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Father of the Kamikaze

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I couldn't help but compare "Father of the Kamikaze" with the 2007 film "I Go to Die for You" ("Ore wa, kimi no tame ni koso, shi ni iku"). What a difference distance makes. In the 2007 film, the kamikaze pilots are allowed to be figures of romance, of heroism, and all sorts of movie tropes. In 1974's "Father of the Kamikaze", there is only harsh reality.

I have seen few films that attempt to capture historical reality on the same level as "Father of the Kamikaze". Not only in the accuracy of the story, but in the use of actual war footage whenever possible. Those are not special effects that you are seeing. Those are actual human-piloted airplanes smashing into actual human-staffed warships. The loss of life depicted in this film is staggering.

At the base level, "Father of the Kamikaze" tells the story of Onishi Takijiro, a Vice Admiral of the Japanese navy. No war-monger, Onishi actually opposed the attack on Pearl Harbor, foreseeing that it would launch Japan into a full-scale war with the US, a war they could never win. He also was opposed to the use of suicide attacks in warfare, until he was backed into a corner. In charge of the defense of the Philippines during Operation Sho, he had no choice but to order the attacks, which were highly successful and the beginning of Japan's "Special Attack Units". The film then follows the consequences of Onishi's actions, with vignettes of the lives of kamikaze pilots, to the behind-the-scenes high level debates about their deployment. Onishi, who was against the war to begin with, becomes adamant that Japan must not lose, and tries to play psychological games with the US, throwing wave-after-wave of suicide attackers, in the hopes that the US will be horrified enough to at least call the war a draw.

This is an epic film, clocking in at over three hours long. Due to its nature, it is almost better to call it a documentary than a film. It seeks to educate much more than entertain. Director Yamashiita Kosaku does give the viewer enough drama to keep the story moving, but he also makes sure that all sides are represented, and the true nature of the men behind the Special Attack Forces is known. It is far too easy to sit in relative luxury and order men to their deaths, talking about ideals and country while taking none of the actual risks or suffering yourself.

Playing Onishi is Tsuruta Koji, who was Mifune Toshiro's main rival at the time. He had made an earlier kamikaze flick back in 1963, "Taiheiyo no tsubasa". Also on board is Sugawara Bunka, who is a familiar face as the star of the epic Battles Without Honor & Humanity. They both do a fantastic job, finding the nuance in their characters, and balancing the audience's sympathy and disgust. Tsuruta particularly shines in the final scene where, as in real life, Onishi commits ritual suicide, but refuses a "second" to chop off his head and end his suffering. Onishi felt he should atone for the deaths he cause by feeling every minute of his painful death. He died over a period of 15 hours.

The only real drawback to "Father of the Kamikaze" is its length. That is a long history lesson, and the three hours can be hard to slog through. But at the end, it is a rewarding journey. Also, the special effects were overly ambitious for the time. The combination of actual war footage juxtaposed with model work can come off as a bit silly, and more than once I was reminded of scenes in Godzilla.

As usual, Animeigo put together a super package with this release. As a special feature, there is a clickable map that lets you study some of the details of the scenes involved, and their role in the war. The DVD liner notes are a small history lesson on the historical figures you will see, and some of the terms involved. All in all a brilliant presentation.

This is a very long movie that tells a fairly simple story that could have used some better editing. Three hours and 19 minutes is a lot and the length could easily have been cut by a third. The characters were generally well-acted, in some cases a bit over-acted, and the story is interesting to World War II history buffs. The special effects were not up to today's standards (air combat scenes clearly done with models) and there were a few mistakes (like sandbags obviously stuffed with straw), but otherwise the sets were realistic and believable.

A point that is well-illustrated in this movie is the fanaticism of Japanese militarists. Reality doesn't seem to mean much to these guys, and they seem to be imbued with a kind of mad-dog, hyper-nationalistic fatalism. Everything was a matter of honor. Not all Japanese officers were like this, but enough that the war kept going much longer than it should have. The individual kamikaze pilots seemed over-enthusiastic, like they could hardly wait to die for their country. This would have been entirely out of character for American pilots, although I'm sure there would have been a few individual exceptions.

The decision to go kamikaze was an agonizing one for some of the Japanese leadership and the movie shows it, but it was becoming obvious that it was their last hope to convince the Americans that continuing the war would be too costly, especially if they attempted an invasion of the home islands. Had the kamikaze attacks continued, however, it's possible that the Americans would have settled for a negotiated peace. Although it's not discussed in this film, the kamikazes were very effective and their design and lethality gradually improved. Had they been used earlier, it could have changed the outcome of several battles. Late in the war the Americans became better at shooting them down.

