Kamikaze

• COMH presents conflict with those restricting his culture, fighting for it not against it.
• In Kamikaze, it is shown that without her father, she cannot understand herself and is therefore distanced from him.
• The poem Kamikaze explores a daughter’s reflection on her connection and relationship to her father who was a Kamikaze pilot in WWII and decided not to complete his suicide mission.
• The poem explores the futility of avoiding a fate set out for you by an authority or government, in this case the kamikaze pilots’ fate was formed in the military when they were instructed to go on suicide missions in the name of their country.
• The war creates an ideal backdrop to explore other forms of conflict: the conflict between individuals in Japan and the societal expectations placed upon them, the conflict within families due to the pressure put on them by society and in the case of Kamikaze pilots, the military, and the conflict between nature and man.
• The poem has a very intimate tone as the Garland works to contrast both the speaker and the daughter’s voices, which sometimes merge into one, ensuring the readership are aware that it is a very personal story and narrative being imparted in the poem.
• The poem follows the train of thought of the daughter as she remembers the journey of her father to his kamikaze mission, his memories of childhood on the beach with his brothers, and his rejection by his family upon his return.
• Beatrice Garland, the author of Kamikaze, includes John Donne, John Clare and Seamus Heaney as some of her writing inspirations, and has won prizes for her poetry.
• Garland was inspired into looking into the motivations as to why people wanted to die for their country when writing the poem Kamikaze.
• During WWII, Japanese kamikaze pilots flew manned suicide missions into military targets (e.g. ships), using planes filled with explosives.
• Kamikaze pilots were named after a typhoon that wiped out enemy ships in the 13th century, which has a link to nature being the true source of power.
• Japanese culture was very patriotic, and the military would focus on fighting and dying for your country, with the sentiment that it was better to be killed than be named a coward.
• From the collection “The Invention of Fireworks” (2014), Kamikaze was shortlisted for the 2014 Forward Prizes for the Best First Collection, indicating it had a very good reception in the literary world.
• The poems in the collection “The Invention of Fireworks” explore life and death within the natural world, and investigate how in the twentieth century, mankind becomes a threat not just to nature but to itself as well.
• Kamikaze, set against the backdrop of WWII, explores the extreme conflict taking place at the time.
• The poem is written from a first person perspective – it is personal to her and her experiences, as one of those left behind by soldiers going to war.
• Both poems express the importance of a person’s history and origins (as well as their culture) in forming their identity.
• In Poppies, the mother is grieving and suffering from loss and this emotional breaking is displayed through the structural use of caesura and enjambment.
• Both poets offer non-conventional perspectives of war, Kamikaze from the perspective of a daughter (loss of father) and Poppies from the perspective of a mother (loss of son).
• The adjectives “cloud-marked” and “feathery” have angelic and heavenly connotations which suggest that whilst the father has rejected death, the concept of it is now present forever in the family’s life.
• Both poems convey the grave impact on civilians that war and conflict can have, including the psychological impact.
• His death would have given him eternal glory in the eyes of society, however through choosing life his honour has metaphorically died.
• The poem is written from a daughter's perspective in the third person, creating a sense of detachment which reflects the distance the speaker feels from her father’s life as she grew up not knowing him.
• The poem uses metaphors, such as a fish being the most dangerous thing in the poem, to emphasize the significance of the prince.
• In Kamikaze, the daughter suffering from a life where she cannot know her father and this is a struggle against culture (third person).
• The impact of conflict is ongoing, passed down from generation to generation.
• The father feels a responsibility to return to his family, which is a selfless reason to return, rather than just a fear of death.
• There is a shift in narrative perspective (Volta), when the narrative changes to her personal experience of war and its effects.
• The shift in narration from third person to first person when the speaker discusses her father’s return acts as the volta.
• Alternatively, it could be a desire to detach herself from her father.
• The final line returns to the third person: “he must have wondered which had been the better way to die”.
• However, his duty according to society is to provide his family with honour not sustenance, and unfortunately this can only be achieved through death.
• The poem is written in a detached third-person viewpoint, which might suggest the speaker doesn’t agree with this cultural view.
• The structural juxtaposition could reflect the conflict between military commitment and cultural pride, and desire for life and freedom.
• The speaker’s father also feels a need to provide for his family by returning to them.
• OR doesn’t want to face what she is doing, feels guilty, and it’s painful to give up her husband but she has no choice because her culture demands it.
• Conflict between identities (such as father and soldier) is established in the first two lines of the poem.
• The speaker’s father traded his life for being forgotten and ignored by his community and society.
• The speaker is experiencing loss when remembering her father, as though he died, which displays the far reaching effect on multiple generations.
• The patriotism of kamikaze pilots is enforced by the patriotic imagery which is littered throughout the poem.