Divine Thunder: The Life and Death of the Kamikazes
by Bernard Millot
Pinnacle Books, 1971, 266 pages
The kamikaze phenomenon did not arise spontaneously but
rather resulted from the Japanese national psychology, molded by ancient and
mystical traditions, in response to desperate circumstances near the end of
World War II. Bernard Millot tries to make this argument in Divine Thunder,
a historical overview of the Japanese suicide pilots.
This book was originally published in French in 1970, and
the English translation came out the following year. The book was also
translated into Japanese. Bernard Millot is a French aviation journalist and
historian and is the author of a two-volume history of the Pacific War.
The first two chapters cover the historical background
leading up to Japan's use of kamikaze pilots against the American fleet. The
first chapter deals with Japan's ancient traditions such as the bushido code
followed by the samurai, and the second one gives several examples during World
War II when Japanese soldiers willingly sacrificed themselves to inflict damage
on the enemy. Chapters 3 to 8 summarize the history of the kamikazes from the
creation of the first kamikaze corps in October 1944 until the end of the war,
with one chapter devoted to nautical kamikazes such as the kaiten torpedo
steered inside by a pilot toward its target. The first half of the final
chapter contains details on several suicide planes under development but never
employed by the end of the war. This section has little relevance to the book's
overall theme. The last half of the final chapter provides conclusions on
Japan's use of the kamikaze pilot.
Millot classifies the kamikaze pilots into three
psychological categories. First, some pilots were spontaneous heroes who firmly
embraced Japan's martial tradition and who possessed a strong sense of
patriotism. Second, some men with deep religious beliefs accepted
self-sacrifice as a way of elevating themselves spiritually. The third category
consisted of men who thought logically that suicide attacks were the only way
to deliver a damaging blow against the enemy. Although Millot's categorization
of the pilots into three types may have some merit, he provides almost no
evidence to support such an analysis. He briefly mentions final letters written
by the pilots and includes two long letters in the book, but he does not even
indicate to which category these pilots belong. He also fails to mention that
the military usually censored the pilots' correspondence, so some last letters
may not represent their true beliefs and feelings. Finally, the author never
considers that there may have been another category of pilots who did not
really support the kamikaze attacks but decided to carry them out only because
of social pressure and military discipline.
Much of the source material for Divine Thunder comes
directly from a few well-known published sources on the kamikazes and the
Pacific War. For example, the book's two letters written by kamikaze pilots
were first published more than a decade earlier (1958) in The Divine Wind
by Inoguchi and Nakajima. The book also lacks Japanese sources other than a few
works translated into English. Although the book's descriptions of the overall
history of kamikaze operations seem generally accurate, at times Millot will
make statements with little or no support. For example, he mentions the
"Japanese have a deeply mystical turn of mind" (p. 11), "their
mystical predisposition toward self-sacrifice" (p. 65), and "the
mystically patriotic fervor" behind the kamikaze attacks (p. 67). However,
he never really explains this so-called mysticism and how it related to the
creation of the kamikaze suicide missions.
Readers who want a general history of Japanese
kamikaze operations should avoid this book and try either The Divine Wind
by Inoguchi and Nakajima or The Sacred Warriors by Warner and Warner. In
comparison to Divine Thunder, these two books have more original
material and provide better reasoning and support for their conclusions.
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