Kamikaze
by Grant Leicester
Brown, Watson Ltd., no date, 160 pages
This mistitled book with a misleading photo on its cover has
little to do with kamikaze. Two American sergeants, Miller and Krugar,
participate in the infantry assault on a fictional Japanese-held Pacific island
not far from Australia. This book does not have a publication date, but it most
likely first came out in the late 1950s, and another publishing company
republished it in 1980. The book depicts intense and bloody fighting between
the Allies and Japanese on a small jungle island, but the author devotes little
attention to development of the characters. The Allied soldiers frequently use racist terms
to describe the Japanese (e.g., ape, monkey, yellow face, Jap, Nippo), much
like actual anti-Japanese language used during the war.
The chronology of events in this novel makes no sense. A few
statements, such as the U.S. was still reeling from Pearl Harbor and the
American Navy was ready for a strike at the Solomon Islands, indicate that the
year must be 1942, but the author never gives specific dates anywhere in the
book. However, some
events mentioned in the novel occurred long after 1942. For example, a soldier
mentioned he had a buddy at Iwo Jima (p. 69), even though this battle began in
February 1945. Also, the Japanese Navy did not form the first kamikaze corps until
October 1944, but this novel mentions a secret kamikaze air base on the jungle island.
Despite the book's title, the limited references to kamikaze in the novel
provide no help
in understanding the nature of Japan's suicide attacks. The Japanese never had
a kamikaze air base south of the Philippines, and the Japanese military did not
actually resort to suicide attacks until late in the war in a desperate measure to stop
the continuing advance of the Allies toward the Japanese home islands. The
novel's four pages about kamikaze plane attacks describe antiaircraft fire against
them, but American fighter planes scarcely appear in the novel even though in
reality they destroyed many kamikaze planes. The author offers almost
nothing to explain the reasons for the kamikaze attacks other than vague
statements such as the following one, "Mad suicide attacks continued, and
the Kamikaze died bravely, stupidly, against a slaughter of fire" (p. 149).
Leave this paperback in the dustbin!
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