A social Historical Study on Racial Relationships and Human Behavior during the Battle of Okinawa

第二次世界大战结束时，冲绳成为日本帝国军队的战略前线防御基地，然后是在日本领土上进行的唯一一场战斗的地点-太平洋战争中最激烈的战斗。在这场战役中，美军伤亡总数约为5万人，其中1.4万人死亡。此外，由于可怕的战斗条件造成严重的心理问题，数千名美国士兵不得不撤离战场。日本损失了6.6万名士兵和4400名飞行员。本研究的目的是分析所谓的神风特攻行动，即日本在冲绳战役中对盟军战列舰进行的有组织的自杀式空袭，并找出日本帝国军队为什么以及如何采取这种残酷的战略。本研究还分析了神风特攻队成员所面临的各种心理问题。特别要仔细研究以下两个问题。在4400名神风特攻队飞行员中，大多数是年轻的大学毕业生，他们有着相似的社会背景。因此，本研究考察了他们的心理和意识形态中的一些重要的共同因素，例如，自愿参加这次行动的家庭动机、他们评价自己死亡的特殊方式、微弱的民族主义情绪和对皇帝崇拜的微弱承诺，以及缺乏他们敌人的具体形象。(2)选择成为神风特攻队飞行员的一个根本原因是为了保护他们的家人免受所谓的“战略轰炸”，即美国陆军航空兵在战争的最后阶段摧毁了日本各地许多城市和城镇的“无区别轰炸”。因此，本研究仔细考察了“战略轰炸”的历史，包括对平民进行无差别空袭的军事理由是如何构思和发展的历史过程。

Towards the end of World War II Okinawa became a strategic frontline defense base for the Japanese Imperial Forces, and then the site of the only battle to be fought on Japanese soil - the most fierce battle in the Pacific War. In this battle American casualties totaled about 50,000, including 14,000 deaths. In addition, a few thousand US soldiers had to be withdrawn from the battlefield because of severe psychological problems caused by the terrifying fighting conditions. Japan lost 66,000 soldiers and 4,400 pilots.The purpose of this study is to analyze the so-called Kamikaze Special Attack Operation, that is, Japan's organized suicide air attack on the Allied battle ships during the Battle of Okinawa, and to find out why and how the Japanese Imperial Forces adopted such a brutal strategy. This study also analyzes various psychological problems that members of the Kamikaze Special Attack Force faced. In particular, the following two issues are examined closely.(1)The majority of the 4,400 kamikaze pilots were young university or college graduates who shared a similar social background. Thus the study examines some important common elements in their psychology and ideology - e.g., family oriented motivation for volunteering for this operation, particular ways they evaluated their own death, weak nationalistic sentiments and a weak commitment to emperor worship, as well as the lack of a concrete image of their enemy.(2)One fundamental reason for choosing to become kamikaze pilots was to protect their families against the so-called "strategic bombing," i.e., "indiscriminate bombing" conducted by the U.S. Army Air Forces which destroyed many cites and towns throughout Japan in the last stage of the war. Thus, this study closely examines the history of "strategic bombing," including the historical process of how the military justification of indiscriminate aerial attacks on civilians was conceived and developed.