Blossoms In The Wind

A revelatory and groundbreaking account of Imperial Japan’s kamikaze—the suicide pilots of World War II—as told through the eyes of the survivors In the final year of World War II, a horrific new weapon was unleashed in the Pacific: the kamikaze. Idealistic, young Japanese men had been taught that there was no greater glory than to sacrifice one’s life to defend the homeland. Now, with the war all but lost, thousands of these determined warriors were hastily trained in the basics of piloting an airplane, then sent out in waves to crash into enemy warships, suicide attacks that killed altogether some seven thousand American sailors. But what of those men who took the sacred oath to die in battle and lived? In the wake of 9/11, ethnographer M. G. Sheftall was given unprecedented access to the cloistered community of Japan’s last remaining kamikaze survivors. As an American fluent in Japanese, Sheftall was the only westerner to ever sit face-to-face with these men and hear their stories. The result is a fascinating journey into the lives, indoctrination, and mindsets of the kamikaze, through the eyes of participants who are now lost to time.

Drawing on firsthand, intimate interviews with the few remaining survivors of Japan's kamikaze corps, a thought-provoking study offers a revealing glimpse into the lives, attitudes, beliefs, and mindsets of former kamikaze pilots who never completed their suicidal missions. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.

By definition, a wildflower is a flower that grows freely, resiliently, and radiantly. But it is actually the strokes of the wind that really test the flower's resilience to grow freely and beautifully. In this collection of poems, the author portrays the different phases and emotions that we(wildflowers) experience and different tests(wind) that we endure in life.

A great read for fans of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Lac's memoir is the captivating story of a child's triumph over adversity and an eloquent, moving account of a woman's search for her identity.

The Sound of Water, The Sound of Wind is a compellation of essays from five of Zen Master Bapjongs earlier publications. This anthology teaches universal themes in Zen and Buddhist tradition and appeals to a broad audience. These simple and expressive essays are filled with deep messages concerning total awareness of the self and the spirit of nature among others.

A gentle meditation on the cycle of life, told by two trees One day, a tiny pine seedling strikes up a conversation with a nearby tree. As the seedling grows larger, the older pine shares what it has learned about the strong wind that blows through the forest. Wind stretches trees and dries them out, but it also scatters seeds, spreads messages across the forest, and helps trees grow strong as it pushes against their trunks. As time passes, the wind takes its toll on the older tree. It loses needles and starts to droop as the young tree grows fuller and stronger. When a fierce storm rolls in, the heavy winds take down the older tree, leaving the younger one all alone. Or so it thinks. Soon after, a new seedling blown in by the wind lands on the spot where the old tree fell, and the cycle begins again. This moving picture book poignantly honors intergenerational relationships and the exchange of wisdom, while also opening up conversations about loss and environmental stewardship.

Why did almost one thousand highly educated "student soldiers" volunteer to serve in Japan's tokkotai (kamikaze) operations near the end of World War II, even though Japan was losing the war? In this fascinating study of the role of symbolism and aesthetics in totalitarian ideology, Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney shows how the state manipulated the time-honored Japanese symbol of the cherry blossom to convince people that it was their honor to "die like beautiful falling cherry petals" for the emperor. Drawing on diaries never before published in English, Ohnuki-Tierney describes these young men's agonies and even defiance against the imperial ideology. Passionately devoted to cosmopolitan intellectual traditions, the pilots saw the cherry blossom not in militaristic terms, but as a symbol of the painful beauty and unresolved ambiguities of their tragically brief lives. Using Japan as an example, the author breaks new ground in the understanding of symbolic communication, nationalism, and totalitarian ideologies and their execution.