Von Tonner
02-10-15, 08:00 AM
Has anyone read this book by Kazuo Sakamaki, who became the first American prisoner of war after his failed attempt on Pearl Harbour with his midget submarine?
I came across his name in the current book I am wading through, "War Beneath the Sea". What intrigued me was that when captured all he wanted was for his captors to end his life given the belief system existing in Japan at the time. In fact to quote a letter he received on returning to Japan after the war:
" I cannot understand how you could return alive. The souls of the brave comrades who fought with you and died must be crying now over what you have done. If you are not ashamed of yourself, please explain how come. And if you are ashamed of yourself now, you should commit suicide at once and apologize to the spirits of the heroes who died honorably."
He appears to have been a remarkable person - rising to become an executive at Toyota and then the company president of its operations in Brazil.
He writes further: " "My steps were these: all-out attack, failure, capture, a sense of dilemma, mental struggle, attempts at suicide, failure again, self-contempt, deep disillusionment, despair and melancholy, reflections, desire to learn and yearning for truth, meditation, rediscovering myself, self-encouragement, discovery of a new duty, freedom through love, a desire for reconstruction"
I came across his name in the current book I am wading through, "War Beneath the Sea". What intrigued me was that when captured all he wanted was for his captors to end his life given the belief system existing in Japan at the time. In fact to quote a letter he received on returning to Japan after the war:
" I cannot understand how you could return alive. The souls of the brave comrades who fought with you and died must be crying now over what you have done. If you are not ashamed of yourself, please explain how come. And if you are ashamed of yourself now, you should commit suicide at once and apologize to the spirits of the heroes who died honorably."
He appears to have been a remarkable person - rising to become an executive at Toyota and then the company president of its operations in Brazil.
He writes further: " "My steps were these: all-out attack, failure, capture, a sense of dilemma, mental struggle, attempts at suicide, failure again, self-contempt, deep disillusionment, despair and melancholy, reflections, desire to learn and yearning for truth, meditation, rediscovering myself, self-encouragement, discovery of a new duty, freedom through love, a desire for reconstruction"