Riders on the Storm : The Japanese Kamikaze

Shikishima no Yamato-gokoro wo hito towaba, asahi ni niou yamazakura bana

“If someone asks about the Yamato spirit [Spirit of Old/True Japan] of Shikishima [a poetic name for Japan] — it is the flowers of yamazakura [mountain cherry blossom ] that are fragrant in the Asahi [rising sun].”

Motoori Norinaga

The Japanese Kamikaze pilots were some of the most feared adversaries in the Pacific throughout the Second World War; warriors who were unafraid to take their own lives to serve a greater strategy.
The concept behind the Kamikaze pilots dates centuries back to Feudal Japan and the Bushido, or way of the Samurai, where warriors would rather take their own lives than suffer defeat or surrender to the enemy.
The idea of honour has been an important concept of Japanese lifestyle and warfare up until very recently, with the sudden modernization of Japanese culture. Nevertheless, the code of honour is still carried forward into Yakuza tradition even to this day and is often romanticized in Japanese crime cinema.
One could say that the Kamikaze tactics employed during World War II effectively killed off the traditional Japanese honour codes as the military and the civilians recognized the economic costs, but more importantly the human cost, as hundreds of Japanese families received the news that their sons and husbands had died, yet for what cost?

The site Kamikaze Images contains many photos of the effects of Kamikaze attacks on the US fleet during WWII, notably during the battle of Okinawa. More interesting, however, is the archive of letters sent by pilots to their families in the days before their fatal attacks on US and UK targets. Please note that the images and the excerpts in this post are taken from the aforementioned site.

Yukio Araki was only seventeen years old when he crashed his plane into an American ship on May 27th, 1945. Before his fateful voyage, he wrote the following letter to his parents.

Dear Father and Mother,

I trust you and my brothers are doing well recently.

It has been decided that at last I will go to take part in the Battle of Okinawa as a member of the special attack forces. I am deeply moved. I only look forward to sinking a ship with a single blow.

When I look back, I apologize for not being devoted to you in any way for some ten years to this day.
Through teaching by various senior officers after I entered the Army, I now devote myself to my country as a special attack force member. Please find pleasure in your desire for my loyalty to the emperor and devotion to parents.
I have no regrets. I just go forward on my path.
I ask that you teach my three younger brothers so they can serve our country as noble airmen. I sincerely hope you take good care of yourselves and make strenuous efforts on the home front.
Please give my regards to all my relatives and to everyone in the neighborhood association.

Sayonara,
Yukio Araki
72nd Shinbu Squadron

He then wrote the following letter to his brother.

Dear Older Brother,

I want to give my thanks to you for taking care of me for a long time. I go to die with no regrets and will earnestly make a hit.

I apologize that up to now I have not been able to repay you in any way for your kindness to me. Please be glad that this dispatch to the front will be my repayment to you.

Today as the war situation is becoming more and more intense, it is necessary for me to crash my 17-year-old body into the enemy. This year you also will enter the military, and I sincerely expect that you will exert yourself with hard work and devoted military service.

I have something to ask of you and our parents. I especially would like that you give a good education to our three younger brothers and that in the future they follow after me as fine Japanese men.

Let’s meet under Kudan’s flowers.

Yukio

Reading these letters gives us great insight into the way the mind of a Kamikaze pilot worked. For centuries, the Japanese people had been instilled with great pride in the sense of honour that came with their culture. Yet there was also the sense of a superior tactic taking place; the pilots in their small fighter planes were able to take down a whole warship with just one strike (as was seen with the USS Bunker Hill), this was in some way seen as proof of the divine superiority of Japan’s military.

The American viewpoint of these attacks understandably demonises these attacks. Many veteran survivors of Kamikaze attacks often state that these attacks had a certain personal connotation to them; these planes weren’t just the “enemy” anymore, they were something more: an enemy who would stop at nothing to ensure the death of their adversary. Understandably, at this point one would ask “why do they want ME dead?”.

Nevertheless, a small minority of veterans are able to push the horrifying images aside and recognize the fact that these pilots were indeed exceptionally brave, and were able to respect them for that.

The Kamikaze undoubtedly sped up Japan’s defeat in ’45, as they were losing planes and pilots through these attacks. Nevertheless, subconsciously the Japanese mourned the death of a way of life: the code of honour that had seeped into mainstream society over the centuries. As well as destroying battleships, these pilots marked the end of an era in Japanese culture.

