Wings of Defeat plot
"Once, we were kamikaze."
The discovery that one of director Risa Morimoto's uncles belonged to the group of volunteer kamikaze pilots in World War II was both intriguing and difficult. In Japan, there was always an aura of heroism surrounding this group of soldiers who plunged into their targets by plane and thus met certain death. In the West, especially after September 11, 2001, there is an association with terrorism and religious fanatics. Morimoto decides to find out the story of her uncle, who died twenty years ago without ever talking about his experiences. She speaks with her own family but also visits a number of kamikaze pilots who escaped their fate and survived the war. They are poignant stories of often very young men who, after rigorous training, were more or less forced to die because of false promises and loyalty to their homeland. To the outside world they were invariably presented as the saviors of the nation, but they themselves were often plagued by fear and insecurity.