WATER 5 - Man, The Narrator 09 - web-comics by Ajith Rohan J.T.F., Rome

Uncontrollable Kamikazes - Political philosophy - by Ajith Rohan J.T.F., Rome

Outline

We here briefly analyse the kamikaze problem in general in order to understand the phenomenon from a philosophical point of view. Our fundamental question is the reason why this phenomenon still continues among us human. Nevertheless, we cannot depict an exhaustive image of the subject in this brief introduction. We just present an outline of our research in order to understand this peculiar human behaviour. Nevertheless, our aim is to understand the subject more philosophical and pedagogical view point to find strategic solutions for the problem.

Historical background of Kamikaze

This Japanese term etymologically signifies “divine or spirit wind”. It was then used to indicate the Japanese military suicide bombers during the II world war. It is said that this military aviator group was established due to the failures of other conventional methods. The first kamikaze attack against USA army was reported as the one at Leyte Gulf (25 October 1944). According to Captain Motoharu Okamura, to become voluntarily suicide bombers there were more than enough persons in Japan. The first 24 suicide bombers were sent from the 201st Navy Air-group and they had used air crafts (so called “Baka” or fool) to explore their targets (by this attack they have destroyed 34 war ships of USA and UK). Thousands of soldiers became kamikazes and they could kill thousands of their relative enemies. Nevertheless, they couldn’t change the target of their enemies, that is to say the conquest of the Philippine islands Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Moreover, USA understood that with Japanese extreme mentality they could not achieve what they targeted and therefore they have decided to use the atomic bomb.

Relevant nature of kamikaze attack

Is this method non-natural? Far from that! Bees, for example, are destined to be “kamikaze” by nature. They die just after the sting. Therefore, this phenomenon as a natural law is not completely intentional but natural (DNA). The important fact is that this characteristic is not unusual for some living beings including humans. On the other hand, we can clearly note that all human war histories are explicitly or implicitly accompanied by a corresponding kamikaze mentality. We know that a kamikaze has to deliver explosives and detonates to inflict all possible damages to their targets (within the range of explosion) by dying by their own hands. Moreover, can we consider this phenomenon as something that congenital defensive behaviour? We have no right now an answer for this question. But, this congenital potential peculiarity becomes more effective and disastrous when human cognitive faculties start to speculate on it.  Though it is a maladaptive action we are able to choose it. On the other hand, almost all common languages also consist of these types of expressions like: “I kill you by killing me”. Moreover we can note that clearly, kamikaze phenomenon is strictly braided with suicidal mentality. Only human beings are able to decide on their lives; as a result to end intentionally life becomes typically human. They deliberately can decide to end their own lives. Nevertheless, all standard cultural beings are not actively suicidal. In fact, modern studies affirm that suicidal behaviour can be hereditary (43%) just as susceptibility to depression.

Moreover we can note that clearly, 

kamikaze phenomenon is strictly 

braided with suicidal mentality.

On the other hand, a kamikaze has to be formed for targets. This means that they must offer their lives of their own free will (according to personal, common, collective or particular intentions). Therefore, according to our opinion, this characteristic (to be a suicide bomber) is congenital in human beings but it has to be stimulated and motivated otherwise it remains inactive. Nevertheless, we cannot individuate any specific and uniquely correspondent DNA functionality that determines the choice of a person to be a suicide bomber. But, we can affirm the existence of some peculiar congenital cognitive, emotive-affective and spiritual dynamics in particular persons. They are combining together generate necessary mental background eventually that can be motivated and persuaded. Remaining on this base we carried out our researches.

Today, we can easily reach all factual knowledge (information) of our historical wars from which we can individuate the effective stimuli which dominant people have been using (via black-rhetoric) to form and motivate kamikaze mentality (we consider this mentality as polyvalent, so we can understand it also with types). Moreover, today, we can also consider most of USA heroic movies as kamikaze forming instruments. They depict an image of a common man who is ready to sacrifice his/her life for the president of USA, for the country and for their ideologies as national hero. As we know, all terrorist groups have been using these USA movies to learn tactics for their formation (to motivate, to stimulate and to find methods) and for their attacks.

Moreover, today, we can also consider 

most of USA heroic movies as

 kamikaze forming instruments.

