Attack - Kamikaze!
Charlton Press, September 1971, Vol.1, No. 1, 36 pages
This three-frame comic story briefly tells the history of Japanese kamikaze
attacks. The second frame (at right) depicts two kamikaze planes heading toward
an American ship already burning from another kamikaze crash. The ship is a strange hybrid with the front
looking like an aircraft carrier, with no planes in sight on deck, and the back
resembling a battleship.
The comic's narrative objectively relates the history of Japan's kamikaze
without any implication that kamikaze pilots were fanatical or crazy. The first
frame, which shows several Mongols being swept away by a strong wind, states:
In Japanese 'kamikaze' meant 'divine wind' which had a special meaning to
the Japanese people because once, long ago, an invading fleet was blown away
by a great storm . . So in 1944 the Japanese high command used another
'kamikaze' . . This time the divine wind was in the form of aircraft flown
into American ships . . . . .
The third frame, which shows a smoking Japanese bomb-carrying fighter with an
American fighter alongside, has the following narrative:
The Japanese pilots died . . and took many Americans with them . . but
the 'divine wind' didn't blow strong enough to bring victory to the Japanese
empire!
This comic book includes four other stories with two of them set in Europe
during WWII.
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