Japan’s human bombs

Press, 25 January 1986, Page 20

Japan’s human bombs

The Kamikazes. By Edwin P. Hoyt. Granada, 1985. 352 pp. Illustrations. $10.45 (paperback). (Reviewed by Oliver Riddell) The word "kamikaze” has something of a debased currency these days. It is used, for instance, to describe the skills (or lack of them) and fearlessness of Manila’s taxi drivers. A more appropriate use of the word is to describe the Shi-ite death squads in Beirut. To personalise it, a “kamikaze” is someone who has decided to make 100 per cent certain of killing you by killing himself at the same time in such a way that you cannot escape. This is an extremely useful book to recount the saga of the true kamikazes — the Japanese pilots and submariners of the last 18 months of the Second World War in the North Pacific. (In parentheses, it is a pity New Zealanders do not know more about this episode of the war. A generation has grown up watching films about American soldiers fighting Germans, and being kicked out of Vietnam, and knows almost nothing of the great skills and courage of the pilots and sailors of the United States Pacific fleet in 1944-45. A better knowledge of this might influence popular attitudes towards A.N.Z.U.S.) The story of the kamikazes is the story of a Greek tragedy unfolding — inevitable, but sublime. By 1944 the Japanese had lost the war, and knew it. But they were unable to negotiate surrender because that had been made “unconditional” by the Allies. To them, unconditional surrender meant giving up the Emperor and' thousands of years of history. So the* Japanese retreated into their psyche

and came up with voluntary suicide as a tactical combat weapon. Not all the admirals and generals ever accepted it, but more and more came to do so when it seemed the only weapon having any impact on the Americans. This impact was both exaggerated and understated. The exaggeration lay in overstating the physical Impact on the United States fleet; the understatement lay in not realising the terror the tactics inspired. The kamikaze turned his plane into a bomb. Its bombs were not released on to targets, but flown into them. The results were devastating, and not just for the pilot. Many United States vessels were forced out of action; many thousands of servicemen lost their lives. It would have been worse, but for the courage of the personnel of the United States fleet, the skill of their anti-aircraft gunners, and the knowhow of their pilots. The ■ kamikazes needed quality aircraft and experienced pilots to be effective, but by this stage of the war both were missing. The tactical weapon born of desperation was bom too late to be decisive. Yet its effectiveness was such that it was a key component in the decision by the United States military chiefs to use the atomic bomb on Japan. This book is a good, popular, but account of the kamikazes. It is well, written by an author who makes his living as a popular historian, with hype to keep the reader’s interest, but plenty of sound factual background as well. Its merit is such that it has taken less than a year to republish the hardcover as a paperback.