Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the kamikaze was a propaganda weapon aimed at the enemy. It was the culmination of what might be called Japan’s “theory” of the Pacific War—a line of reasoning behind its seemingly reckless decision to attack the United States in December 1941, a decision taken in full awareness that American industrial capacity was some ten times larger than Japan’s. The unique collective “fighting spirit” of the Japanese people—the “Yamato spirit,” as it was often called—explained why Japan had never been conquered, and why it had never lost a war. After the war,
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