Forward from: Arktos
Ode to the Kamikaze Corps, an essay by Chōkōdō Shujin, published by Arktos.
Chōkōdō Shujin commemorates the glory of the kamikaze pilots who sacrificed themselves for the honor of Japan and the Emperor.
Excerpt:
I am a scholar of literature, a skeptic by nature, and someone who continues to doubt humanity to the death, but I prefer not to doubt the sentiments of the suicide pilots. In the end, theirs was a struggle against the instinct not to die. They became bombs themselves and hit enemy ships. No, many of them would have been shot down on the way, but I would have liked to see all of them honored for the few that plunged into the enemy ships. They themselves became sparks of fire, and in the sparks of fire, the sad history of their twenty-odd years bloomed and disappeared. At the base, one cannot speak as to the character of individual pilots. They were fundamentally human, heroic as their deaths may have been. They were sons and husbands, afraid of death, in love with life, perhaps more in love with their nation than anyone else in the world, yet they were patriotic poets. A poet is one who dedicates his life to beauty. There is no need for...
Read the full essay here:
https://arktos.com/2023/10/18/ode-to-the-kamikaze-corps/
Chōkōdō Shujin commemorates the glory of the kamikaze pilots who sacrificed themselves for the honor of Japan and the Emperor.
Excerpt:
I am a scholar of literature, a skeptic by nature, and someone who continues to doubt humanity to the death, but I prefer not to doubt the sentiments of the suicide pilots. In the end, theirs was a struggle against the instinct not to die. They became bombs themselves and hit enemy ships. No, many of them would have been shot down on the way, but I would have liked to see all of them honored for the few that plunged into the enemy ships. They themselves became sparks of fire, and in the sparks of fire, the sad history of their twenty-odd years bloomed and disappeared. At the base, one cannot speak as to the character of individual pilots. They were fundamentally human, heroic as their deaths may have been. They were sons and husbands, afraid of death, in love with life, perhaps more in love with their nation than anyone else in the world, yet they were patriotic poets. A poet is one who dedicates his life to beauty. There is no need for...
Read the full essay here:
https://arktos.com/2023/10/18/ode-to-the-kamikaze-corps/