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Two kamikaze pilots, two late reprieves, one pacifist view

Hisashi Tezuka, a former kamikaze pilot, holds a 1/100-scale plastic model he built of the Type-52 Zero fighter, during an interview at his home in Yokohama on Feb. 19. | BLOOMBERG

Hisashi Tezuka, a former kamikaze pilot, holds a 1/100-scale plastic model he built of the Type-52 Zero fighter, during an interview at his home in Yokohama on Feb. 19. | BLOOMBERG

By Maiko Takahashi
Bloomberg

Mar 3, 2015

Hisashi Tezuka knew his life had been spared when he heard the Emperor’s voice crackling through the wireless.

As Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s wartime surrender on Aug. 15, 1945, the young kamikaze pilot was on a train to the island of Shikoku to carry out his sacrificial mission. He received his orders just two days earlier at a base about 1,150 km to the north.

The crawling speed of the locomotive kept him alive.

Amid the heat and humidity in Japan, a good night’s sleep is growing increasingly elusive without the heavy use of air conditioning.

Summer has arrived in Japan and so have hot sleepless nights

By Tomoko Otake

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

For many people, utility poles and power lines have become such a familiar part of Japan’s landscape that they often go unnoticed.

Why Japan’s utility poles won’t be disappearing anytime soon

By Alex K.T. Martin

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