To die by one’s own hand had long been associated with samurai ideals of honor and fidelity. Suicide offered a solution to the loss of face (giri, or honor). That was a chief theme of Japan’s national epic, the story of the 47 Ronin. As defeat loomed in late 1944, the entire nation was poised to suffer a cataclysmic loss of face. The combat-suicide of the kamikaze pilots, the flower of Japanese youth, could be seen as a ritualistic collective sacrifice that redeemed some portion of the national giri
