Army Veteran decorated with the Order of the Rising Sun, 1943

Order of the Rising Sun

Stern faced Japanese officer and marines pause and wave the flag of the Rising Sun in the rubble of a conquered Chinese town.

Japanese marines

Five young pilots of the 72nd Shinbu Squadron with little puppy dog, 22 May, 1945.  Like most Kamikase pilots, these were very young men - aged between 17 and 22.  On the following day, they were involved in a suicide attack on US shipping that had little result, apart from their deaths.

The Kamikase have been mytholysed as warriors who volunteered for a fate comparable to samurai who sacrificed themselves for lord and honour in medieval wars.  Leaving aside the largely mythical history of the samurai, prevalent in Japan in the 1940s,  recently unearthed evidence (including interviews with the small number of surviving Kamikase pilots) suggests that many were pressured into the role of suicidal heroes by social, military and other ideological pressures.  So it was.

In any event, these boys' sweethearts mourned their loss under the cherry trees, flowers falling.  Best regards, JR.