Thesis
Behind the glory: Revealing the personal memory of Chinese Air Force pilots and Japanese kamikaze pilots 1931-1945
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
05/2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000004262
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/125076
Abstract
Even three-quarters of a century after the end of World War II, the memories left by the war still linger on for most nations that participated in the war. China and Japan suffered greatly throughout the Anti-Japanese War of Resistance (1931 to 1945) and the Pacific War (1941 to 1945). Military casualties were estimated at as high as two million Japanese and three million Chinese. Chinese and Japanese pilot were publicly commemorated as national heroes who sacrificed themselves gloriously for their respective nations’ pride. The two governments built monuments and memorial sites for their pilots, the Chinese Zhanying (Battling Eagles) and Japanese Kamikaze, enabling public memory to focus on the martyrs’ honorable sacrifice for their nations. However, until recent years the personal memories of these pilots and their dear ones have been mostly buried and overshadowed by public memories. In this thesis, I discuss the historiography of Chinese and Japanese personal war memories. Instead of seeing the pilots as mindless, emotionless “war machines,” as public memory has often portrayed them, I attempt to reveal their personal war memories containing the human emotions behind their sacrifices. Relying primarily on memoirs, family letters, and biographies written by the pilots' families, I uncover their struggles between nationalist state propaganda and humanistic reactions to the costly wars. This paper analyzes the personal narratives of five pilots and their loved ones in both China and Japan to reveal the much more emotionally conflicted personal war memories that they shared. Torn between love for their families and their national loyalties, both Japanese and Chinese pilots hoped for the best while preparing themselves for the worst. This exploration reveals that, although China and Japan were enemies, and their governments have worked hard to vilify one other in the public realm of memory, the psychological impacts and the struggles between survival and national loyalties were eerily similar. Overall, this thesis uncovers the personal war memories of Chinese and Japanese pilots who participated in the Anti-Japanese War of Resistance and the Pacific War, aiming to provide a more authentic and comprehensive image of the war and these pilots.
Metrics
12 File views/ downloads
36 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Behind the glory
- Creators
- Qianni Shen
- Contributors
- William Brecher (Advisor) - Washington State University, History, Department of
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- History, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Identifiers
- 99900896415601842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis