Kamikaze: Japan's Suicide Gods - Tapa dura

'the book's depiction of the Kamikaze themselves - using quotations from their diaries and letters - is both initimate and fascinating, not to say tragic' Saul David, "The Sunday Telegraph" 'This account of the kamikazes is powerfully gripping...Their dedication is a mystery to the western mind, but all too close to the behaviour of the al-Qaeda flyers on 11 September." J G Ballard, "The New Statesman" 'What motivated Japanese pilots to fly planes on suicide missions against Allied ships during World War II? This book gives part of the answer'. "Daily Mail" 'A fascinating study' "Bolton Evening News"

The use of the Japanese Kamikaze pilots during the second world war was one of the most dramatic and chilling developments of the war. But who were the Kamikaze pilots and what motivated them to make the ultimate sacrifice? The call for Kamikaze pilots drew a staggering response. Three times as many applied for suicide flights as the number of planes available. The authors of Kamikaze: Japan's Suicide Gods look into the hearts and minds of the Kamikaze pilots, viewed in the full context of the war and the Japanese cultures and traditions out of which the Kamikaze emerged. Based on interviews with Kamikaze survivors, unpublished memoirs, and documents not previously open to the public, the book portrays one of the most extraordinary and astonishing events in history, an event that has made Kamikaze a household word around the world.