Last letters from young kamikaze pilots provide rare insights into Japan’s feared special attack unit

these are some of the real faces of the kamikaze that line the walls of the Kanoya Air Base museum and the Chiran Peace Museum, both located on Japan’s Kyushu island

Think of a kamikaze pilot and the image that comes to mind is probably a screaming face obscured by goggles embarking on a death plunge.

Or perhaps no face at all and just a fighter plane plowing into a warship.

It’s probably not a teenager weeping in a dank, half-underground bunker with his bedsheets pulled up over his head.

And surely not high schoolers cheerfully petting a puppy just hours before they were expected to turn themselves into ash while sinking a US aircraft carrier.

But these are some of the real faces of the kamikaze that line the walls of the Kanoya Air Base museum and the Chiran Peace Museum, both located on Japan’s Kyushu island.

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There are hundreds of them.

In many of the images, you can see their last words, often in letters to their mothers, apologizing for their youthful indiscretions and pledging to make them proud.

Continue here: CNN

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