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Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, and Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics in Japanese History. Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. 411 pp.
Outside of Japan, many people think of the World War II "kamikaze" pilots as suicidal automatons, mindless men willing to destroy themselves in the name of the emperor. This book by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney debunks the stereotype, showing how many of the pilots were intelligent, even brilliant, students who agonized over their fates.
Her book is more than just an ethnographic corrective, however. She addresses several important theoretical questions, including the motivational power of signs, specifically the cherry blossom. By the time of World War II, one expression of Japanese imperial nationalist ideology was "You shall die like beautiful falling cherry petals for the emperor" (p. 3). During the war, a blooming cherry blossom was painted on the sides of pilots' planes; many pilots wore cherry blossom branches on their uniforms; and as they took off on their final flights, appreciative onlookers waved cherry blossom branches (see pp. 165-166). Considering cherry blossoms' prominence as symbols, and their association with violent sacrifice, the central question arises: To what extent did tokkotai pilots accept the...