Blog Archives

Kamikaze aunt and other stories – By GEORGE BRAINE   During the closing stages of the Pacific front in World War II, Kamikaze (“divine wind”) units were formed as a last ditch effort to prevent an American invasion of Japan. These units consisted of conventional fighter planes loaded with explosives, bombs, and even torpedoes, and would be deliberately crashed onto warships. About 2800 Kamikaze attackers sank 34 American navy ships, damaged 368 others, and killed or wounded about 10,000 sailors. An American destroyer that was attacked but survived is my namesake, the USS Braine, although 67 sailors on board were killed and 102 wounded. My mother-in-law Tomiko is 94 now, and clearly remembers her life in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island, during wartime. She was in a boarding school where young women were trained to take over duties usually assigned to men, who were now away at war. She remembers the hardships of ...