Kamikaze: Japan's Suicide Samurai

Japan's kamikaze pilots sacrificed their lives for the possibility of destroying the enemy's vessels and offered the last, best hope of victory in a war they had begun to lose. A major expert on Japanese culture uncovers the psychology, myth, and reality of this deadly strategy. Original records and personal testimonies describe the organization and operation of the kamikaze on every front. An incomparable portrait. Out of the sun they came, Japan's suicide samurai, diving down fast to explode in death and destruction as they hit the decks of Allied war ships. There was no turning back, no hope of survival. Was it a needless sacrifice, a panic strategy in the last, losing days of the war? Or was it a valid military tactic, born of a centuries-old belief in the sanctity of Imperial Japan?