Kamikaze and Banzai charge questions

[DemocratSinceBirth]

I watched World War II in HD Colour on netflix. If you have the opportunity to see it, do so. It's great. I wonder how voluntary were the participants in the Kamikaze attacks and Banzai charge were. It seems like indoctrination can only go so far. The Japanese rarely surrendered but some did, especially towards the end of the war. In the footage I could even see a Japanese POW with a broad smile. He probably figured being a POW was preferable to being dead.

[hack89]

1. Very strong cultural conditioning from birth.

Also, by mid-1944 any air mission against the US fleet was in essence a suicide mission, such was the overwhelming US superiority in numbers, technology, tactics and pilots. The Japanese simply realized with Kamikaze tactics they would inflict more damage with the same loses.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. Some did surrender though.

[DFW]

3. Not all cultures provide easy paths to understanding what seem to us to be extreme aspects

The Divine Winds ("Kamikaze" ) pilots believed they were sacrificing themselves for the greater good of their people, and they were dying a noble warrior's death.

Doesn't that ring a bell? What, after all, does an ISIS or Taliban suicide bomber believe that so drastically deviates from that stance?

On another tangent, after a very long two days of work and getting up at 5 AM, I am now in a train I boarded in Stuttgart that is being delayed between Köln and Düsseldorf--where I live-- because (presumably drunk) soccer fans have breached security fences ahead of us and are milling about the tracks of the hi-speed Inter City Express train I am on. The train stopped so as not to give out the Darwin awards the soccer fans were so eagerly seeking. My patience for such pranks wears thin at the end of such engagements, and I am somewhat more sleepless and less patient than normal. I would have been far more inclined to let the train roll, and let them collect their Darwin awards..

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. Yeah, but most Muslims don't buy into the shahid ideology.

That's why we and the Israelis captured so many prisoners in our and their M.E. wars. There are limits.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. What is the prevailing opinion of Trump in Germany?

I take it Obama was seen as some kind of demigod.

[DFW]

8. Obama wasn't seen as a demi-god at all

He was seen as a breath of fresh air, as was Clinton. Youthful, educated, worldly, and pragmatic while swimming against the tide of a right wing congress in his own country. Rather than someone to worship, Obama was seen as a friend to Germany, and to Europe as a whole. Someone they could work with, and enjoyed working with. He was someone who came across as wanting to do good, rather than do himself good.

Trump is seen as somewhere between an accidental catastrophe, a comedy, and an evil foisted upon the world by forces they don't quite understand, but whose hostility toward the earth and mankind is unmistakable.

[VOX]

6. Of the 21,000 Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima, only 216 were taken prisoner.

They were resolute, and their code was strict, to surrender was to lose honor. The closer the U.S. forces got to Japan, the harder the resistance. The casualties inflicted were horrific, and in terms of combatants killed and wounded, the numbers would be difficult to tolerate today.
IWO JIMA
-U.S.
6,821 killed
19,217 wounded
-Japan
17,845–18,375 dead and missing
216 taken prisoner
3,000 left in hiding

OKINAWA
Okinawa Island had the bloodiest ground battle of the Pacific War from April 1, 1945 to June 22, 1945. During this 82-day-long battle, about 95,000 Imperial Japanese Army troops and 12,510 Americans were killed. The Cornerstone of Peace at the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman lists 149,193 persons from Okinawa – approximately one quarter of the civilian population – were either killed or committed suicide during the Battle of Okinawa.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pacific-War/Iwo-Jima

[sarisataka]

7. I read a book some years ago

That told about a Japanese Rear Admiral sent to the Philippines to recruit one of the first kamikaze units. He thought the idea was ridiculous and presented it apologetically to the pilots and that he had to ask for volunteers. He said to avoid any peer pressure he would leave paper and pen by a box outside of his hut and anyone who wished to volunteer could put their name in the box. There was no reward for volunteers nor any punishment for those who did not.

When he came back from lunch he was shocked. Not only had every pilot in the squadron he spoke to volunteered, many pilots from other squadrons on the base put their names in as well.

[hunter]

9. "I Am Spartacus!"

They didn't have enough airplanes for them all and someone was going to die no matter what.

Everyone maintains their honor, an unlucky few are selected.

[sarisataka]

10. The trouble with a Spartacus analogy

Is the legions called that bluff and killed everyone.

There were less planes than volunteers but both were available until the end. Also it was expected that if a suitable target could not be found, they kamikaze would return to base. Next time a different pilot could perhaps be sent.

Interesting fact I found out it that there were no banzai attacks in the battle for Iwo Jima. The general commanding the island forbade such attacks as wasteful of his troops lives. Yet as the post above shows, they still fought to nearly the last man.