Japan's Kamikaze Pilots and Comtemporary Suicide Bombers: War and Terror by Yuki Tanaka

[sushigeau]

In the essay “Japan’s Kamikaze Pilots and Contemporary Suicide Bombers: War and Terror” by Yuki Tanaka, he talks about kamikaze pilots. He explains why someone might be a kamikaze pilot, and the difference between suicide bombers and kamikaze pilots.

Tanaka’s tone is very neutral. There was no point I found him to be bias or even persuasive. He

Comments

[jeeptrick]

I agree with you in saying that I never felt that Tanaka was trying to force his ideals upon me - it was very effective.
I also agree with you that Tanaka wanted to make it clear that kamikaze pilots did not aim to harm civilians, unlike the contemporary suicide bombers. This is an important fact that the audience must understand.
To answer your question: Never. I could not rationalize my own suicide. To me there is no pride in killing yourself to strike fear into your enemy. Willingly being involved the army is different: you fight for what is right, or what you and your country believe in. Kamikaze or suicide was designed to scare the enemy into a defensive state, leaving them more vulnerable. I find Kamikaze and suicide to be barbaric and void of all rational strategy.

[stochastic_mud]

I would agree with your assessment of the audience if it was not for portion on suicide bombers. His comparison and subsequent conclusion changed, for me at least, the purpose and intent of the piece drastically away from being simply informative. His “neutral” and unpersuasive tone was definitely intentional and prevalent, but it left this article towards the end.

Was “completely insane” hyperbole, or do you really think people willing to die for a cause are mentally deficient? Although I do not know if I have the courage, I would like to think there are things in this world I am willing to die for. And at least in theory, there are things in this life worth killing to protect. But actually doing it, or being resolute to do so, must change you. And as jeeptrick points out doing so simply to put your enemy in a defensive position is quite a mental leap for me as well.

[sterling_k]

well done, you captured the main points. I agree with you that his essay was very effective in the way he presented it. The tone in fact was very neutral, which i liked. For your question, i just don't think id be able to become a Kamikaze pilot. It would be too hard to make myself feel right about becoming a suicide bomber, its just not in me to be able to actually go through with something like that. What about you? do you think you could become a Kamikaze pilot?