If you collect material in this area it's worth having. For entertainment value, it's not that interesting.

This movie is a well written reinacted chronology of the development of the Japanese Kamikaze deployment. Although it is somewhat aged, the flying scences and drama are realistic. For WWII buffs, this should be on the "need to have" list.

I finished Aa Kessen Koukuutai (Father of the Kamikaze) thoroughly disgusted over how such easily degraded concepts of patriotism and honor lead to the pointless deaths of the young because of the beliefs and manipulations of the old. One thing we learn in this movie, or should, is that the concepts of "honor" and "patriotism" are so slippery we should never let others define them for us, especially politicians and senior military commanders.

This docudrama tells all about Vice Admiral Onishi Takijiro (Koji Tsuruta), who proposes to stop the American fleets moving toward the Japanese homeland by recruiting young men to fly in bomb-laden Zero fighters and deliberately crash themselves into the ships, especially the carriers. The Japanese high command, somewhat nervously, agrees. Onishi is ordered to the Philippines in late 1944 to make it happen. In the course of three hours and 20 minutes we will see the meetings, the discussions and the decisions it took to enable Onishi to organize these special attack units and send thousands of young men to their suicidal deaths. We'll see their decision to die and we'll watch some of them do it. All the while the American fleets keep right on coming toward the Philippines, to Okinawa and toward the Japanese mainland. Then we'll watch the failure of Onishi and the collapse of Japan.

We'll see how patriotism and honor, as is almost always the case, become perverted in the name of glorious victory; how young men are praised and rewarded for killing themselves while they kill other young men; how pre-flight "funerals" are used to honor the soon-to-be squashed and mangled; and how pointless it all was. On August 16, 1945, Vice Admiral Onishi wrote a note asking forgiveness. Then he drove a blade into his stomach, cut, and spent an agonizing 15 hours dying. In atonement for his actions, he refused the services of a second who would strike through his neck at the instant of agony.

Father of the Kamikaze is a movie on a big scale. It's not all just meetings and speeches. Sea battles and air battles are waged, bombs and people blow up, extensive miniatures are used (they look good), personal stories are created or restaged, including Onishi's, and great strategic decisions are battled over.

The movie's 200 minutes don't move briskly. There may be more than a few times you'll want to fast forward. It takes nearly an hour until the first group of suicide pilots take off (on October 15 1944) and head for the American invading fleet in the Philippines. Then we move into the expansion of the suicide flights and the reliance upon them by the high command. The remaining 40 minutes take us into the last few weeks of the war and the effort by some to fight on and others to negotiate. In other words, the movie sprawls from its initial focus. Still, as docudramas go it moves forward with its own logic and deliberate speed.

Koji Tsuruta who plays Onishi gives a complex performance, and perhaps too good a one. Tsuruta is a not-too-handsome middle-aged man with a humane face. He makes Onishi into something of a sympathetic character, at least until you remind yourself of what Onishi was doing. By the time we realize Onishi's own fatalistic fanaticism, it's far too late for Japan. Towards the end he says, "The young men are the only ones who are seriously fighting the Americans. Certainly, it's possible that suicide attacks might not have been the path to victory. However, if we weren't so totally committed, our country couldn't rise to the challenge. If we fight on to the bitter end, our true character will be revealed to all. The people will truly understand what it means to be Japanese." In a screwy bit of rationalization, he seems to believe that a taste of Armageddon will be a great, positive lesson for future generations. He's become the kind of warrior who cares more for the spirits of the dead and the honor of the nation than the lives of the living and the future of the nation. I spent the last hour thinking I'm wasting too much time with the maudlin musings of this fanatic, who now regrets, because his nation is surrendering, the wasted lives of all those suicide pilots he encouraged.

For another troubling docudrama, this one using accurate dialogue based on the minutes of the meeting, track down the 1984 German TV movie The Wannsee Conference. Here, in 85 minutes (the actual length of the conference), we are witness to the meeting called by SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich in which he and a few fellow Nazis, bureaucrats and soldiers will agree on plans to murder with German efficiency several million Jews. The racial jokes amuse. The stenographers are pretty. The cigars are excellent. The brandy is quite good.