![\"Tsubomi,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/d846ca3a-f8d9-4ad1-9655-b57cda8c9207.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\nDirector spent 15 years tracking down and talking to peers of the pilots and members of their families to deliver this monumental achievement in filmmaking\n<\/p>\n
The feature-length documentary Kamikaze: An Untold History (BBC iPlayer), produced by Japan\u2019s public service broadcaster NHK, is an attempt to make sense of what seems senseless.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s crystal clear on why the missions themselves went on so long after the country\u2019s military leaders knew the war was already a lost cause.<\/p>\n
The sacrifice of the lives of these young men, many of whom hadn\u2019t even completed their training, was a cynical attempt to prolong the war in order to negotiate more favourable terms with the Allies.<\/p>\n
Historical records show that a mere 10pc of the kamikaze missions succeeded in their objective<\/p>\n
In the event, what followed was the dropping of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, followed within days by the Japanese surrender.<\/p>\n
Historical records show that a mere 10pc of the kamikaze missions succeeded in their objective. All the sacrifices, all the deaths, including those of 7,000 Allied personnel killed in the attacks, were ultimately for nothing.<\/p>\n
The documentary\u2019s director, Oshima Takayuki, spent 15 years tracking down and talking to peers of the pilots and members of their families. The result is a monumental achievement.<\/p>\n
The documentary explodes the myth, easily digestible during the war to those in the West being drip-fed racial stereotypes, that the kamikaze pilots were, like the suicide bombers of today, crazed fanatics who were happy to give their lives for the cause.<\/p>\n
Maybe a handful of them were. Most, however, were just young, terrified men who, fearful of being shamed and branded traitors, felt they had no choice but to volunteer.<\/p>\n
They were given a form on which they had to state their willingness to go on a kamikaze mission. The choices were: \u201cstrongly desire\u201d, \u201cdesire\u201d or \u201cnegative\u201d. \u201cIn that environment, it must have been difficult to write \u2018negative\u2019,\u201d says a historian.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tsubomi, sister of the kamikaze pilot Ishii Hitoshi, in ‘Kamikaze: An Untold History’. Photo: BBC\/NHK<\/p>\n
The only way for a pilot to ensure they didn\u2019t end up on a kamikaze mission was to achieve the highest training grades. The best pilots were considered by their superiors too valuable to be treated as cannon fodder. Everyone else was expendable.<\/p>\n
Kawashima Tetsuzo enlisted at 15 and died a few months short of his 18th birthday. Here, his family sift through some mementos. There\u2019s a Japanese flag signed by all his classmates and an article from a women\u2019s magazine honouring him and others who had died on missions. There were letters of tribute written by his teachers.<\/p>\n
The first kamikaze missions involved 24 pilots. One of them was 20-year-old Hitora Yukinobu. His plane was second in a formation of six and his death was captured on film. Footage from the US aircraft carrier he was attacking shows his plane being hit in the wing.<\/p>\n
Pupils had to sing a song, written by their teacher after the young man\u2019s death, urging 500 more students to enlist and go to war<\/p>\n
Tsunoda Kazuo, whose status as an ace pilot meant he was spared kamikaze missions, was assigned to follow the planes and report on the result of the attack. He says the pilots had the message drilled into them that kamikaze missions were their only way of ensuring Japan\u2019s survival.<\/p>\n
The media glorified the pilots\u2019 supposedly \u201cpure-hearted\u201d sacrifice. Their stories were told on the radio, featuring personal messages they\u2019d recorded for their families the night before flying to their deaths.<\/p>\n
Shrines were erected in their hometowns. A film about the exploits of one squadron was shown in cinemas to huge enthusiasm. The slogan \u201c100 Million Kamikaze\u201d swept across the country.<\/p>\n
Schools had a big role to play in the propaganda campaign. A friend of a kamikaze pilot recalls an empty coffin being carried into the school hall.<\/p>\n
Pupils had to sing a song, written by their teacher after the young man\u2019s death, urging 500 more students to enlist and go to war.<\/p>\n
When she\u2019s told this by director Takayuki, the teacher\u2019s now elderly daughter is surprised he\u2019d written such a thing.<\/p>\n
She says he was a mild-mannered man who was unfit for military service due to having had TB. \u201cHe must have felt a sense of inferiority,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Rating: Five stars<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Director spent 15 years tracking down and talking to peers of the pilots and members of their families…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,18987,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-30938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-pat-stacey","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}