From beginning to end: a history of the French Popular Front

The year is 1934, five years before the outbreak of the Second World War and world politics are undergoing a drastic change. The divides between the left and right are becoming all the more apparent, and France is no exception to this great divide.
The French far-right were getting impatient with the apparent lack of progress in the government, and claimed that it was run by the French leftists, mainly the radical party. There was trouble brewing beneath the surface which erupted on the 6th of February in the form of riots instigated by supporters of the far-right. These protesters formed large groups based on the political movements they were part of. There were several main groups of protesters:

• Action Française, the forerunners in the French far-right movement. They were by far the most numerous during the protests and dedicated to restoring monarchy in France.
• La Jeunesse Patriote, strikingly similar to Mussolini and Hitler’s youth movements, they boasted to have numerous important political connections.
• Francisme, an organization holding fascist ideologies.
• Le Croix de Feu, an organization composed of war veterans.

The riots came at an opportune time internationally speaking, as both Hitler and Mussolini were now in power and ready to finance the far-right if they were to attempt a coup d’etat.
All of a sudden the streets of Paris were flooded with angry protesters. The police and national guard were called out into the streets and clashed violently with the opposition.
The photo on the left shows the extension of the violence in the city. A young man throws a potato covered in razorblades at a police horse (out of shot). This was but an example of the violence occurring sporadically throughout the center of Paris; and was far from over.

In face of the recent rioting, the left began to fear for the future of the country. The right was rapidly gaining popularity. Something had to be done quickly in order to counter the rise of the right in France. The SFIO (french socialist party) had suggested that the leftist parties joined forces in the upcoming legislative elections in 1936, but the PCF (french communist party) refused to do so. After the rise of Communism in Russia, the French socialists split into two factions, the SFIO, who opposed the Comintern controlling all of the international socialist parties, and the PCF who were loyal to the Soviets. As a consequence of the split, the Comintern forbade the PCF to join forces with the other socialists. Then, a major U-turn occured and the Soviets decided it would be a better idea for the French left to join forces to oppose the far-right. The SFIO and PCF then joined up with the radicals and thus was born the Front Populaire. While they didn’t share all of each-other’s views on political legislations, they were able to reach a compromise where the two other parties would back whoever appeared to be the strongest, in this case the SFIO. Along came the legislative elections and Léon Blum, head of the SFIO, became the French prime minister with Daladier (a radical) as his executive. The PCF decided to stay out of it all.
This was also notably the first time where three women had participated in the government, even before women had the right to vote. Things seemed good for the left at long last.

The Front Populaire then set about to changing the workings of French society and French economy, notably by inciting workers to strike. The workers striked and took control of the factories, thus making production impossible and immobilizing the economy. The radicals were incredibly unhappy about this, as they themselves did not support the proletariat, but the small enterprises, and urged workers to go back to work.
On the 7th June 1936, the Matignon Accords were put into practice. These accords allowed

• The existence and creation of worker syndicates, most notably the CGT (Comité General du Travail)
• Business owners and the state to have official representatives
• A substantial raise in minimum wage.
• Two legal weeks of paid leave per year
• A reduction of working hours, to 40 hours per week.

The business owners were understandably outraged, as they felt that they were being made to pay their workers more for less work. This proved to be an exceptional opportunity for the far-right to leap in and exploit this feeling of betrayal.
Owners therefore reduced their investments and started to invest their Capital abroad. The reduction in working hours also meant less production and therefore a higher demand, which forced prices to go up. The radicals weren’t happy with all of the social unrest, but also were quite annoyed with the government’s foreign policy.
In 1936, while Hitler was secretly rebuilding the German army, a situation similar to the French situation unfolded, with the Fruente Popular winning the legislative elections in Spain. Unfortunately, things were about to take a turn for the worst, as the Spanish right reacted with a coup d’etat led by General Franco. This sparked up a civil war between the Nacionales, who were led by Franco and financed by Mussolini and Hitler, and the Republicans who were financed by Russia, and had many young communists from all over the world joining forces with them.
The radicals decided to stay out of it, as did the SFIO. The front populaire officially declared not to intervene, but were secretly shipping arms across the Pyrenees into Spain to fuel the war effort. In charge of this operation was Pierre Cot, who worked with Jean Moulin, the future head of the French resistance and a native of Béziers.
The right wing were starting to exploit the feelings of the French people, putting up posters which played on the fears of Communism in France. One of the most famous strategies employed was in the form of a call published in over three hundred newspapers across the country by the far-right:

