The Global Asia Research Center holds a special workshop by Nick Kapur, an Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University.

Title: (Un)certain Deaths: Wartime Resistance to Kamikaze Tactics in the Japanese Military

Lecturer: Nick Kapur (Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University)

Date & Time: July 26(Tue), 2022, 13:00-15:00 (Japan Time)

Place: 14-403(Waseda Campus) & ZOOM

Language: English

Eligible Participant: students, faculty members and public

Contact: globalasia-office [at] list.waseda.jp

Abstract:

This paper considers examples of resistance to “kamikaze” tactics by members of the Japanese military in the final months of World War II. In contrast to previous research, which has highlighted the views of elite former university students who lost draft deferments and were inducted into “special attack” units, this paper focuses on forms of resistance adopted by mid-ranking military officers, often from working class backgrounds, who had joined the military prior to the start of the Asia-Pacific War. I argue that significant evidence of resistance among this middle rank of officers calls into question longstanding popular and historical narratives about the emergence of kamikaze tactics in the Japanese military as an almost inevitable culmination of many years or even decades of imperial state propaganda and evolving military doctrine.