OT Book - Kaiten pilot

[vanjast]

Not sure whether you can still get this book (published around 1962). Maybe I can post it to the next interested reader. Very 'gripping' and gives the other sides view and understanding... I couldn't put it down.

[U1260]

I just checked Amazon (US) and they had 11 used copies so I guess it's out of print but still available. Think I'll put it on my ever growing wish list there.

[vanjast]

It's interesting in a many ways..

Yutaka gives hints of the their strict up-bringing, their strict military discipline. I heard stories of the Japanese brutality towards their prisoners - it'll be interesting to note that they treated each other like this, so to them this was normal. On the other side of the coin they treated each other with care and consideration, provided you obeyed the military law.

These people had geared themselves up to die (for the Emperor), and how mechanical technical difficulties (and lack of targets) ultimately saved Yutaka's life, while his friend and comrades went to their deaths 'with honour'. The extended hours of depth charge attacks while aboard the mother sub - the virtually impenetrable 'iron curtain' (sea and air) the allies had created around Japan. The shame and guilt he felt every time they returned, alive, from an aborted mission - the accusations of cowardice !!.

In the end when the Emperor broadcast the surrender message, their inability to comprehend it. The military revolution that took place and would have extended the war, was squashed - even amongst the Kaiten and other Kamikaze groups. They couldn't return to normality for many years, working on an isolated farm (bought for them by their Admiral) as they couldn't face their conquerors. The friends and family letters that eventually, years later, would bring him back to normal life.

:up:

edt: Grammar

[vanjast]

I'd say a good read.. if you like to comprehend a soldiers post-traumatic-syndrome.
The US and UK soldiers Vietnam/Afghanistan and also the Vietcong, Taliban and Moslem fundamentalists might find this book enlightening.
:know: