World War II was raging on
The Japanese were losing,
but they would not give up the fight.
They railed against the Allies
with their collective might.
There was a Japanese warrant officer
stationed in the Naval Air Corps.
Because he had a plan, he thought for sure
Would end the war, restore glory to Japan
O -Tah thought up a flying weapon
that any pilot could steer straight
into the heart of the enemy.
Though the pilot would die
The OTA superior turned him down flat
and was appalled to think
no matter how many ships there were to
and Japan lost so many men.
won't you tell us about your plan again?
So 18 large bombers took off,
strapped beneath their wings.
But the American Hellcats
before they could harm anything.
came up with a flying bomb.
Recruited just the young and the single,
They called them kamikazes,
Most were under 20 years old
and had no thoughts of fear.
But there was a pilot named Hajime Fujii
who had a wife and three young girls.
But he wanted to be a kamikaze
more than anything in this old world.
So his wife drowned their daughters,
then she drowned herself too.
And three months later he
When he flew into the wild blue
I used to think the word kamikaze
a time when more Japanese fought and died
A gale force they called the kamikaze,
which meant the divine wind
Drove the Mongols from Japan,
it was a war they were destined to win
But now these new kamikazes,
for keeping dreams of victory alive.
And in their brief reign of terror,
368 more were badly damaged
for our side a terrible cost, as 5 ,000
Allied sailors died in the blood -red sea.
but still Japan was losing,
and still these suicide missions flew.
The wild blue, the wild blue
This was war, this is what men do
The wild blue, the wild blue
This was war, this is what men do
On a U .S. aircraft carrier,
in the damaged part of the ship,
He strips the meat right off it
and makes jewelry from the bone.
were our hearts made of stone?
that we made sport with his remains?
Would they think we were barbarians?
Would they think we were insane?
He was trying to kill us.
We were trying to kill him, too.
When you're in this situation,
for every mission that was sent,
Well, that's how the story went.
when the peace treaty ended the war,
Otah climbed into the cockpit,
left his comrades on the shore.
Legend was he flew over the ocean
and then he crashed his plane.
He couldn't live with his anger.
He could not deal with his pain.
Kamikazes, just boys and young men,
would never get to see their homes
or their loved ones ever again.
And it's said that at the Yasukuni Shrine
the families come and visit them
not with sorrow but with pride
and some know the name of Otar
and they say their prayers
because like their brave ancestors
an old man lay dying on his bed
his children gathered round
can't believe what he's just said I am
I hid and then I changed my name
I could not let anybody know
he cried in hell his children what have I done
all those young people died
I volunteered for every mission
but they never called my name.
I've lived my life in agony.
Now his son sits quietly in the cemetery.
It's been just three years
since his father's been buried
we could have helped him but we never
The reporter nods, the camera zooms into the wild blue,
the wild blue, the wild blue.
This was war, this is what men do,
the wild blue, the wild blue.
This was war, this is what men do.
