Hitler's And Japanese Kamikazes: A Comparative Analysis

Ultimately all countries are patriotic, although it is the way in which each country abides by those patriotic principles that lead to the failings or successes that may occur in the name of that country. The Nazi’s and the Japanese Kamikazes were obviously very patriotic to their country and they showed this patriotic attitude their governments favoured through the Nazi’s dubbing their country the ‘fatherland’ and by preaching their beliefs of anti semitism and the Japanese by being very sceptical of other cultures. The kamikazes were in themselves patriotically motivated (as well as desperate for the war to end) as surviving soldier Hisao Horiyama portrayed in an interview when he said “At that time we believed that the emperor and nation of Japan were one and the same...even if we were to die, we knew it was for a worthy cause. Dying was the ultimate fulfillment of our duty.” This same message of self-sacrifice for one 's country is commonplace in many of the letters

The Nazi’s strong beliefs of what was right for the ‘conservation’ of their country (and Nordic race) was what ultimately led to the suicides of numerous Nazi party members and generals (as well as civilians) nearing the end of the war. The Nazi’s knew that they had pushed too hard in pursuit of what they considered to be ‘reasonable’ patriotic ideals and they feared they would be tortured or put on trial and in turn hanged (as many Nazi war criminals were at the Nuremberg trials from 1945-46) for the roles they played in the genocide of the Jews and a multitude of other war crimes. So it is clear that the Nazi’s and the Japanese kamikaze soldiers strict patriotic ideals did eventually led to their ultimate