Last week I finally settled down and started reading Hasting's Nemesis. So far I'm thoroughly enjoying would recommend it to anyone interestedin the war in the East. A lot of the material isn't new but Hasting's has done an excellent job of re-interpreting the history, especially the background politicing, and his analayses of many of the personalities are as irreverent as in Armageddon One section that struck me early in the book was his analysis of the Kamikaze attacks. Apart from facts and figures, which are available elsewhere, I found the comments attached articulating what I've always believed. What do other members think? Were the Kamikaze attacks a diabolical Japanese method of (as the Americans believed and still believe) or was it just another method of combat in a war where that sort individual sacrifice was no different to some of the missions undertaken by the Allies. And what of the disdain at Japanese tactics of full-frontal charges where they were massacred? Do we not praise the Soviets who did exactly the same thing and defeated the Germans in the process.
While I am in awe of the Kamikaze flyers and their commitment, I agree that there is a distinction when regarding RAF sacrifice. As said by Bradlee, the USN destroyer officer, he could imagine himself more or less throwing caution to the wind (pardon the pun!) and doing something suicidal in battle but he could not imagine waking up one morning knowing you were going to deliberately plough into something. No doubt some RAF types woke up and thought to themselves they would end it that day but, from the reports of supreme sacrifice I've read (insignificant amounts compared to Kyt, I suspect), the decision to make the sacrifice often appears to be a spur of the moment thing: the vital target survives, the aircraft/pilot is mortally wounded. Perhaps I'm being a bit too, ah, rosy in my impressions of RAF types but it is clear that it dawned on many Americans that the only way they would survive the war was if they gave no quarter. They knew not to expect any.
I don't think there is as much distinction as we like to think between British or American heroes who sacrifice their lives, of their own volition or following impossible orders, and the Kamikazis or modern Islamic suicide bombers. Both give their lives for what they believe in (coercion aside) But it would be wrong to say there is no distinction. Our culture values life and we do not place a virtue on seeking death for its own sake, let alone sending servicemen to certain death except where there is a specific, absolutely critical reason for doing so and no alternative.
