6.+++++++Kamikaze+Attacks+and+the+Battle+of+Leyete+Gulf

K. Nakamura 27 Year old Japanese soldier, soon to be suicide bomber apptoximately three weeks after the battle for Leyte Gulf Recently married, with a newborn child. lives with parents.

Journal, Regretfully, this will be my final entry to you. As I have been going through extensive training, you have kept my secrets and shared my fears. Dearest companion, I am to die in two days. Finally, i have been scheduled for a Kamikaze mission in my own plane. Three enormous bombs of unbeleivable explosive proportions will be loaded into the cargo hold of my plane, and i will crash it into an enemy ship. This attack has been carefully planned out and must be executed equally as carefully. I am excited, yet nervous. The excitement, because I will die a pround soldier. I will die honoring my country, and that is all I have ever wanted. I am nervous too, understandably, because my death is being planned as if I were an animal to be slaughtered. Knowing my death is iminent makes me think if I lived my life the way I should have. It is extremely frightening knowing i have only two more days on this earth to live. I don't know the proper way to say goodbye to my family; to my parents, my wife, and my infant child. Will they miss me? What will they think of me when I am gone? I am afraid to think these thoughts, because I should only be concentrating on what is at hand and what I will be doing for the beautiful country of Japan. I will be dying alone, although more planes and more of my fellow men will be dying beside me. In the end, I will be very alone. Two days, and then it will be over for me. No more worrying. About three weeks ago, on October 25th, 1944, I watched as young men just like me flew their planes loaded with deadly explosives into US Navy ships in Leyte Gulf, Philippines. Our Navy suffered heavy losses, and we lost a total of 26 major naval craft. Although we lost so many ships in our naval fleet, the newest tactic-suicide planes-also caused the US to lose many ships, just not as many as us.As I heard more and more reports about the Kamikaze success, I felt sadness that my fellow men were dying, yet proud at what we were doing and anxious for what I am about to do. Now that the Kamikaze strategy has been introduced, we had hoped to use it more in future attacks, like the one I will so dutifully be taking part in in just two short days. It is a powerful killing weapon, if you will, and we hope to overcome the American navy in battles to come. I hope I am making the right decision for me, my family, and my country. I feel that by serving in this war I will help Japan to conquer the land it needs and help to destroy the enemy. For the next two days I will be praying for my family and fellow soldiers that are to die in the coming attack. Even though I feel that I am being killed at no expense to the Japanese air force, if I do not step up and fight, then who will? This is something that simply needs to be done and I am doing it for the good of the world and the future of mankind. Sadly, I will never have the chance to write my thoughts here again. Goodbye forever. -K. Nakamura

Works Cited

Leonard, Michael. "Battle for Leyte Gulf". In Jeffries, John W.. Katerine Liapis Segrue, and Gary b. Nash, eds. Encyclopedia of American History: The Great Depression and World War II, 1929 to 1945, vol. 8. New Tork: Facts on File, Inc, 2003. American History Online. Facts on File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE00&iPin=EAHVIII168&SingleRecord=True

Axelrod, Alan. "kamikaze". Encyclopedia of World War II, Volume II. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2007. Modern World History Online. Facts on File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE00&iPIn=WWII0339&SingleRecord=True