M.G. Sheftall - Blossoms In The Wind [Kindle azw3]

M. G. Sheftall's Blossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze is an expansive work of oral histories. The author draws on two main groups for his narrative: kamikaze pilots who did not complete their missions (due to mechanical failure, being shot down, or the war ending); and the squadron mates and friends of those kamikaze pilots who died during their missions. While the book primarily profiles kamikazes who flew conventional aircraft, selected chapters discuss pilots of the Kaiten human torpedo and the Oka rocket propelled bomb. The result of Sheftall's efforts is a powerful narrative on the background, recruiting, training, and conflicting emotions of being a kamikaze and knowing that their lives will end after one mission. Certainly this work is not a comprehensive history of the Japanese use of the kamikaze. Instead, the author describes the human dimension of a select group of kamikazes, individuals that were not devoid of emotion and merely blindly following their orders, but men who suffered tremendous mental anguish as they prepared to carry out the extraordinary grim duty of their final mission. In the end, about 4,000 pilots perished in kamikaze attacks.