Yutaka Yokota, Suicide Submarine,

Yutaka Yokota, Suicide Submarine, Ballantine, 1962

It is no wonder that young enthusiastic soldiers tried to devote their lives in order to save their own countries, because they are pure and prone to idolize national hero although their experiences in military are lack. Therefore the appearance of Kamikaze or Kaiten operation to turn the tables of the war situation isn’t so quite exceptional in comparison with other nations’ military history. But the real problem we must reflect is why such absurd operation rapidly spread out all over the Japanese military without strong opposition. This may be malady of Japanese organization and society. As Yokota’s book shown, Kaiten was unable to sink the large warship, so its rationality of military operation was dubious. Still Yokota and his comrades continued to seek target. As they repeated to sortie, their purpose became not to smash the enemy but to die honorably. Except for a few brave (fanatic) commanders such as Onishi Takijiro, Ugaki Matome, many battalions adopted suicidal operation passively by order. Many commanders weren’t brave to opposite the order. Not that they could conceive effective tactics replacing the suicidal attack. After all, they continued to absurd suicidal attack without rationality. This characteristic of Japanese military organization can be associated with collectivism in Japanese organization. It may apply to other Japanese community such as company or school.