Cherry Blossom Rising - A Short Story

[Blackronin]

The dawn sun rose and didn't catch him by surprise. As he dressed up his combat uniform he drank his last tea. The sun was blood red as it was proper. His last doing, his last effort to protect his home was a desperate one and - he thought - probably pointless. But fate was set and duty would be honoured. He met the others in the airstrip. They were all silent and circumspect when they drank the small bowl of sake.
Their leaders had betrayed them all and further disrespect was made as they bolted the canopy of his Zero fighter so that he couldn't repent and jump away. As if he would...

They had told them that the Americans were weak. It was false, the Americans kept fighting when they were losing and now that they were winning they were returning in kind previous injuries suffered. Now all that was left to him was the will to make such a sacrifice that the Americans would prefer to negotiate peace. But he knew that the American resolve was strong. And he wondered how would they react to these extreme attacks. He would never know.

The heavily loaded Zeroes rose, their engines crying with effort in the morning light. He looked around and saw their escort squadron behind and above. They went up as seagulls, gaining altitude slowly before the clash against the mighty American fleet. He lost a moment looking at the paint peeling from his fighter. He knew it better than he ever knew a woman. Its lines, its quirks, the sound of its engine... Now, like desperate lovers they would meet together their final fate.

The anti-aircraft gun bullets pierced his Zero’s left wing. A pang of fear and despair consumed him for a moment. He froze as the American destroyer grow under his sight. Then his mouth formed silently a word. Banzai. And the word grew in his mouth louder and louder and louder as it pushed away his fear, as it pushed away his dreams, his life, the wife he would never have, the children he would never nurture, the house he would never build. Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!

“Why?! Why do they do this?!” Cried Johnson again. “It works.” Replied Robertson. He scanned the debris and the waters around him to look for survivors. “What?! Are you crazy?” A white plane wing with a red roundel floated for a moment and then was swallowed by the ocean. “No. I’m not crazy. A man died and took with him a warship. It’s a good trade, I would say.” He kept scanning the waters. He didn't want to look at Johnson’s face again. “Why?! Why do they do this?!” Cried Johnson again. Robertson wanted so much to punch him in the face.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Very poignant, and sobering Joaquim.
Rob.

[Blackronin]

Thanks, my friend.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

I see from your other thread that I am not the only one who found it rather poignant and also tragic.
Rob.

[Blackronin]

It was indeed a tragedy.
For years we've (in the West) seen the Kamikaze pilots as madmen. We had another approach to reality.
As the war faded away we were capable of seeing them as men capable of extreme sacrifices.
One of the Kamikaze pilots that didn't die, his engine didn't start told of another one that start crying as the ground crew was bolting his canopy. When asked why was he crying, he said that they shamed him by distrusting him that way.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

When linked to the facts that we know about both World Wars, and the conflicts since, it focuses our thoughts on all those young men of whatever nation who fought and died in causes which have inevitably been a waste of good lives.
To gain the British Empire many men died, and where is it all gone to now?
Rob.

[Marechallannes]

A kind of Commonwealth still exists, Rob.

And the men who fought for it are still living in Canada, south Africa, Australia, etc...

...
For years we've (in the West) seen the Kamikaze pilots as madmen. We had another approach to reality.

Madmen indeed.

Don't forget the many Japanese in the army and navy that weren't willing or afraid to be prisoners - killed themselfs or blew themselfs up when Allied troops tried to fish them out of the water or to take care of them.

It's hard to compare this Japanese/Asian army attitudes with western army attitudes.

I would not say that the died more happy than Allied soldiers but they had a complete other position to the value of live and the manner & fatalism to die for their country.

Some people would call this madness.

[Blackronin]

The Japanese went from a very special feudal view of the world into modernity in less than a century. It's a very hard transformation. Moreover they were completely isolated in their island since the 16th century. When they were forced to open their frontiers by the Western powers they did it with an astounding technological success but without the necessary change in their mindset.

Life has a different weight in different contexts. Forced to destroy the Samurai class, fifty years after that, the Samurai mindset was still in the Japanese subconscious. The clash was inevitable. We had that change in mindset here in Europe some centuries earlier and see what we've done in both World Wars and more recently. We cannot compare cultures that are in different time frames, even if they clash against each other in the same era.

[Пилот]

I don't think it's madness. It's tragic and heroic at the same time...

Little something from Serbian history:

Stevan Sindjelic at Tchegar 1809:

After a two month-long struggle, the Ottomans engaged in a counter-attack against the Serb positions on 19 May 1809 (N.S. 31 May). Sinđelić and his Brigade became separated from the remainder of the Serb guerrilla positions and he and his men resisted fiercely. With hundreds of Ottoman soldiers pouring into the trench, Sinđelić saw that his Brigade had little hope of staving off the Ottoman offensive. Hand-to-hand combat ensued in the trenches. Sinđelić decided to fire his flintlock pistol into a pile of gunpowder kegs. When the Ottomans swarmed the trench from all sides and headed for him, Sinđelić squeezed the trigger. The Serbs who remained in the trench with Sinđelić, as well as the attacking Ottomans, were all caught in the enormous explosion and perished. According to legend his famous last words were: "Save yourselves brothers, who wants and who can! Those who stay will die!". The fall of Sinđelić's trench forced the other Brigades of the Serbian Revolutionary Army to retreat back to the town of Deligrad, where they entrenched themselves in a new, fortified front line.

Some 3,000 revolutionaries and all of the Ottoman troops that were present were killed in the Battle of Čegar at Čegar Hill.[5] The Turks, following orders given by Hurşid Paşa of Niš, erected the famous Skull Tower (Ćele-Kula) on the road to Constantinople, containing 952 Serbian revolutionaries' skulls, as a warning to the Serbs and other Balkan peoples about any future dissident. Today, 57 skulls remain embedded into the walls of the Skull Tower in Niš.

(from Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevan_Sinđelić )

[Naharaht]

It is tragic that it continues with the modern suicide bombers. It is tragic that people try to settle disputes by fighting.

[gully_raker]

Very sobering story well told, 'Quim.
It reminded me of the excellent Japanese Movie "Yamato".
You see it from the Japanese perspective of Honour but at the end even most of the Officers wonder about the sense of sending the ship on a suicide mission when with the war lost Japan would need all the able, educated men to help rebuild.
If you have not seen it do try to grab a copy.

[Blackronin]

Thanks again, Barry.
I've seen it. I would also recommend an amazing film. Harakiri a film directed by Masaki Kobayashi in 1962.
It's a fantastic story and it makes you wonder about many things.

[Tonx]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/200...n.historybooks

This article features extracts from 'The Kamikaze Handbook' which was issued to those who required it during World War 2. The article itself makes for very sobering reading and dates back to when the first Kamikaze squadrons took to the air. Japan first started using heavily damaged conventional aircraft which were literally stuffed full of explosives in order to carry out these missions. The 'Ohka' piloted glide-bomb would come later in the war.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/200...cond-world-war

Another link from the United Kingdom newspaper The Guardian on the same subject. It is interesting to note that contrary to popular belief 'Banzai' was not screamed at the top of their voices as kamikaze pilots hit their targets ... The actual word was 'Hissatsu!' When translated 'Banzai' actually means 'ten thousand years' and is quite often said to mean good health from one person to another.