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Japan’s enduring fascination with kamikaze pilots

Japan’s enduring fascination with kamikaze pilots

Former Japanese kamikaze pilot Hichiro Naemura wears his old uniform at London’s Imperial War Museum in 2002. Reuters

One Saturday afternoon in October, families, schoolkids and the elderly milled about the Chiran Peace Museum, near Kagoshima in south-west Japan. In this country, many things branded “peace” are likely to be about war. Chiran is no exception: it is a museum dedicated to kamikaze pilots.

Momoka Takashima wanted to come with her parents to Chiran, a former army airfield, after her school trip to the cinema last year to see Till We Meet Again on the Lily Hill – a film about an unhappy young woman from the present day who goes back in time and falls in love with a kamikaze pilot.

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Original URL: https://www.afr.com/world/asia/japan-s-enduring-fascination-with-kamikaze-pilots-20241128-p5kuex