Spirit of Self Sacrifice
Emily Linko (Hauppauge High School)
When I was in eighth grade, I moaned and groaned along with the rest of my classmates as I was
assigned yet another research project; this one having to do with World War Two. After pondering over
possible research topics, I decided to look into something I had heard about many times before yet never
truly understood; the kamikaze. Sure, I’d heard the word used as a figure of speech, or even as a cocktail
drink, and I had a general grasp on what the kamikaze were, but what I had never been able to comprehend
was why.

Finally, after weeks of scouring the internet and library, I thought I had it figured out. The kamikazes,
the Special Attack Unit, were the last efforts of Japan towards the end of the war as signs of its defeat
approached on the horizon. War is war; the loss of life is always inevitable, and this method seemed to be
an efficient way to make the most of each death. The kamikaze provided higher chances of destroying a
target than conventional methods, and a blow to an enemy outweighed the cost of an aircraft and a pilot.

From a military standpoint, the refusal of a duty such as that would have been a great dishonor. Finally, I
understood. Or, at least, I thought I did.

The next year, in my history class, we started from the beginning, looking at how civilizations evolved
and changed, and how different factors shaped their cultures into what we recognize today. We learned
about Japan’s geography, its culture, its emperors, its wars. Then one day we learned about the Mongols,
and our class listened with rapt attention as our teacher told us the story of the island they weren’t able to
conquer, and the sudden typhoon that had destroyed their fleet. “The Japanese people called this typhoon
the kamikaze, meaning “divine wind”; they believed it was sent by the gods, the kami, to protect them”.

And with that one sentence, I realized that I had not, in fact, understood, not in the least. The kamikaze, I
suddenly realized, were motivated by much more than a sense of duty toward their superiors. They were
spurred by the honor and loyalty that had been deeply ingrained in their culture for centuries, positioned to
protect the island as the next “divine wind”. And then, I was sure, I understood.

The earthquake in Japan had hit in 2011, and people were hearing about it in phases; first the
emergency response, then the short-term fixes, then the inevitably daunting long-term cleanup. Along the
way stories trickled in of the kindness and bravery of people there and from all around the world. The one
that hit me the hardest was the tale of a group of elderly citizens who volunteered to help clean up the
nuclear waste. They elicited a mixed response; some people finding them inspirational and others feeling
they should enjoy their retirements in peace. When asked about their motives, the citizens replied that they
didn’t have long left to live anyway, so they should take the risk of contracting a disease from the radiation
instead of the younger citizens, who still have their whole lives laid out in front of them.

I was floored. At their ages, most would want to settle down and take a well-earned rest, letting the
younger and more able bodied members of the population take care of new problems. But these people
were willing to go out and put their lives and health on the line for others, others that most of them had
probably never met. That was when it became clear to me; making such a tremendous sacrifice is about
much more than just duty or honor; it’s about loving your country and the people in it with every fiber of
your being. It’s about wanting to protect it and its citizens in any way possible, be it piloting a plane or
trudging through toxic waste. And I realized, I had never really understood. Maybe I still don’t. But maybe
someday, I can figure out what runs through the minds of those who will willingly give up everything for
duty, for honor, and for love of their country.

Bibliography Dillow, Clay. "Japanese Elderly Offer to Take Over Fukushima Nuclear Cleanup."
Popular Science. Popular Science, 31 May 2011. Web. Dec. 2012.

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Stearns, Peter N. World Civilizations: The Global Experience. 4th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2004.

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