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.
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