Listen and read

Step into an infinite world of stories

  • Listen and read as much as you want
  • Over 400 000+ titles
  • Bestsellers in 10+ Indian languages
  • Exclusive titles + Storytel Originals
  • Easy to cancel anytime
Subscribe now
Details page - Device banner - 894x1036

Memoirs of a Kamikaze: A World War II Pilot's Inspiring Story of Survival, Honor and Reconciliation

Duration
6H 52min
Language
English
Format
Category

Biographies

**Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY) Winner**

Now Available on Audio. An incredible, untold story of survival and acceptance that sheds light on one of the darkest chapters in Japanese history.

This book tells the story of Kazuo Odachi who—in 1943, when he was just 16 years-old—joined the Imperial Japanese Navy to become a pilot. A year later, he was unknowingly assigned to the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps—a group of airmen whose mission was to sacrifice their lives by crashing planes into enemy ships. Their call sign was ""ten dead, zero alive.""

As you listen to Memoirs of a Kamikaze, you will experience the hardships of fighter pilot training—dipping and diving and watching as other trainees crash into nearby mountainsides. you will witness the psychological trauma of coming to terms with death before each mission, and breathe a sigh of relief with Odachi when his last mission is cut short by Japan's eventual surrender. You will feel the anger at a government and society that swept so much of the sacrifice under the rug in its desperation to rebuild.

Odachi's innate ""samurai spirit"" carried him through childhood, WWII and his eventual life as a kendo instructor, police officer and detective. His attention to detail, unwavering self-discipline and impenetrably strong mind were often the difference between life and death. Odachi, who is now well into his nineties, kept his Kamikaze past a secret for most of his life. Seven decades later, he agreed to sit for nearly seventy hours of interviews with the authors of this book—who know Odachi personally. He felt it was his responsibility to finally reveal the truth about the Kamikaze pilots: that they were unsuspecting teenagers and young men asked to do the bidding of superior officers who were never held to account.

This book offers a new perspective on these infamous suicide pilots. It is not a chronicle of war, nor is it a collection of research papers compiled by scholars. It is a transcript of Odachi's words.

© 2022 Tuttle Publishing (Audiobook): 9781955634045

Translators: Alexander Bennett

Release date

Audiobook: 3 May 2022

Others also enjoyed ...

  1. I Am A Cat Soseki Natsume
  2. The Cat Who Saved Books: The heartwarming first title in the bestselling Japanese series – a must for book lovers everywhere Sosuke Natsukawa
  3. Sweet Bean Paste Durian Sukegawa
  4. Crying in H Mart: The Number One New York Times Bestseller Michelle Zauner
  5. Almond: A Novel Won-pyung Sohn
  6. If Cats Disappeared From The World: A moving and thought-provoking tale for fans of cosy Japanese fiction Genki Kawamura
  7. Before the Coffee Gets Cold: The cosy million-copy sensation from Japan Toshikazu Kawaguchi
  8. Men Without Women Haruki Murakami
  9. Heaven Mieko Kawakami
  10. Breasts and Eggs Mieko Kawakami
  11. The Strange Library Haruki Murakami
  12. Dance Dance Dance Haruki Murakami
  13. Lemon Kwon Yeo-Sun
  14. Pachinko Min Jin Lee
  15. The Last Days of Stalin Joshua Rubenstein
  16. Daughter of the Moon Goddess Sue Lynn Tan
  17. The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family and Defiance During the Blitz Erik Larson
  18. Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945 Michihiko Hachiya, MD
  19. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany William L. Shirer
  20. Permanent Record: A Memoir of a Reluctant Whistleblower Edward Snowden
  21. How High We Go in the Dark Sequoia Nagamatsu
  22. She Who Became the Sun Shelley Parker-Chan
  23. Yellowface Rebecca F Kuang
  24. The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II Iris Chang
  25. Concerning My Daughter Kim Hye-jin
  26. Blue Sky Mansion H.Y. Yeang
  27. The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936–1945 John Toland
  28. The Hole Hye-Young Pyun
  29. The Alice Network: A Novel Kate Quinn
  30. Hitler's Hangman: The Life of Heydrich Robert Gerwarth