JAPAN: A Japanese would-be kamikaze pilot yesterday came face-to-face with his former enemies more than 50 years after the end of the second World War.
Mr Hichiro Naemura (82) was one of only a few surviving airmen from the conflict in the Pacific, which saw thousands of young Japanese men kill themselves in officially sanctioned suicide attacks on allied warships.
Mr Naemura was at the Imperial War Museum in London yesterday to help launch Kamikaze: Japan's Suicide Gods, a new book on the strategy in which his story is told.
The pensioner was an accomplished flyer who volunteered but was turned down for a Kamikaze mission. Instead he was recruited to train pilots for attacks on British and United States vessels. He had mixed feelings about the tactic, which was seen as a desperate measure by the Japanese High Command when they realised they were losing the war.
"They didn't attack. Their mission in life was to defend Japan and they threw their lives away for this purpose," he said.
"It was undoubtedly sad that they died, but I feel incredibly proud of them. The pride I have in their memory is something that we must pass on to the young Japanese."
Among the veterans who met Mr Naemura were Mr Stuart Eadon, a lieutenant on aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable and Mr Philip Davis, who was assigned the task of spotting Kamikaze pilots from HMS Victorious. Mr Eadon (80), from Upton upon Severn, Worcestershire, described the feeling of powerlessness as a Kamikaze pilot attacked the aircraft carrier's bridge.
The attack, in April 1945 as the British fleet prepared for the assault on the Japanese island of Okinawa, killed 14 and wounded 30. Among the dead were close friends and colleagues of Mr Eadon, including the ship's doctor, who was killed while sitting in the sick bay playing the clarinet.
"I was the fire direction officer on the port side midships. We were at action stations when we heard a hell of a row coming from the starboard side. We didn't know what it was," he recalled.
"Then I saw this plane come round the bow. I couldn't see any red markings on his side but as he got nearer I realised he was a Jap but I waited. I waited until the plane turned in. You always think a Kamikaze is coming straight at you. It's a gut feeling.
"As soon as he turned in and was on a parallel course for us, I thumped the gunner in the back and bellowed, 'Fire, fire, fire', so they all blasted away.
"That was our moment of extreme danger. I knew he was firing at us as he came in.
"It didn't do any good. He zoomed over my head.
"He was only about 15 to 18 feet away. I could see him quite clearly. About one second later he didn't exist." - (PA)