1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910785048603321

Autore

Ohnuki-Tierney Emiko

Titolo

Kamikaze, cherry blossoms, and nationalisms [[electronic resource] ] : the militarization of aesthetics in Japanese history / / Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 2002

ISBN

1-282-67918-X

9786612679186

0-226-62068-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (441 p.)

Disciplina

940.54/4952/0922

Soggetti

Kamikaze airplanes

World War, 1939-1945 - Aerial operations, Japanese

World War, 1939-1945 - Education and the war

Kamikaze pilots

College students - Japan

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 373-399) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Machine generated contents note: Introduction 1 -- Part 1: THE SYMBOLISM OF CHERRY BLOSSOMS IN PRE-MEIJI JAPAN -- The Field of Meaning, Images, and Aesthetics 27 -- Part 2: THE ROAD TO PRO REGE ET PATRIA MORI: -- NATURALIZATION OF IMPERIAL NATIONALISM -- 2 The Emperor's Two Bodies: Sovereignty, Theocracy, and Militarization 61 -- 3 The Militarization of Cherry Blossoms: Cherry Blossoms as the Souls of Fallen Soldiers 102 -- 4 The Militarization of the Masses 125 -- Part 3: THE MAKING OF THE TOKKOTAI PILOTS -- 5 The Tokkotai Operation 157 -- 6 Five Tokkotai Pilots 186 -- Part 4: NATIONALISMS, PATRIOTISMS, AND THE ROLE OF AESTHETICS IN MECONNAISSANCE -- 7 State Nationalism and Naturalization Processes 245 -- 8 Patriotism: Global Intellectual Currents as Its Source 261 -- 9 The Crooked Timber of the Cherry 279 -- Summary 299 -- Appendix: List of Readings by Four Pilots 307.

Sommario/riassunto

Why did almost one thousand highly educated "student soldiers" volunteer to serve in Japan's tokkotai (kamikaze) operations near the



end of World War II, even though Japan was losing the war? In this fascinating study of the role of symbolism and aesthetics in totalitarian ideology, Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney shows how the state manipulated the time-honored Japanese symbol of the cherry blossom to convince people that it was their honor to "die like beautiful falling cherry petals" for the emperor. Drawing on diaries never before published in English, Ohnuki-Tierney describes these young men's agonies and even defiance against the imperial ideology. Passionately devoted to cosmopolitan intellectual traditions, the pilots saw the cherry blossom not in militaristic terms, but as a symbol of the painful beauty and unresolved ambiguities of their tragically brief lives. Using Japan as an example, the author breaks new ground in the understanding of symbolic communication, nationalism, and totalitarian ideologies and their execution.