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	Children's book Ano sensō o tsutaetai (I want to tell you about that war)

Japanese Children's Books

This section has detail reviews of the following Japanese children's books about kamikaze pilots. Each book gives a very favorable image of kamikaze pilots.

• Ami Town, ed., Yokaren monogatari (Yokaren story) - History of Yokaren (Japanese Naval Preparatory Flight Training Program) with many historical photos.
• Gakken, ed., Heiwa e no omoi (Thoughts toward peace) - One book in a ten-volume series of Inspiring Stories for upper elementary and junior high children. This book introduces five persons, including former kamikaze pilot Takehiko Ena, who have experienced war in ways that nurtured strong beliefs toward peace.
• Hino, Tsubasa no kakera: Tokkō ni chitta kaigun yobi gakusei no seishun (Wing fragment: Youth of Navy reserve students who died in special attacks) - Tells the personal histories of several Navy Reserve Students including two young men aboard the Suisei dive bomber that crashed into the heavy cruiser USS Louisville on January 6, 1945.
• Imanishi, Sumirejima (Violet Island) - Picture book for early elementary school students. Young children in this book show their affection for pilots who fly over their elementary school by sending violet flowers, letters, and drawings to the nearby air base. English translation of Sumirejima (Violet Island).
• Kogure, Saigo no picchingu: Tokkō no kieta maboroshi no meitōshu (Final pitch: Phantom star pitcher who disappeared in special attack) tells the story of Japanese professional baseball star pitcher Shin'ichi Ishimaru who died in a special (suicide) attack after pitching ten straight strikes.
• Mori, Piano wa shitte iru: Gekkō no natsu (The piano knows: Summer of the moonlight sonata) - Fictional story based on the true story in Yazaki, Sensei no piano ga utta (The teacher's piano sang). This picture book targets kindergarten children and early elementary school students.
• Satō, Hikari no umi (Hikari sea) - Illustrated book about kaiten human torpedo pilot Nobuo Ikebuchi and his wife Yukiko.
• Shimahara, Shiroi kumo no kanata ni (To the distant white clouds) - Loose collection of stories about individual kamikaze pilots who made sorties from Chiran Air Base. The book targets children in upper elementary school and above, but its numerous historical details and difficult writing style make it a challenge for younger children.
• Shimahara, Umi ni kieta 56nin (56 men who disappeared into the sea) - Provides numerous personal stories related to 56 Kamikaze Corps members from Tokushima Air Group who flew two-man Shiragiku trainers in nighttime suicide attacks in May and June 1945.
• Takeda, Nijūroku ya mairi (A moon twenty-six days old) - Picture book that tells the story of three young kamikaze pilots who visit a small inn the night before their departure from Chiran Air Base, the Army's largest sortie base for special (suicide) attacks on Allied ships around Okinawa. This book for kindergarten children and early elementary school students tells the story from the perspective of an eight-year-old girl, who becomes friends with the three pilots.
• Tokita, Otōsan e no senbazuru (A thousand origami cranes for father) - Illustrated book for very young children about a kamikaze pilot who receives one thousand origami cranes from his family.
• Uemura, Taichi kara no inori: Chiran tokkō kichi (Prayer from the earth: Chiran special attack base) - Illustrated book for elementary school children narrated by Mount Kaimon, a mountain on the southern coast of Kagoshima. The book describes kamikaze pilots who took off from Chiran Air Base in southern Kagoshima toward Okinawa.
• Yasunobu, Kamikaze tokkōtai (Kamikaze special attack corps) - Gives a history by a former Naval Captain with 20 years experience in the Naval Air Corps. This book's thorough research, excellent organization, and many historical photos and illustrations make it a valuable source for any age.
• Yazaki, Sensei no piano ga utta (The teacher's piano sang) - For middle and upper elementary school students. It gives the history of two kamikaze pilots who visit an elementary school prior to their suicide mission in order to play the grand piano there.
• Yoshimoto, Wakamonotachi wa naze tokkō o eranda no ka (Why young people chose special attacks) - Written by a high school world history teacher for junior and senior high school students to encourage them to know more about Special Attack Corps members who sacrificed their lives for their country and families.

The following children's book deals with the battleship Yamato:

• Nakagawa, Senkan Yamato ga shizunda hi (Day that battleship Yamato sank) - Contains the wartime experiences of Yasuo Yasugi, who served aboard the battleship Yamato on the battleship's final mission. This book for upper elementary school students describes the war in an even-handed manner and has several photos of Yasugi and Yamato.

Other Japanese children's books about the Pacific War sometimes mention kamikaze pilots and other special attack force members who made suicide attacks near the end of World War II. For example, the book Ano sensō o tsutaetai (I want to tell you about that war) by Yōko Fukawa gives the author's experiences as a first- to fifth-grade student between 1941 and 1945 in Japan. In one section (pp. 56-7), she relates an instance that happened one morning when her father read in the newspaper about one of his former students who died as a kamikaze pilot. The young girl in the book learned about his father's grief that day, and by his expressions he taught her to place a high value on life. The book also describes food shortages, fire bombings of Japan's large cities, and the militaristic education received by the author during the war.

Although many children's books present kamikaze pilots very positively as brave men who gave their lives for their country, Toshirō Takagi's 200-page history of "Kamikaze tokkōtai no shutsugeki" (Sorties of Kamikaze Special Attack Corps) presents students with several negative aspects of suicide attacks made by kamikaze units. Takagi, who has written well-known histories about Chiran Air Base and the Army's Special Attack Corps, first had this children's history published in 1970. The 20-volume series published by Nihon Tosho Sentā in 1995 on "War and Peace," which covers a wide variety of topics on the Pacific War, includes Takagi's history in the last half of one of its volumes.

In Takagi's history, the last section entitled "Mistaken War" gives his conclusion regarding kamikaze attacks, "One can say that body-crashing attacks of special attack corps were the worst battle tactic in the irrational Pacific War" (p. 353). Takagi quotes the opinion of Vice Admiral Kusaka, the last Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet, "No matter how much the suffering, fighting with only special attacks is not the right way to wage war" (p. 353). Although Takagi in general describes objectively the historical facts of the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps, he every so often inserts his strong opinions, such as one that special attacks were a truly irrational battle tactic that should not have been carried out and did not give Japan the anticipated strength to allow Japan to win the war (p. 334).

Although few children's books in English cover the topic of kamikaze pilots, Lucent Books' American War Library has an excellent volume on Kamikazes written by Earle Rice Jr. for readers from upper elementary grades to high school.

Sources Cited

Fukawa, Yoko. 2000. Ano sensō o tsutaetai (I want to tell you about that war). Kyōto: Kamogawa Shuppan.

Takagi, Toshirō. 1995. Kamikaze tokkōtai no shutsugeki (Sorties of Kamikaze Special Attack Corps). Originally published in 1970 by Kaiseisha. In "Sensō to heiwa" kodomo bungakukan ("War and peace" children's literature treasury). Tōkyō: Nihon Tosho Sentā.