The Invention of the "Kamikaze": Dissent and Resistance in the Japanese Military

Chiran high school girls wave at kamikaze pilot

Nick Kapur 

Date: July 9, 2025

Time: 17:30-19:00

Venue: Room 301 Building 10, Sophia University

Format: In person only

This talk reconsiders the emergence of “special attack” (tokkō, a.k.a. kamikaze) tactics within the Japanese military in the final phases of the Pacific War by excavating numerous examples of dissent and resistance in the Japanese military in the final years of World War II. I argue that since so many people could articulate opposition to kamikaze tactics so late in the war by citing their own, in many cases diametrically opposed, understandings of Japanese culture, the emergence of kamikaze tactics cannot be explained as overdetermined by Japanese culture or modern state-nationalist ideological indoctrination. Moreover, whereas previous studies have tended to focus on the erudite testimonies of elite university students whose higher education draft deferments were rescinded late in the war, this talk emphasizes the viewpoints of working-class soldiers who comprised the majority of kamikaze squadrons, as well mid-ranking career officers in the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy who represented an earlier Japanese military tradition that predated the Pacific War. 

Nick Kapur received his Ph.D. in Japanese history from Harvard University, and is presently Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University’s Camden campus, where he teaches Japanese and East Asian history. His book Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo (Harvard University Press, 2018) details enduring transformations in Japanese politics, culture, and society, as well as US-Japan alliance diplomacy and the Cold War international system, that unfolded in the aftermath of the massive 1960 protests against the US-Japan Security Treaty. He has also published articles on topics such as US-Japan relations during the John F. Kennedy administration, the 1968 centennial celebrations of Japan’s Meiji Restoration, and Japan’s postwar student movement. In recent years, he has been significantly involved in the founding of the Modern Japan History Association (mjha.org). 

This event is organized by Sven Saaler (Professor of History, Sophia University).