Kamikaze - Garland

• What themes are present in Kamikaze?

  1. Power of Nature
  2. Effects of Conflict
  3. Loss and Absence
  4. Memory
  5. Identity
  6. Individual Experience
• What is Kamikaze about?

  Kamikaze explores the internal conflict of a Japanese kamikaze pilot who chooses to turn back from his suicide mission during World War II. The poem examines honour, shame, duty, and individual conscience, highlighting how patriotism and cultural expectations can clash with the human instinct to value life and nature. Garland presents the pilot’s silent resistance as both heroic and tragic, as his return leads to emotional exile — his family reject him, treating him as though he were dead.
• State quotes from Kamikaze.

  1. “he must have wondered which had been the better way to die”
  2. “a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous”
  3. “bringing their father’s boat safe”
  4. “green-blue translucent sea”
  5. "head full of powerful incantations"
  6. "one way journey into history"
  7. "like a huge flag waved in a figure of eight"
  8. "they treated him as though he no longer exist"
• State the Structure and Form of Kamikaze.

  Form - third person narrative, dramatic monologue, free verse

  Structure - 6 regular stanzas with 6 lines, shifts from active to passive voice, enjambment, caesura
• State the context of Kamikaze.

  Garland was interested in the conflict between personal conscience and national duty. Inspired by Japanese kamikaze pilots in WWII, she explores the cost of blind patriotism and honour. Garland critiques how cultural pressure can strip away identity and isolate those who resist it. The poem reflects on memory, family, and the emotional conflict of a man who chooses life but is still treated as if he died, showing Garland’s interest in untold, internal histories.