilizing filler, 3% potassium sulfate, 7% mono-nitro-naphthalene and 27% pure nitro-glycerin. (Kimata (2001) p.34). For further details on this weapon’s performance see Saeki (1991) and Naitō (1999).

[97]
Naitō, personal correspondence.

[98]
Jap
anese Morse code for the syllable
Yo
, meant here as an abbreviation of
Yoi
(“ready”). (Asano, personal correspondence)

[99]
The reason for using a tree-lined strip was to conceal activities there from the prying eyes of observers – and possible spies – lurking outside the perimeter fence of the high security installation. (Asano, personal correspondence)

[100]
The official name for the Marudai craft was
Ōka
(“Cherry Blossom”), and it was the latter nomenclature that was used in press releases after the Jinrai Unit began combat operations in March 1945. However, according to Mr. Takei, most pilots called it “Marudai” until the end of the war.

[101]
Japanese naval and army personnel did not “serve KP” in the sense traditionally abhorred by generations of American servicemen. In rear area posts such as Kōnoike, such duties were performed by specialized kitchen staff, and “KP” for Tokurō and his peers consisted o
f lugging full rice and stew pots prepared in the kitchen down to the barracks, then lugging the empty pots and cans back to the kitchen after chow (there were no “mess halls” on Japanese posts – personnel usually ate in their barracks or at their duty stations – the youngest personnel would drag the food cans around to wherever someone was waiting for chow). 

[102]
These packs contained several thousand calories worth of caramels and were intended to be used as pilot survival rations. They were normally found
in emergency medical kits on aircraft.

[103]
For more details of Kōnoike base life, see Kamisu Chō Kyōiku Iinkai (1995).

[104]
Kaigun Jinrai Butai Senyukai, 1995

[105]
Suzuki-san’s comment in the original Japanese was: “
Dakara, hotondo, yakusoku dōri ni korosareteshimatta
.” (1:02:45) Readers knowledgeable in Japanese will note that responsibility is tactfully vague in this passive utterance.

[106]
In a peacetime curriculum, they would have graduated the following March.

[107]
Suzuki had already received and passed a preliminary physical clearing him for cavalry service, which at this point in the war probably would have meant Manchurian border guard service.

[108]
It may help the reader to envisage this course as a WW2 Japanese version of what Richard Gere was put through in “An Officer And A Gentleman”.

[109]
Literally “martial arts place”, in this case the standard judo/kendo gymnasium found on any established Japanese military or naval base.

[110]
This was yet another monster propaganda hit for the Japanese subsidiary of a Western record company. Over sixty years after its debut, the ditty remains a favorite for drunken karaoke carousers, usually of the businessman type to whom the song’s message of cheery yet selfless dedication to dreary work no doubt has an immediate poignancy.

[111]
Inochi wo kakete
in the original Japanese, which can also be translated as “risk one’s life” or even just “give it one’s all.”

[112]
See Smethurst (1974) for details of the establishment and function of this organization in Japanese society.

[113]
Suzuki, personal correspondence.
Kamidana
and
butsudan
are home altars for Shinto and Buddhist worship, respectively. In mid-twentieth century Japan, most homes would have had both, with the
kamidana
being the domain of actual deities, both natural and ancestral, who watched over house and family, theologically similar in importance and function to Lares in ancient Roman homes. The
butsudan
, however, was less of a place for communication with deities than it was a place to mourn and report news to recently deceased (within one, perhaps two generations) family members. The idea that the soul of a son in uniform could be addressed in both places seems to suggest that combat death would jump a recently departed soul several generations up the ancestral line to be put on a level with older ancestors as household protectors. That the death was incurred while ostensibly in the Emperor’s service would also give robust Shinto legitimacy to such early deification. The gunshin institution, of course, is the best and ultimate example of this process. While many Japanese families paid lip service to such rites, the degree of actual faith involved is impossible to estimate with any accuracy. They could perhaps be more reasonably considered as expressions of patriotic devotion than as religious observance.

[114]
Fukagawa, personal correspondence

[115]
Ibid.

[116]
This relationship – known in Japanese as
amae
– is best explained in Takeo Doi’s
The Anatomy of Dependence
(1973).

[117]
Ibid. Ruth Benedict (1946), pp.248-252. Benedict gives the classic Western interpretation of this and other facets of Japanese character in her seminal
The Chysanthemum and the Sword
, which is highly recommended for any reader interested in understanding Japan and Japanese society.

[118]
This is a reconstruction based on Suzuki-
san’s recollection of the conversation.

[119]
Only one Etajima man – LT Kentarō Mitsuhashi INA ’42 – died in combat as an Ōka pilot. (Jinrai Butai Senyūkai (1997))

[120]
The type – woefully obsolete by 1944 – is today best remembered for its role in the Pearl Harbor raid.

[121]
Nine CV fleet carriers and eight CVL light carriers. (Morison, (1958), p.90.)

[122]
This is a reconstruction based on Suzuki-san’s recollection of the document.

[123]
Takei, personal correspondence.

[124]
Naitō (1999), p.98

[125]
http://www.history.navy.mil
/photos/sh-fornv/japan/japsh-s/shinano.htm

[126]
http://64.124.221.191/Shinano.htm 

[127]
Only the officers and a fraction of the enlisted men were checked out on the Ōka trainer – and thus qualified for a combat mission – by this point.

[128]
“Grass hand” or
sōshu
is a cursive calligraphy style that, at its best, can seem paradoxically and simultaneously highly stylized and spontaneous. Originated by classical Chinese poets, the style requires many years of training with a calligraphy brush to master and has traditionally always been viewed in Japan as a sign of great erudition and impeccable taste. Suzuki (1959) provides several good examples, especially plate 22.

[129]
Naitō (1999), p.106.

[130]
H.Halloran, personal correspondence

[131]
w
ww.haphalloran.com

[132]
Takaki & Sakaida (2001).

[133]
H. Halloran, personal correspondence. Halloran would go on to spend seven months as a POW – including a miserable day on display in a cage at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo. He also spent several months with an illustrious cellmate: Major Gregory “Pappy” Boyington of USMC Black Sheep Squadron fame. Readers interested in more information about Halloran’s experiences are urged to avail themselves of his memoirs, “Hap’s War”. The book is available through his website

[134]
An IJA branch of service similar in political and counterintelligence functions to the Nazi Gestapo, while also responsible for a conventional military police role. See Harries (1991) for more information on its function.

[135]
“First spring wind.” A powerful blast of southwesterly wind that whips through Japan every year in late February or early March on the leading edge of the massive, humid low-pressure warm front that banishes winter weather from the archipelago for the next nine months.