Moreover, those first kamikaze attacks were defined as desperate attempts of the Japanese; nevertheless we know today that the efficacy of this method cannot be undervalued. Separating the historical origin and motivations, today, we can understand the functionality of kamikazes as an efficient method of attack. The functionality goes far beyond all civil fundamental values and criteria and for this relevant nature it becomes analogically an unexpected mortal viral attack (surprise attack). Today explicitly this peculiar method is used specifically by terrorist and militant groups all over the world. Therefore, we have to analytically study first of all the mentality of these peculiar persons in order to draw out a general dynamic image of a kamikaze. We also have to understand the mentality and the ambitions of the terrorist groups that use this method to weaken civil states. In this way we can detect how responsible leaders and trainers motivate a person to become a suicide bomber. Further, we have to study all background failures of relative civil states and their socio-politic-economic-cultural distortions which lay the groundwork for terrorism and kamikaze phenomena.

Strategies and battlefield

The surprise attack is the relevant characteristic of kamikazes. As a result a suicide bomb attack is able to transform civil society into a battlefield and therefore any fraction of second can be tragic and bloody for any civil society. The terrible fact is that a suicide bomber can easily move towards their targets without being detected by security measures. The LTTE terrorist kamikaze who killed Rajeev Gandhi, for example, used a garland of flowers to reach the target. It seems that after kamikaze experiences all political figures have taken necessary antiterrorism security measurements and due to this fact terrorists strategically target all public and civil places. Today, by these surprise attacks terrorists gain more publicity and consequently an effective image all over the world. We can report here, for example, the LTTE terrorists in Sri Lanka: the West was the first to consider LTTE terrorists as unbeatable and on this base they have misinterpreted everything including reasoning with terrorists. West and USA tried hard to make pressure on Sri Lanka governments during 30 years in order to force them to surrender. Yet, this, fact was well understood by the government of 1994-2015 and as a result they could locally win over LTTE terrorists after 30 years in 2009. In this way the common collective life becomes easy and open battlefields for suicide bombers. Therefore, civil states can fail due to their limited capacity of control, resources, experience and especially due to the political-economic pressure of the so called international community. On the other hand, a related public that behaves irresponsibly and inattentively provides the necessary situational backgrounds and the best opportunities for kamikazes. Therefore, the attentive public can be a good security measure.

We know that the kamikaze method 

is not conventional.

As we know, to damage a target the minimum necessary trinitrotoluene (TNT) is less than 100grams (e.g. underwear bomber 2009 USA). Suicide bombers wear explosives underneath their clothes, and even backpacks or different types of bags can be used, parcels and can be also loaded in bicycle frames and in other vehicles too. Therefore, this method goes beyond all our conventional structures and slams down all our civil and democratic values. We know that the kamikaze method is not conventional. Nevertheless, according to world historical facts, it is used in different forms to defeat relative enemies by conventional systems too. According to the world actual common socio-political-economic-cultural values such as democracy, human rights, freedom and reciprocal respects, kamikaze method cannot be admitted as a way to fight against relative enemies among civil states. Yet, the phenomenon is active among us.

Contemporary kamikaze attacks

The contemporary kamikaze attacks began in1981 from Lebanon. Those attacks continued until 1983 by Hezbollah (Party of God) militant group. We can note the explicit use of kamikazes by terrorist groups since 1983 from Sri Lanka (LTTE terrorists) to Chechnya and to Afghanistan until today (Sri Lanka - May 2019 Islam terrorists). Today, this uncontrollable method is used by all terrorist groups in the world. As said before, we have to understand the recruitment and training of kamikazes to settle the future necessary security measures for civil political systems. On the other hand, right now, we had single kamikaze attacks and therefore we have a relative general image that excludes other possible kamikaze group attacks. To understand this phenomenon scholars have to think better than kamikaze.

