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In the midst of World War II, with Japanese victory seemingly far off and their unwilling to surrender, the Japanese resorted to a technique never before seen in war. Between October 1944 and August 1945, More than 3,000 Japanese Army and Navy pilots died intentionally by crashing their planes into allied ships. These warriors are often known as the kamikaze. Kamikaze is a Japanese word that translates into Divine Wind. The kamikaze warriors committed the ultimate act of sacrifice for their country and were glorified for doing so. Suicide in warfare and terrorism is a very lethal tactic and is becoming increasingly prevalent today. Understanding the reasons as to what lead to the birth of the kamikaze can help us understand the allure and success of suicide warfare. Scholars have attempted to explain the phenomena as the result of brainwashing, extreme poverty, emotional dysfunction, or a feeling of despair. That formula can also be applied to the reason why the Japanese resorted to suicide as a military tactic. The Japanese samurai warrior tradition, economic necessity during the war, and sheer desperation contributed, largely, to the birth of the kamikaze.
Suicide used as an act of terrorism can be seen as far back as the first century AD with the Jewish Zealots and Sicarii, the Ismaili Assassins of the twelfth century, and the anti-colonial movements in Malabar. The use of suicide in these cases are largely seen as the result of early education, the appearance of charismatic and ambitious leaders, disputes over occupied territory, and religion used to manipulate followers to kill in the name of god. The Japanese were no exception to this pattern. The Japanese Samurai tradition and the Bushido code of ethics promoted s...
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... learn ways of prevention and protection against this increasingly lethal and widespread act of terrorism. This act does not need to be conducted by a group or in war but can be carried out by a single individual willing to sacrifice themselves while killing thousands in the process.
Works Cited
Bloom, Mia. Dying to kill: the allure of suicide terror. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.
Chaliand, Gérard, Arnaud Blin, Edward D. Schneider, Kathryn Pulver, and Jesse Browner. The history of terrorism: from antiquity to al Qaeda. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
Gambetta, Diego. Making sense of suicide missions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Nitobe, Inazō. Bushido, the soul of Japan,. 12th ed. Tokyo: Teibi Pub. Co., 19071904.
Worden, William L.. "Kamikaze: Aerial Banzai Charge." The Saturday Evening Post, June 23, 1945.
Jeffrey David Simon, The Terrorist Trap: America's Experience with Terrorism, 2nd ed. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2001), 188-89.
In World War II, many new weapons were created to kill more people with more efficiency. The most notable of these was the atomic bomb. As American troops closed in on Japan at the end of the war, they realized that taking the small island nation would be nearly impossible. The Japanese soldiers had shown their willingness to die for their country when kamikaze pilots flew into American ships.... ...
Willbanks, James H. "Kamikazes: World War II." World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.
Japan has a very rich history on the view of suicide. It is even discussed in two main Japanese history narratives. The first major writing I will be discussing is Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai (1716) by Yamamoto Tsunetomo. The second was written in 1899 by Nitobe Inazō and it was called Bushido: The soul of Japan. It is important to point out some differences about the two books. On the one hand Hagakure’s book is written to explain bushido (the way of the Samurai) to people from the age of the Samurai. On the other hand, Bushido was written and based off of Hagakure, however it is written in the context of the late nineteenth century, well after European context. Furthermore, Inazō wrote Bushido in America while Japan was in the midst
In Brym’s article he discusses what research has shown about the motivations of suicide bombers. Brym and my fellow classmate explained to me how suicide bombers may be motivated by politics, religion, or retaliatory aims (Brym, Kyra Howard). Both Brym and Howard helped me view the issue of suicide bombers in multiple
Jackson, Richard. "War on Terrorism (United States History)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
Among American civilians, whites have historically and significantly led the way in the rates of suicides. Although leveling off after the 1990’s, the rate of white suicides has still been almost twice as much as minority groups. It has also been shown that males commit suicide significantly more than females.
One of the more shocking and disturbing facts related to the fallout of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is this: the number of suicides among the US active duty military personnel has now surpassed the number of troops killed in battle (Williams.) That number reflects the fact that essentially 22 soldiers killed themselves every day, or one every 65 minutes. This troubling trend has been rising since 2005. In addition, the suicide rate of military members in the US is twice as high as it was before the start of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. There have been many social scientists that have developed ideas about what causes people to commit suicide: individual dynamics, social factors, or a combination of both. Emile Durkheim, in his landmark work regarding suicide, developed four different categories of suicide: fatalistic, egoistic, anomic and altruistic. This paper will discuss the issue of suicides among the military, using the framework of Durkheim’s theory of suicide, and focusing on the fatalistic, egoistic, and anomic categories to explain this alarming phenomenon.
The natural end of every human life is death. Some people, for reasons that have never been fully understood, choose to end their own lives. This is called suicide, which means literally ?self-killing?. For all the uncertainty that has surrounded the phenomenon of suicide, this assessment of the problem is probably as accurate as any. The individual seemingly hopeless conflict with the world, decides to end his or her existence in what amounts to a final assault against a society that can no longer be tolerated. In so doing, the person tries to obtain a final revenge on everything and everyone that has caused their feelings of depression.
Terrorism has been around for centuries and religion-based violence has been around just as long. (Hoffman, 2). The violence was never referred to as terrorism though. Only up to the nineteenth century has religion been able to justify terrorism (Hoffman, 2). Since then, religious terrorism became motivated and inspired by the ideological view (Hoffman, 3). Therefore, it has turned against the main focus of religion and more towards the views of the extremist and what is happening politically (Winchester, 4).
In the preface of I of the Storm, Lester introduces his purpose for writing this book. He states that, although he is a suicidologist and has published many things on suicide, he doesn’t know exactly why it is that people kill themselves. Lester is a former President of the International Association for Suicide Prevention, and has PhDs from Cambridge University and Brandeis University, making him qualified to speak on this matter. I of the Storm is mainly direct toward those who wish to understand suicide and why people commit it. His book is very informative, using analyses of examples and statistics to delve into the patterns of those who kill themselves to see why
Suicide is possibly the most personal action an individual can take upon oneself and yet it has a profound social impact. A large Hungarian population views an act of violence that one commits toward oneself as an act of bravery for freeing themselves and others around them of their misery. It’s also consider to be the least understood crime even though sociologist and psychologist are expected to know the answers to questions such as why people kill themselves but often these questions go unanswered. Emile Durkheim was instrumental in bringing a new understanding of suicide, “when in a sociological study he conceived his theory of suicide, and it 's relationship with society. Perhaps put more accurately, his theory was about society, and
At least 30,000 Japanese have killed themselves every year for the last fourteen years. These rates are significantly higher than those of other industrial countries. They normally are around 24 suicides per every 100,000 people, making it roughly double the rate in the United States, and three times that in the United Kingdom. (Traphagan).
Terrorism is one of the most extensively discussed issues of our time and at the same time it is also one of the least understood. The term itself “terrorism” means many different things to different people, cultures, and races. As a result, trying to define or classify terrorism with one universal definition is nearly impossible. The definition of terrorism used in this research is a reflection of much of the Western and American way of defining it. The definition of terrorism is,
“Death and Dying”. Suicide: Sourced. en.wikiquote.org. Social Issues Resources Series, Vol. 1. 7 July 2010. Web. 30 July 2010.