Kamikaze shrines in Mabalacat draw Japanese tourists
American interpretation
Bill Gordon, who developed the website https://www.kamikazeimages.net, said most Americans “perceive Kamikaze pilots as faceless, lacking individual personalities.”
“Lack of knowledge about kamikaze pilots has caused many Americans to speculate about their motivations, so many believe they were fanatical, suicidal, or forced to make attacks,” Gordon said.
“Many people know little or nothing about the history of Japan’s Kamikaze Corps, but they form their images of the pilots based on the anglicized word ‘kamikaze,’ which has come to signify anyone having reckless disregard for personal welfare. Current terrorist suicide bombings have provoked comparisons to attacks made by Japan’s kamikaze,” he said.
On the other hand, “Japanese people today consider kamikaze pilots in a manner completely contrary to American views,” Gordon said.
“Japanese believe that the brave young pilots suffered tragic deaths in defense of their homeland,” he said.
He said letters, poems and diaries written by kamikaze pilots had had “significant influence” on Japanese people’s views.
Gordon said historian Atsushi Shirai in 2002 estimated that 2,525 members of the Navy Kamikaze Special Attack Corps died in action.
Rest in peace
Bishop Ekan Ikeguchi, the Great Buddhist Bishop of Japan and an Asean Peace Prize awardee, saw the shrines as signs that Filipinos had “learned to forgive and move on.”
“By the good deeds of our Filipino friends, I believe that the spirits of the valiant men of the Kamikaze can now rest in peace,” the bishop said in a speech in 2004.
RELATED STORIES
Japan’s Kamikaze pilots say war horrors lost on young
