The Kamikaze Spirit

THE DIVINE WIND (240 pp.)--Rikihei Inoguchi, Tadashi Nakajima and Roger Pineau--U.S. Naval Institute ($4.50).

It was 1050 Philippine time when a small flight of Japanese planes pierced the defenses of "Taffy 3," a task unit of U.S. escort carriers east of Leyte. One nosed over into a power dive. As he held his target in sight, the pilot knew every second of the way that he was headed for death. Yet he kept going until he crashed and died amid fire and explosion in the side of the carrier St. Lo. The St. Lo sank. Over a 130-mile front, other Japanese planes dived against her sister carriers. That night, Oct. 25, 1944, Imperial Headquarters in Tokyo announced the launching of the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps, named for the "divine wind" that had saved Japan from Mongol invasion in 1281. The 1944 corps was Japan's effort to whistle up an equally effective wind. It failed, but bloodily; with an expenditure of 1,228 planes and pilots, the Japanese sank 34 U.S. ships, damaged 288, took a heavy toll of life.

While the Kamikaze still swirled over the Pacific, public opinion in the U.S. stormed against a regime and a culture that could send men to certain death in suicide attacks. After war's end lifted their censorship, the Japanese joined in the controversy, took potshots at their own side with charges that recently drafted civilians had been sent out as Kamikaze flyers to save the professionals. Authors Inoguchi and Nakajima know better. They were staff officers in the Imperial Navy's First Air Fleet under Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi, who organized the first avowedly suicidal attacks. From the pilots' last letters home, the authors draw their most revealing and convincing testimony to the Kamikaze flyers' eagerness to die.

P: From Reserve Ensign Susumu Kaijitsu, who waited suspenseful weeks before his number came up: "My daily activities are quite ordinary. My greatest concern is not about death, but rather of how I can be sure of sinking an enemy carrier . . . Please watch for the results of my meager effort. If they prove good, think kindly of me and consider it my good fortune . . . Most important of all, do not weep for me."

P: From Ensign Teruo Yamaguchi to his father: "As death approaches, my only regret is that I have never been able to do anything good for you in my life . . . My greatest regret is [my] failure to call you chichiue [revered father]. I regret not having given any demonstration of the true respect which I have always had for you. During my final plunge, though you will not hear it, you may be sure that I will be saying chichiue to you and thinking of all you have done for me."

P: From Ensign Ichizo Hayashi, reared as a Christian, to his mother: "On our last sortie we will be given a package of bean curd and rice. It is reassuring to depart with such good luncheon fare . . . I do not want you to grieve over my death. I do not mind if you weep. Go ahead and weep. But please realize that my death is for the best, and do not feel bitter about it. I have had a happy life . . . I will precede you now, mother, in the approach to Heaven."

P: From Flying Petty Officer First Class Isao Matsuo to his parents: "Please congratulate me. I have been given a splendid opportunity to die . . . I shall fall like a blossom from a radiant cherry tree . . . How I appreciate this chance to die like a man! . . . Thank you, my parents, for the 23 years during which you have cared for me and inspired me. I hope that my present deed will in some small way repay what you have done for me."

The bulk of The Divine Wind goes far toward fulfilling the Japanese authors' hope of disclosing what was going on in the minds of the Kamikaze men--among them Admiral Onishi. With Japan's decision to surrender, marking the failure of his divine wind, he committed harakiri. At its organization, Onishi had presented the Kamikaze staff with a launching poem:

In blossom today, then scattered:

Life is so like a delicate flower.

How can one expect the fragrance

To last forever?

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