Source B - The Deep Bare Garden



Source A'We were all ready to die': Kamikaze pilot reveals the fear and fanaticism of suicide squadsAs Keiichi Kuwahara flew out to sea he gazed back with tear-filled eyes towards Japan and the homeland he never expected to see again. His mission was clear – crash into an enemy warship, killing himself along with hundreds of troops who were coming to invade his country.Kuwahara, now 91, is one of the last surviving kamikaze pilots, having cheated death twice to survive the?Second World War?.He says: “They didn’t need to tell us what to do because we knew. It was simple. We had to get in a plane and crash into a target. I kept looking back, thinking it was the last time I would see the land. As I did the sun came up and made the horizon shine light pink. I thought ‘I have to go in order to defend this beautiful land.’”More than 5,800 Japanese servicemen died in suicide missions during the closing months of the war in 1945. Among them were 3,800 kamikaze pilots. For 70 years they have been viewed as brainwashed zealots eager to sacrifice themselves – much like today’s?terrorist?suicide bombers.A string of Japanese films made during and after the war reinforced that image, depicting kamikazes as heroes who happily laid down their lives for their country and its beloved Emperor. But a new programme, The Last Kamikazes, to be broadcast on the BBC World Service next week, reveals many did not want to die and felt compelled to “volunteer” for the suicide missions.Kuwahara says: “I struggled to convince myself I had to die. I thought my death would be pointless. Even if Japan won the war my family would die in the gutter because I would not be there to support them. It tormented me. I felt as if I was losing my mind. We were told that rather than accept defeat we should offer our lives. There was no choice. We had to follow orders when push came to shove. But we didn’t wish for death.”Kuwahara was 17 when he was recruited to the naval airforce in 1943. His family could not afford to pay for his education and a recruitment officer convinced him he could expect a lucrative career as a commercial pilot after the war. By the time he completed training, Japan was so short of pilots, planes and weapons that his squadron was disbanded and he was ordered to enlist in a kamikaze unit. He dared not refuse.Kuwahara took off from the Kushira base on May 4, 1945, heading to Okinawa to attack ships invading the outpost 400 miles south of the main islands. But his engine failed, forcing him to crash land. A week later mechanical problems forced him to abort his second suicide mission. His relief at surviving was outweighed by the fear he had dishonoured his family and how he would be treated by the other pilots when he returned.Source BHow Japan's youth see the kamikaze pilots of WW2During World War Two, thousands of Japanese pilots volunteered to be kamikaze, suicidally crashing their planes in the name of their emperor. More than 70 years on, the BBC's Mariko Oi asks what these once revered men mean to Japan's youth.Irrational, heroic and stupid: this was what three young people in Tokyo said when I asked them about their views on the kamikaze. "Heroic?" queried Shunpei, of his younger brother Sho's choice of word. "I didn't realise you were so right wing?"It is difficult to verify the figures but it is believed that 3-4,000 Japanese pilots crashed their planes into an enemy target on purpose. Only 10% of missions were believed to be successful but they sank some 50 Allied vessels.Decades after the war, opinions on the kamikaze pilots remain divided, partly because their legacy has been used repeatedly as a political tool. "During the seven years of the Allied occupation of Japan, the kamikaze reputation was one of the first things that they went after," Prof MG Sheftall from Shizuoka University explained. The suicidal tactic was portrayed as "insanity". But when the Allies left in 1952, the right wing nationalists came out strongly and they have carried out multi-generational efforts to seize back control of the narrative," he says. "Even in the 1970s and 80s, the vast majority of Japanese people thought of the kamikaze as something shameful, a crime committed by the state against their family members. But in the 1990s, the nationalists started testing the water, seeing whether they could get away with calling the kamikaze pilots heroes. When they didn't get much push back, they got bolder and bolder," he added.In the 2000s, films such as For Those We Love and The Eternal Zero were released, portraying the kamikaze as just that - heroes. But even Sho, the teenager who said they were heroic, admitted that his views had been affected by films and said that if Japan went to war tomorrow, he wouldn't be prepared to die for his country."It's because I cannot do it, " he said. "I find them heroic and courageous."In fact, only 11% of Japanese nationals would be willing to fight for the country at all, according to a global survey by WIN/Gallup International. That places Japan at the bottom of the list. The result is hardly surprising given that Japan's post-war generation was brought up under a pacifist constitution which banned the nation from having a military.But is it true that all kamikaze pilots, who were mostly aged between 17 and 24, were wholly willing to die for their country? When I spoke to two rare survivors, now in their 90s, the answer appeared to be no."I would say 60-70% of us were eager to sacrifice ourselves for the emperor, but the rest probably questioned why they had to go," 94-year-old Osamu Yamada told me at his home in Nagoya. Before he carried out his mission, the war ended. "I was single at that time and had nothing holding me back so I had one genuine thought in mind and that is I must give myself up to defend Japan. But for those who had families, they must have thought very differently."QuestionsQ1: Read Source A and identify the four true statements [4 marks]Keiichi Kuwahara never expected to see Japan again when he set off on his mission.Keiichi Kuwahara, having survived the war, is now 91.Keiichi Kuwahara is the last surviving kamikaze pilot.Fewer than 5,800 Japanese servicemen died in suicide missions during the closing months of the war in 1945.A string of Japanese films made during and after the war depicted kamikazes as heroes who happily laid down their lives for their country and its beloved Emperor.Keiichi Kuwahara thought dying was the only way to provide for his family after the war.Kuwahara was 17 when he was recruited to the naval airforce in 1943.Relief at surviving was the strongest reaction Kuwahara had to the events of the war.Q2: Read both sources. Summarise what the two texts tell us about the missions completed by kamikaze pilots. [8 marks]Q3: Re-read Source A. Analyse how language has been used to explore Keiichi Kuwahara’s attitude towards his experiences. [12 marks]Q4: Read both Source A and Source B. [16 marks]Compare how different attitudes towards kamikaze pilots are presented. In your answer you could:Compare the different attitudesCompare the methods the two writers use to convey their attitudesSupport your ideas with references to both texts.Q5: ‘November the 11th is a day to forget, not to remember. Remembrance nowadays seems to glorify and celebrate war, rather than commemorate those who gave their lives.’Write a letter to your local newspaper explaining your attitude towards Armistice Day, in light of the opinion offered above. [40 marks] ................
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