Sayonara, Mata Ashita

Since I work hard sometimes even on weekend, usually I spend my Sunday laying in my futon, and listen to A Prairie Home Companion on my radio from 4 to 6p.m. I was going to do so today, but I watched video clips on you tube, leaving my radio turn on. The video clips were divided into ten, which came from two TV programs of Discovery Channel. What I watched was about Kamikaze Attack in World War Two. I think those who come to my blog have already known what Kamikaze means, so let me skip to make an explanation about that. At first, it surprised me that the program was made by Discovery Channel. I thought that those kinds of programs were always made by History Channel. But anyway, it’s not a big problem. It took more than an hour, though I skipped some scenes which were well-known topics of the Pacific War, I just clicked video clips one after another until Dr.Laura’s voice came from my radio. There was a comment, and I agree with it, saying the program describes both sides equally. I didn’t expect that the show tried to explain how the situation was in Japan and how attackers thought.

But I should say, it is really sad to watch the moment that a human is dying. I would like to express my sincere sorrow for those who sacrificed their lives. How they thought when they were waiting for the command and the day of the attack? How they felt at the moment when heading into battle ships or falling down to the sea? It should hurt them. And family should suffer sadness for losing loved ones. How’s that and what was it like are beyond my imagination. It really happened in the history, but I think we never know it well because we were born after the war and have no experiences of war. Having said that, I do not want to applaud the attacks like rightists do. What rightists are saying is that Kamikaze attacks defended Japan, the peace that now Japanese enjoy is depending on their sacrifices, and any criticisms are unforgivable because such words are insulting against them. I think that such rightists’’ attitude helps to hide the war responsibility of Japanese government, hide how the war brought miserable consequences to both sides and Asian people. Who made those young excellent guys go suicide attacks? Simply applauding the sacrifices of individuals’ lives for the nation and stopping thinking deeply about the whole story of the attack by saying any criticisms are insulting, it seems to me, these rightists’ attitudes are really unforgivable. And it makes me think that they are utilizing deaths of Kamikaze pilots for their political preferences with supposing that they-themselves are not going to die in a war in the future.

The narrator of the program on Discovery Channel pronounced “Kamikaze” like “Kamaikaze”. I guess it is natural to native English speaker. But in Japanese, “mi” of Kamikaze is pronounced like “mi” in “Do, Re, Mi”. Sometimes Japanese pronunciations are not expressed well in alphabet. For Kamikaze, if I memorialized correctly, it was not Kamikaze at the beginning. The meaning and spelling in Chinese characters are the same, which are God’s Wind. When Japanese Forces were starting the attack, it was called “Shimpuu”. This is “On-Pronunciation” for God’s Wind in Chinese characters. There are two pronunciations for Chinese characters “Kanji” in Japanese. One is “On-pronunciation” which hands down old time Chinese pronunciations when each character was brought to Japan. And the second is “Kun-pronunciation” which is pure Japanese and designated to each character based on meaning of the word and character. Though Kamikaze was “Shimpuu” at the first, but I guess the problem was that when you hear “Shimpuu”, it would sound like “New Wind(or new wave, if you like)”. So again, if my memory is correct, it is said that one newspaper correspondent made it Kamikaze, which is easy to tell what the pronunciation means. This is not so important, but I wish that English narrators say not Kamaikaze but Kamikaze, if any programs about Kamikaze were going to be made for the next time.