Infiltrations, favouritisms and instrumentalization

The present day world socio-political-economic-cultural (SPEC) crisis has weakened all democratic political models in the world. It became a platform and polyvalent system which favour and facilitate infiltrations of terrorists and other national and international criminal organisations into international organisations for peace and human rights. It is evidently a great threaten for world democracy and peace and for all those who long for a democratic and peaceful world. We could hear, for example, from Sri Lanka parliament that there are politicians who, in some way helped terrorists. On the other hand, according to West-USA international policies local terrorist groups (including militant groups) can be used to keep under control super power politics and political leaderships in the world. Adamantly, this dirty strategy of West-USA is to invest secretly and in abundance time and resources on little local terrorist and militant groups (on their social, religious, cultural, economic and political activities) to strategically  demolish, obscure and discourage the common international activities for a civil, democratic and peaceful world. Nevertheless, West-USA dirty strategies are going on all over the world. Moreover, public and private services, the so called peace and human rights organisations, Ngo’s and Ingo’s are being infiltrated by these criminal and terrorist mentalities and persons. These real facts are demanding from the civil states all over the world to provide the necessary security measurements to eradicate these negative phenomena.

Training or brain washing

It is said that the terrorist recruitment and formations are based on religious-spiritual ideologies, social and political psychology, making up relative false histories, and influencing radical racial and nationalist mentality. As we said before, beyond personal and collective will of terrorist individuals such terrorist and militant groups are trained and financially sustained by world superpower nations. For example, as they already admitted: West-USA, regarding Taliban and other Islamic militant and terrorist groups; India, regarding LTTE terrorists and so on.  Moreover, due to these all mixed up dirty politics and strategies of different powerful countries it is difficult to draw out a general background of kamikaze and to understand why they become terrorists. Consequently, today terrorism became a wide spread political instrument against relative enemies of West-USA and allies. Therefore, today, to become a terrorist is became a relatively clandestine well paid job.

However, according to our common civil and democratic aims nobody has to keep silent or approve dirty politics. On the other hand, recent Islamic terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka report some unusual characteristics regarding kamikaze; they in their turn depict their uniqueness in their terrorist attacks. They have their own reasons for being what they are (kamikazes) who can be settled in the range of terrorism. All these peculiar qualities and connections blow off attempt to figure out a comprehensive image of a kamikaze. In other words, most of those Sri Lanka Islam kamikazes were conventionally educated from UK and Australia (western formation). They were from rich families. Therefore, we cannot reduce the image of a kamikaze to a well prepared general figure of a suicide bomber’s mentality or to psychological or economic frustrations, or political, social or cultural problems. Nevertheless, all those facts are taking part in the complex and tremendously peculiar kamikaze mentality. Despite of all common characteristics all terrorist kamikaze attacks clearly expressed certain singularity and uniqueness in their attacks. It seems that, beyond all common factors there are personal tendencies and potentialities that facilitate and prepare the background to make the radical choice. Anyway, we cannot exclude social, religious, spiritual, sexual, economic, cultural frustrations mixed with emotive-affective expressions of a person who choose to be a kamikaze. Therefore, we have to study and analyse these facts (kamikaze mentality and formation), in the corresponding anthropological, psychological and socio-politic-economic-cultural backgrounds.

We know that to die voluntarily is an unusual and unbearable fact within our common human standards .A normal sound-of- mind person naturally refuses this type of extremes. Nevertheless, there are people who are willing to die for some kind of convictions. Historically, we can find extremist religious, spiritual, racial or nationalistic ideals in the background of suicide bombers. They had been promised, for example, salvation after death and/or luxurious and lustful life. Some may have chosen to be a kamikaze for patriotic emotive-affective energies of mind, some others for love to their parents, families, friends or religion, race, country, and some in the belief of paying the debt they owed to somebody or for their own mistakes. Nevertheless, we have no possibility to identify here correctly the natural or pathological causes that force and stimulate to become a kamikaze.

Right now we can affirm that, to train or to make effective brain-wash in a person, religion, spirituality and emotive-affective levels are indispensable. All these elements can be used to eliminate human standardizations and consequently to persuade and convince a person to be a kamikaze. A kamikaze should eliminate feelings and logical thoughts about life and death as usually widespread in the world. A suicide bomber lives in a particular emotive-affective dynamic level on which all logical processes are conducted and targeted towards whimsical aims. For example, analysing one of the behaviour of a recent suicide bomber in Sri Lanka, we can note that he was walking among children and all the people without any hesitation and preoccupation about what he was targeting to do. Such behaviour shows that his sensitive and rational standards had been eliminated or altered. He had been strongly motivated and was in full control of all his standard (normal) activities. He might have the feeling that he was successful and excellent in the fight for the religious-spiritual ideologies of his group.

