Kamikaze

• Ideas of conflict

  In Kamikaze, the conflict is personal as well as national. The national conflict of war creates inner conflict as the pilot is torn between his mission, his duty to serve his country and his desire to return home.
• "on a green-blue translucent sea"

  The allure of nature further intensifies the pilot's inner conflict as there are connotations of peace and tranquility in the colour imagery which contrasts with the violent nature of war. The pilot doesn't want to deny himself - or the people that he will kill - the beauty of nature and the beauty of life.
• "a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous."

  There is an imbalance of power between humanity and nature. Even a kamikaze pilot - the epitome of bravery - senses the danger of it. It's ironic as the pilot is not the most dangerous thing in the poem, but a fish is! The use of a metaphor, comparing the fish to a "dark prince" shows that it is important and significant and deserving of respect and honour, like a soldier. It's significance is further exemplified as it uses the first full stop in the poem, signalling that it is deserving of notice.
• "a shaven head/full of powerful incantations"

  Suggests that the pilot is under the spell of patriotism and propaganda, not making his own decisions as his own decision would be to keep on living. The use of enjambment reflects that he is not stopping and dwelling on thoughts of death.
• "to live as though/he had never returned"

  By choosing to live, the pilot traded this for being purposefully forgotten and ignored. This story is not told by historians, but by the pilot's daughter who never knew him which shows that the whole poem is speculative. It also suggests that the father may have physically survived but is dead to the community and society he has returned to - Japanese kamikaze pilots who failed to complete their mission were alienated from society after war.