French people!
Despite the hard lesson we have been taught over the past four months, you’re still ready to believe everything will work itself out.
Nothing can work out while those who want to bring the Soviets into the country are in power.
Blum’s reign will finish one of these days either miserably or tragically.
The communist party is waiting for this opportunity to deliver their final desperate gestures, proclaim a general strike and try, in the light of provoked disarray, to institute their dictatorship and their inevitable reign of shame and horror, [...] as in Spain where the elections of the Fruente Popular ended up in a bloody catastrophe.
The same peril exists here.
French people of all opinions:
Have the courage to look the events that are being prepared in the face. This is the only way you will save your house, your land, your fortune large or small, your work, your freedom, your life.

A campaign of anti-semitism was started against Léon Blum, as well as a smear campaign against Roger Salenegro which claimed he had deserted during the first world war. In response to this campaign, Salenegro commited suicide.
The far-right parties also underwent a makeover, donning new names. Le Croix de Feu became the PSF (Parti Sociale français). A terrorist group was even founded, known as the CSAR (Comité Secret D’action Revolutionnaire), the Secret Comity of Revolutionary Action, who were well trained and had hundreds of hidden weapons stashes dotted around Paris. They were about 12000 men strong and backed by Mussolini, Hitler and Franco. Many rich members of the CSAR split off and created their own enterprises, the most famous being cosmetics company Loréal.
In 1938, Léon Blum decommissioned as Prime Minister, thus calling the end of the FP.

Not a red… but an orange revolution

From 2004-2005, there were a series of protests and demonstrations in the Ukraine which have been dubbed as “The Orange Revolution”. This revolution was any leftists’ dream in response to the unbelievable amount of political corruption, voter coercion and electoral fraud. The revolution mostly consisted of general civil disobedience, sit ins and general strikes. Ironically enough, the slogan for Viktor Yanukovych (the former president of the Ukraine) and his electoral campaign was ‘Hope is good, confidence is better’. Seems his idea of confidence was the confidence he had in his chances of being able to pull off major electoral fraud.
The difference between the Orange Revolution and general anarchy was the fact that the majority of the demonstrations were peaceful, something which could be learned from, especially by the un-evolved mouth breathers who beat up random people, all in the name of Revolution. The government can’t take forceful measures (as we’ve all seen in Burma more recently), for fear of an international backlash, so they really have no choice but to give in to the demands of Citizen Joe.
So two years on, and what’s changed? Well, the Ukraine is currently in the middle of an election, and to many people’s surprise, the democratic alliance of Viktor Yushchenko (the current president) and Yulia Tymoshenko are slightly ahead in the polls.

So this recent victory of Democracy over Deceit got me thinking. We need an Orange Revolution in the USA. I know that most Americans don’t trust ‘dem bastard Eastern European commies’(sic), but with more and more people calling to impeach Bush and his cronies, it could just work. Ideally, the best time to have started the revolution would have been after Bush got in the first time. Remember, he blatantly rigged the polls in order to get in. The question is, why was there no reaction? Were the American public content to simply sit in a field chewing cud all day, while their Supreme Leader, Rev. Dubya Bush ran things with an iron fist? Why the hell didn’t people rise up and smash the government down through peaceful protest, civil mischief and demonstrations seen only in a Revolutionary’s wet dream? If enough people simply refused to work, the economy would crumble, and the government would have no choice but to consider alternative options. Problems like this don’t simply go away; you can’t close your eyes and hope for it to get the message.
So why didn’t people decide to take action? The answer all lies in the Kapitalist-Über-Alles society that America has become. It’s the ultimate consumer society, and what do you need to consume? That’s right, money. And you don’t get paid if you go on strike. It seems people just can’t live without their tabloids and their junk food. Alas, we’ve fallen into the age where creature comforts and Jerry Springer has taken over the need for democracy.

Take from this what you will. But at least try to consider the fact that maybe you CAN make a difference.

Stay safe,

James