As we can note, all conventional and terrorist kamikazes are given training, because they have to be mentally ready. So there are some manuals called kamikaze instructions. At the end of any training and/or brain washing, a kamikaze lives in a whimsical spiritual and emotive-affective drunkenness condition. In this way, a kamikaze is persuaded to give the highest spiritual value to his/her life by being a suicide bomber.

Ideological and hero-worship mentalities

It is a fact that all kamikazes are coming from ethno-religious-spiritual and racial-nationalistic extremisms. Beyond this kind of kamikaze we can note other special or peculiar emotive-affective and ethno-religious-spiritual extremist behaviours in all over the world. All monotheistic religions are connected with a sort of such suicides and they use to call them martyrs.  E. Durkheim calls these as anomic (i.e. altruistic and egoistic) types of suicides. The main reasons or causes of these suicides are ideologies and hero-worship mentalities. For example these suicides are still taking place especially in South India, Tamil-Nadu. It is recorded 171 suicides per year (15-59 years old men and 15-29 women) in Tamil-Nadu (South India) regarding ideologies and hero-worships. These people used to fire themselves or to use other strange uncommon ways to commit suicide just to show their affection, love, fidelity, debt, frustration and so on to their religion, spirituality, God, gods, movie and/or political loss/death heroes. They are ready to die for their leaders, movie stars, models and political or terrorist or militant leaders. Therefore, we can deduce that the reason of why and how LTTE Tamil terrorists used so easily kamikazes to kill political leaders (for example Rajeev Gandhi 1991, R. Premadasa 1993), common people, Buddhist monks and to detonate government headquarters and to terrify all the population during 30 years of war in Sri Lanka. According to Robert Pepe (USA political scientist) LTTE terrorist group used to employ most kamikaze methods. Therefore, we can affirm that there are some genetic or congenital, intrinsic and special cultural effects in the background of a suicide bomber. Nevertheless, we cannot exclude that some exceptional conditions, such as economic and political abuses, force individuals to become kamikazes. On the other hand, as above, a person must have psychological, personal, spiritual predispositions to become a kamikaze. Therefore, the socio-politic-economic-cultural factors can be considered as apparent but moderately important causes.

Religion, spirituality and emotive-affective factors

It is a fact that religion and spirituality are not motivations but fundamental inspiring and stimulating factors. They act as “drugs” and facilitate the brain washing processes. As so many testimonies and literature on Japanese kamikazes explain how a normal or standard person is persuaded to become a martyr for whichever whimsical and ideological purpose by promising sun, moon, stars and anything they like. They all become valid. According to our researches the persons with such predispositions start to live in a temporal inebriation and with insensibility to the normal or standard world attitudes and relations. Therefore, religion and spirituality are instruments to keep control of most of brain activities and stimulate them towards particular targets. Moreover, in our case, religion and spirituality justify all activities of a suicide bomber such as religious, spiritual inspirations and personal motivations as well as all types of revenge, indignation, oppression, intimidation, bullying etc. and consequently, killings of people and harming the environment. So they become martyrs and venerable for their related groups, religions, sects, race, nation, etc.

Kamikazes as strategy against democracy

As noted above right now suicide bombings are uncontrollable. They take aback all corresponding security measures taking into account only standard or normal human activities. In this way, in order to achieve their goals, for contemporary terrorist and militant group suicide bombing has become a strategy to challenge and intimidate democracy. By assassinating Rajeev Gandhi (1991), for example, LTTE terrorists in Sri Lanka could stop reintroducing Indian military forces into Sri Lanka. We can therefore understand that this method is the strategic way of using kamikazes to achieve specific goals, and moreover, suicide bombing is always keeping its spirit of surprise in order to maintain the utility of this method.

Conclusion

According to our studies on kamikazes, it is difficult to hinder surprise suicide bomb attacks. Their relevant characteristic and nature demands from democratic states to take measures to prevent them (prevention is better than cure!). It is worth to put into action more strategic intelligence services than offensive methods. As we know, terrorist and militant groups also use their intelligence forces to plan their surprise kamikaze attacks. In a democratic state always the security measures should be ready and adjourned up to date. Continuous and surprise controls have to be specially and strategically organized on the base of intelligence services. The terrorist and militant groups act according to the natural law of survival, and this means according to the law of the mighty powers. Therefore, it is very important to note that security is not optional but necessary like locked doors and windows for a house.