Barts Unisex Kamikaze Bomber Hat

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Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko (2007). Kamikaze Diaries: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers. University of Chicago Press. p.10. ISBN 978-0226620923 . Retrieved 2 June 2021. For the first time, my father presented before me a short sword forged by Awataguchi Yoshimitsu, a renowned swordsmith during the Kamakura period [1192-1333]. The sword was the very same one which Rikyu is believed to have used when he ended his life through harakiri [honorable suicide]. As he set it before my eyes I was told, “Take a good look at this [before you go].” Yuri Kageyama of Associated Press wrote: “Books and movies have depicted them as crazed suicide bombers who screamed "Banzai" as they met their end. But interviews with survivors and families by The Associated Press, as well as letters and documents, offer a different portrait — of men driven by patriotism, self-sacrifice and necessity. The world they lived in was like that multiple-choice form: It contained no real options. [Source: Yuri Kageyama, Associated Press, June 17, 2015 +++] DiGiulian, Tony (September 2006). "United States of America 20 mm/70 (0.79") Marks 2, 3 & 4". navweaps.com . Retrieved 25 February 2007.

On 11 March, the U.S. carrier USS Randolph was hit and moderately damaged at Ulithi Atoll, in the Caroline Islands, by a kamikaze that had flown almost 4,000km (2,500mi) from Japan, in a mission called Operation Tan No. 2. On 20 March, the submarine USS Devilfish survived a hit from an aircraft just off Japan. Saigo no Tokkōtai [88] (最後の特攻隊, The Last Kamikaze in English), released in 1970, produced by Toei, directed by Junya Sato and starring Kōji Tsuruta, Ken Takakura and Shinichi Chiba At the time, Ko Nishimura, my comrade and training partner who would eventually go on to become an actor after the war, was reluctant to express any eagerness. But I submitted the paper after circling “Ardent wish,” persuading Nishimura that he had to because we “have to write down our name, so that’s not an option.” In the end, all our members were assigned to the unit. But I couldn’t be like Rikyu. Nishimura would say, “I don’t want to die.” I found myself replying, “I can’t commit harakiri.” Before the formation of kamikaze units, pilots had made deliberate crashes as a last resort when their aircraft had suffered severe damage and they did not want to risk being captured or wanted to do as much damage to the enemy as possible, since they were crashing anyway. Such situations occurred in both the Axis and Allied air forces. Axell and Kase see these suicides as "individual, impromptu decisions by men who were mentally prepared to die". [12] According to some sources, on 14 October 1944, USS Reno was hit by a deliberately crashed Japanese aircraft. [24] Rear Admiral Masafumi Arima

It's all a lie that they left filled with braveness and joy, crying, "Long live the emperor!" They were sheep at a slaughterhouse. Everybody was looking down and tottering. Some were unable to stand up and were carried and pushed into their aircraft by maintenance soldiers. Training

The this dismal mechanical record of Japan’s aging planes – “a reflection of the desperate lengths to which Japan’s military leaders were willing to go to win the war – that was to be Ena’s salvation. On 28 April 1945 he steered his aircraft along the runway at Kushira airfield in Kagoshima prefecture, but failed to get airborne. His second mission ended in failure when engine trouble forced him to make an emergency landing at a Japanese army base, still carrying the bomb intended for the enemy. Two weeks later, on 11 May, he was steeling himself for a third attempt, accompanied by a 20-year-old co-pilot and an 18-year-old communications officer.O'Neill, Richard (1988). Suicide Squads (in Japanese). Translated by Yoshio Masuda. Kasumi Publishing. ISBN 978-4876022045. Thousands of Japanese youth volunteered for tokko missions by simply placing a circle around their names. In his book “Blossoms in the Wind” Mordecai Sheftall wrote: “The primary motivation was they were thinking about their family because the newspapers were saying that if the Americans land, you’re all going to be slaves, the women are all going to be raped and the men will all be murdered. Every nightmare scenario was put across on the Japanese public, saying this is what’s going to happen if the Allies aren’t stopped now.” https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2005/april/hellish-prelude-okinawa . Retrieved 30 August 2023.

Kennedy, Maxwell Taylor: Danger's Hour, The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot who Crippled Her, Simon and Schuster, New York, 2008 ISBN 978-0743260800 Shortly afterward, the main strength of the Japanese Army began to lay down its arms in surrender per the Emperor's broadcast. The Soviet–Japanese War, and World War II, had come to an end. It is said that young pilots on kamikaze missions often flew southwest from Japan over the 922m (3,025ft) Mount Kaimon. The mountain is also called "Satsuma Fuji" (meaning a mountain like Mount Fuji but located in the Satsuma Province region). Suicide-mission pilots looked over their shoulders to see the mountain, the southernmost on the Japanese mainland, said farewell to their country and saluted the mountain. Residents on Kikaishima Island, east of Amami Ōshima, say that pilots from suicide-mission units dropped flowers from the air as they departed on their final missions. Yuri Kageyama of Associated Press wrote: “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 1945. Many were university students who had been previously exempt from service, but now Japan was running out of troops. [Source: Yuri Kageyama, Associated Press, June 17, 2015 +++] https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1945/battle-of-okinawa/spruance-letter.html . Retrieved 30 August 2023.Ivan Morris, The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan, p. 289 Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975 International Herald Tribune, Publisher dismayed by Japanese nationalism. Published: 10 February 2006. Retrieved 11 March 2007

While it is commonly perceived that volunteers signed up in droves for kamikaze missions, it has also been contended that there was extensive coercion and peer pressure involved in recruiting soldiers for the sacrifice. Their motivations in "volunteering" were complex and not simply about patriotism or bringing honour to their families. Firsthand interviews with surviving kamikaze and escort pilots has revealed that they were motivated by a desire to protect their families from perceived atrocities and possible extinction at the hands of the Allies. They viewed themselves as the last defense. [79] a b c King, Dan (July 2012). "4 Imaizumi". The Last Zero Fighter: Firsthand Accounts from WWII Japanese Naval Pilots. Masami Takahashi, Last Kamikaze Testimonials from WWII Suicide Pilots (Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources, 2008) Axell, Albert; Hideaki, Kase (2002). Kamikaze: Japan's Suicide Gods. New York: Longman. ISBN 058277232X. During 1943–1944, U.S. forces steadily advanced toward Japan. Newer U.S.-made aircraft, especially the Grumman F6F Hellcat and Vought F4U Corsair, outclassed and soon outnumbered Japan's fighters. Tropical diseases, as well as shortages of spare parts and fuel, made operations more and more difficult for the IJNAS. By the Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 1944), the Japanese had to make do with obsolete aircraft and inexperienced aviators in the fight against better-trained and more experienced US Navy airmen who flew radar-directed combat air patrols. The Japanese lost over 400 carrier-based aircraft and pilots in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, effectively putting an end to their carriers' potency. Allied aviators called the action the " Great Marianas Turkey Shoot".

https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nmusn/explore/photography/wwii/wwii-japan/kamikaze/pre-okinawa.html . Retrieved 30 August 2023. Toland, John (1970). The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936–1945. New York: Random House. OCLC 105915. The important Japanese base of Saipan fell to the Allied forces on 15 July 1944. Its capture provided adequate forward bases that enabled U.S. air forces using the Boeing B-29 Superfortress to strike at the Japanese home islands. After the fall of Saipan, the Japanese High Command predicted that the Allies would try to capture the Philippines, strategically important to Tokyo because of the islands' location between the oilfields of Southeast Asia and Japan. Willmott, H. P.; Cross, Robin; Messenger, Charles (2004). World War II. London: Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 0756605210.