Kamikaze Flashcards
What does kamikaze mean
During WW2, the term ‘kamikaze’ was used for Japanese fighter pilots who were sent on suicide missions.
They were expected to crash their warplanes into enemy warships
The word ‘kamikaze’ trans,alters to ‘divine wind’
What is the poem about?
It tells the story of the Japanese fighter pilot who decides to not complete his suicide mission.
The narrator starts as a third person but then moves to his daughter telling the story to her own children.
His daughter imagines this was because he saw the beauty of nature and remembered the innocence of his own childhood.
When he returned home, the pilot was treated as if he wasn’t there due to the cultural expectations in Japan
Japanese culture
Japanese culture was very patriotic and it was a great honour to be a kamikaze pilot and well trained piloted volunteered to die
Honour was incredibly important in Japan with people taught that one persons dishonour will stain the whole family
“Her father embarked at sunrise with a flask of water, a samurai sword”
- the sibilance repeated gives the sign of peace and the peaceful sound reflects the peace that he is supposed to find in death.
- ‘sunrise’ also symbolises the peace after death and symbolises the country of Japan. It also symbolises divinity - meeting god.
- ‘water’ is a symbol of purity so he is purifying himself spiritually and for Christian audience or represents baptism so he’s dying in order to enter in a new life as a hero.
-‘embarked’ - embarked means you’re getting on a boat so it is the sight of the grandfathers boat that reminds the father what it’s like to be at sea and persuades him not to kill other sailors on the sea. Ultimately, the father is going to realise the enemy is just like him. The fathers boat reminds him of the family he is losing so he chooses not to die
Why does the father take a flask of water and a samurai sword
- water is seen as purifying
- samurai sword was because this culture glorifies the warrior and the idea of a samurai warrior is that he fights to his death for his master
“In the cockpit”
Cockpit is names after cock fighting where 2 cocks are put into a ring to fight each other until one dies.
This gives an overtone of this being a ‘sport’ and something that isn’t really natural where men are being exploited.
What does the line break in between portray
Shows the thoughts of the daughter as she reimagines what was going through her fathers head. Even though her father became dead to her as a child, she still formed an intellectual bond with him where she tries to imagine his thoughts and experiences.
“Like a huge flag waves first one way then the other in a figure of eight”
- simile- the flag represents patriotism. On one hand, the fish represents life, the other they represent the sacrifice that the father was supposed to make for his country, for the flag.
- ‘figure of eight’- may represent the symbol of infinity so at this moment he is imagining is death, and presumably living forever as a hero. However, at the same time infinity is eternal death so he is also imagining the absences of life forever. The figure of eight returns on itself, so physically we imagine he flys out, changes his mind then goes back.
“Yes, grandfathers boat”
This seems like an interruption from her children meaning she is answering her children saying that it is her children grandfathers boat so it’s her fathers, fathers boat.
This suggests that the daughter has established a relationship with her father who becomes the children grandfather who they still talk to. So he has inherited the boat and his relationship to the family has changed
“The loose silver of whitebait and once a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous”
-‘loose silver’ - an allusion to a biblical description, in the west silver has always represented the idea of betrayal because Judas in one of the 12 disciples betrayed Jesus to the romans in return for 30 pieces of silver” which is referenced in ‘loose’, the idea of loose morality as well as in loose coins’.
-‘whitebait’ symbolises his betrayed to the country just as Judas betrayed Jesus.
-‘dark prince, muscular, dangerous’- could signify the Japanese royal family who are effectively condemning these men to go to their deaths for their country. (Negative way- daughter isn’t welcoming her father)
Equally it could symbolise the subversive act that her father does. So his protest against throwing his life away pointlessly turns out to be a ‘dark and princely act’. Which is a positive way of looking at what he has done. He has been punished by society because what he has done is dangerous but it’s not a weak decision, instead, it’s a ‘muscular’ one. (Positive way- daughter welcoming her father)
“Only we children still chattered and laughed”
This connotes that they love their father and they were grateful to have him back which is the natural human reaction.
What does the line break in between ‘only we still chattered……’ and ‘till we gradually……’ suggest
Shows the pause of how her emotions have changed gradually
“Till gradually we too learned to be silent”
-‘gradually’- how unnatural it was for the children the disown their father so they couldn’t do it so suddenly. This implies the Japanese culture at that time was doing something painful and wrong; it takes a long time for the children to adjust to it.
‘Learned’ - the fact they learn it suggest it was totally unnatural. This invites us to imagine that as this daughter grows up, she is now reflecting back on her childhood and thinking that decision was wrong
“And sometimes she said, he must have wondered which had been the better way to die”
-‘he must have wondered’ means that the daughter has never spoken to her father about his decision because the memory is too painful for him.
-‘the better way to die’- suggests that he has died emotionally within the family which is problematic as it suggests that he has never been accepted back and that the family has permanently ostracised him. However, she says ‘yes-grandfathers boat’ which shows that her childrens grandfather is her father
therefore the last line doesn’t mean he has faces the ultimate death and excluded. Perhaps the other children still haven’t accepted him, but his daughter has because she is retelling her story to her children
How does Beatrice make this chronology
Beatrice makes this poem complicated as it speaks with different generations which emphasises how difficult and how complex culture could be and how damaging it could be through the family of generations.
It can also be a message of hope and how do countries and people recover from a war.
