Once, they Were Kamikaze
Risa Morimoto traces her own family's connection to the infamous WWII pilots in a new documentary.
Every family has a dark secret hidden under a cloak of silence. Risa Morimoto's family secret bubbled to the surface in 2005 during a conversation about World War II. It was one of those shocking revelations punctuated with, "I thought you knew!"
You know, Uncle Sunada Toshio trained to be a kamikaze pilot - I thought you knew!
Up until then Morimoto, a Shin Nisei, had never known about this part of her family history. Her uncle was one of a few of her Japan-based relatives who spoke English. She has many fond memories of him gently joking with other family members before his passing almost 20 years ago.
How could this warm and loving man train his body and plane to become a weapon?
"I found it disturbing," Morimoto said about the secret her uncle took to his grave. "It's like you thought you knew a person in one respect, but he had this whole private life and for whatever reason he couldn't share it."
To live an entire lifetime carrying such a secret was unbelievable for the New York native. She began focusing a camera lens on her family members in a quest for truth. Along the way, Morimoto discovered that the immortal kamikazes of her imagination were in reality flesh and bone like her uncle - and greatly misunderstood.
Beyond Evil Martyrs
Morimoto's new documentary, "Wings of Defeat" - which she co-directed and co-produced with Linda Hoaglund - starts off as a personal journey, but takes flight as a larger look at this little known part of history. Like many other Americans, she assumed kamikaze pilots were fanatical suicide bombers who all died defending their country.
In reality, many of these pilots were drafted young and forcefully trained to crash into U.S. ships and other Allied targets as part of Japan's last ditch effort to win a losing war. The Japanese government called them a select group of gods among men, but by 1945 all Japanese planes were reassigned to kamikaze status. By war's end, about 4,000 kamikaze pilots had died, while thousands were still awaiting sortie orders.
Even today, wartime myths live on in people's imagination perpetuated by old propaganda campaigns that depicted these pilots as evil "Banzai!" screaming martyrs.
"How odd it is that these stereotypes continue to resonate."
In 2005, Morimoto traveled to Japan armed with a camera to interview her family about her uncle's secret life. No one knew any details of Toshio's kamikaze training.
"I thought, 'Oh boy, this is going to be a short movie,'" she laughed. "But that's the beauty of documentary filmmaking - you don't know what you are going to get. It's an adventure."
Morimoto, who received her Master's degree in film and education from New York University, had dabbled on the business side of filmmaking as the executive director of Asian CineVision, a nonprofit media arts organization.
But passion for the arts is in her blood. Her dad Nori is a sculptor and furniture designer who studied with Isamu Noguchi. Her mom Noriko is a painter.
Face to Face with Former Kamikazes
In the film, Morimoto draws a fuller picture through in-depth interviews with four former kamikaze pilots, who even now in their 80s still talk about their experiences with hints of pain.
"I have a Japanese face but I'm an outsider ... It's almost like talking to a therapist, you know?" she said about forming a close bond with the former kamikazes.
"I always felt like the enemy here," said Morimoto about growing up on the East Coast. In elementary school on Pearl Harbor Day, she would often catch her classmates staring at her accusingly.
"This is what my grandfather would've said about what it was like during the war. Upon meeting them, it was difficult to picture these guys in that position because they are so old and frail."
Some of what the former pilots told her still sticks to her ribs.
Ena Takehiko was 20 when he was drafted to become a kamikaze whose first target was an American ship near Okinawa. He crash-landed nearby because of engine failure. Years later, Takehiko boarded a train to Hiroshima after the atomic bomb leveled the entire city.
Up until that point, he really felt that he was doing the right thing, said Morimoto. "He was a warrior who believed in the country that much. But when he saw the devastation, he couldn't believe that human beings could do this to each other."
Healing and Reconciliation
The horrors of the war are depicted in archival footages of kamikaze attacks and mid-air firefights. Most were taken from old Japanese newsreels that were confiscated after WWII and stored at the National Archives in Maryland.
"Wings of Defeat," which was funded in part by Japanese government grants, premiered in Japan last year.
"It's a real sign of change," said Morimoto. "There have been plenty of movies made in Japan about kamikazes, but 99 percent glorified their actions as heroic.
"For the Japanese audience, it's very personal. Hopefully Japan could look itself in the mirror as it moves forward. They're really at a critical stage right now," she added, especially since Japanese officials have been reexamining the "no war" clause in its constitution.
For the documentary's U.S. tour, former kamikaze pilots attended a few screenings to talk about their experiences. At one stop, the former kamikazes held hands with U.S. veterans in an ultimate symbol of healing and reconciliation.
In the States, the film has evoked comparisons to suicide bombers.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Morimoto was living in Queens when terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center buildings. Many compared it to WWII kamikaze attacks. What was dangerous was how the media simplified the entire experience into sensational headlines, she said.
Former kamikaze pilots are adamant that they were not suicide bombers - they were part of a military operation aimed at military targets not civilians, she added.
Yes, there are similarities - young men indoctrinated into defending the honor of their country.
"But who are these 'enemies' we are talking about? Reality is a lot more complicated than you can imagine."
The Pacific Citizen Web site gives you a sampling of the stories currently in the print edition of the P.C. Click here to subscribe and get two months free!
Print This Article-
Email This Article