Kamikaze

• Who is Kamikaze made by?

  Beatrice Garland
• What is the form of Kamikaze?

  In free verse which makes readers feel as though it is a story with a moral ending as the poem has no form

  The lack of structure could also reflect the father having no place in his family
• 'Her father embarked at sunrise with a flash or water, a samurai sword' ?


  'sunrise' symbolises divinity, heaven and meeting God

  'water' symbolises purity and baptism (the father is purifying himself by dying this way)

  The sibilance signifies peace the kamikaze fighter will find at death
• 'Like a huge flag waved first one way then the other in a figure of eight'?


  'huge flag' depicts the patriotism he is rejecting

  'first one way then the other' shows the fighter changing his mind and turning back on his country

  The figure of eight symbolises the infinity sign and his eternal death. It is also a physical representation of the fighting turning back on his initial decision
• 'The loose silver of whitebait and once a tuna, the dark prince,'?

  
  

  The 'loose silver' is a biblical connotation to Judas betraying Jesus and therefore symbolises his betrayal of his country and God

  'The dark prince' suggests that The royal family is wrong for forcing fighters to kill themselves or be shunned from society
• 'Only we children still chattered and laughed...till gradually we too learned to be silent'?


  The children naturally loved their father

  'gradually we too learned' Suggests it was something the children were taught to do and acting as thought their father didn't exist was unnatural
• 'he must have wondered which had been the better way to die'?


  The would have either died emotionally or physically

  The child does not know how her father feels which suggests the memory is too painful to talk about

  Her father did not die completely due to his daughter which symbolises how Japan did not die after the atomic bombing due to the next generation rebuilding the country
• Why is it difficult to understand who the narrator of the poem is?

  This is to convey how complex different societies and cultures are and how they can damage families or relationships