MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 03936cam a22003854a 4500
001 5420762
005 20221110033625.0
008 041118t20052005nyuaf b 001 0 eng
010 $a 2004027356
020 $a0451214870 (trade hardcover : alk. paper)
024 3 $a9780451214874
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm57010141
035 $a(NNC)5420762
035 $a5420762
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dYDX$dIFK$dBAKER$dBUR$dIXA$dOrLoB-B
042 $apcc
043 $aa-ja---$ap------
050 00 $aD792.J3$bS43 2005
082 00 $a940.54/26$222
100 1 $aSheftall, Mordecai G.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n2004143572
245 10 $aBlossoms in the wind :$bhuman legacies of the Kamikaze /$cM.G. Sheftall.
260 $aNew York :$bNAL Caliber,$c[2005], ©2005.
300 $ax, 480 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates :$billustrations ;$c24 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 463-471) and index.
520 1 $a"By October 1944, Japan was fighting for her life. Her fuel reserves and food supply were running out. Most of her fleet lay at the bottom of the Pacific. What remained of her once vaunted air power was hunted quarry in skies ruled by American fighter planes." "Now the unstoppable Allied juggernaut was rapidly closing a noose around the neck of the Japanese nation itself." "In a last-ditch, desperate attempt to stave off the inevitable, the Japanese high command unleased a new breed of warrior unique in the history of human conflict. They were the kamikaze - living incarnations of the legendary "Divine Wind" that had saved the home islands from invasion centuries before - idealistic young men believing there could be no greater glory than to sacrifice their lives in suicide attacks to defend the sacred soil of their homeland as a proud nation prepared to choose "the honorable death of the 100 million" over the ignominy of surrender and occupation." "But what of those men who took the sacred oath to die in battle - and lived?" "Soon after the 9/11 attacks that shattered the peace of his own homeland, ethnographer M.G Sheftall was given unprecedented, intimate access to the cloistered community of Japan's last remaining kamikaze corps survivors. The result is a poignant and unforgettable glimpse into the lives and mind-sets of former kamikaze pilots, who, through chance or fate, were prevented from completing their final missions. For some, the war ended before they finished the dangerously haphazard training, while others were forced by equipment failure to return in disgrace. All endured the pain of watching friends go to their deaths, only to realize upon Japan's defeat that the samurai code of honor they had striven to live and die by had been distorted by the country's leadership - first to sell an unwinnable war to a patriotic populace, then to cheer an entire nation on toward glorious self-immolation once it was clear that the war was lost." "In a world where the suicide bomber has once again become the preferred weapon of resistance for a militant cause sworn to bring the West to its knees at any cost, this testimony has never been more vitally important and relevant."--BOOK JACKET.
650 0 $aWorld War, 1939-1945$xAerial operations, Japanese.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2002009824
650 0 $aKamikaze airplanes.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85071408
650 0 $aKamikaze pilots.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2002009826
650 0 $aSuicide$zJapan$xPsychological aspects.
650 0 $aWorld War, 1939-1945$xCampaigns$zPacific Ocean.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85148338
610 10 $aJapan.$bKaigun.$bKamikaze Tokubetsu Kōgekitai.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n82059046
651 0 $aJapan$xHistory, Military.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85069516
852 00 $beal$hD792.J3$iS43 2005