Kamikaze: Japan's Suicide Samurai (Cassell Military Paperbacks)

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Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Edition: New
Publisher: Cassell Military
Published: 16 Sep 1999
ISBN 10: 0304352004
ISBN 13: 9780304352005
Book Overview: Out of the sun they came, Japan's suicide samurai, diving down fast to explode in death and destruction as they hit the decks of Allied warships. There was no turning back, no hope of survival. Was it needless sacrifice, a panic strategy in the last, losing days of the war? Or was it a valid military tactic, born of a centuries-old belief in the sanctity of Imperial Japan? In this fascinating study historian Raymond Lamont-Brown examines the psychology, myths and reality of the kamikaze programme. Detailed accounts of training, weapons and actual attacks, by air and sea, illustrate the idealism of young men wanting to die for the greater glory of their nation. 'We watched each plunging kamikaze with the detached horror of one witnessing a terrible spectacle rather than as intended victim...' - Vice Admiral Charles R Brown, USN.