Am I the only one who notices? No one in the news media or high public office ever seems to draw the parallel between the 911 attacks and the kamikaze pilots of WWII. They aren't ever called kamikaze attacks.

For decades, when somebody acted reckless and heedless of life and limb, they were often called kamikazes. Now we have actual suicide pilots using planes as guided missiles for the first time in 55 years and the word "kamikaze" is never spoken.

Is this some kind of concession to the tender sensitivities of our now-allies, the Japanese? It just seems weird to me.

-- Miserable SOB (misery@misery.com), October 26, 2001

Answers

Yeah, I think it's a consession. Kinda like not calling them "Nips" or "Slants" or "Little Yellow Bastards" anymore.

Best line in "Iwo Jima" with John Wayne....Sgt Stryker (The Duke) says, "The only good Nip is a dead Nip".

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeeD@yahoo.com), October 26, 2001.

Kamikaze site temorarily down.

-- (lars@indy.net), October 26, 2001.

The kamikazes used their own planes and died alone. These terrorists are a completely different animal. I wouldn't mix the two.

-- John Littmann (johntl@mtn.org), October 26, 2001.

Bushido is an ancient and honorable code of military conduct that includes suicidal defense. The current bullshit claims religious justification but has none. My take.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), October 26, 2001.

"The only good Nip is a dead Nip".

I resent that!

"Bushido is an ancient and honorable code of military conduct..."

I think that John ("Duke") Wayne's quote above amply displays the way Americans 'honored' their enemy during WWII.

"The current bullshit claims religious justification but has none..."

I suspect that, during the fighting and for long after, American soldiers figured bushido was also bullshit. The "religious justification" for kamikaze attacks was to defend the living god, Emperor Hirohito.

-- Little Nipper (canis@minor.net), October 27, 2001.