VLVL2 (9.5): "Interesting Work with Airplanes"

[Dave Monroe]

"Appreciating her concern, Takeshi reached for DL's
leg.  'On second thought, drink right up, I keep
forgetting, suicide used to be your old lifestyle.'
   "She was referring to what he had a way of calling
his 'interesting work with airplanes' during World War
II.  'Though to be frank,' she continued, 'I can't
imagine you in anybody's airforce, let alone the
kamikaze, who, I understand from the history books,
were fairly picky about who flew for 'em.'" (VL, Ch.
9, p. 175)


"your old lifestyle"

Komical Kamikazes
690; Takeshi & Ichizo; 697; 738

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/alpha/k.html#komical

       A MOMENT OF FUN WITH TAKESHI AND ICHIZO,
                THE KOMICAL KAMIKAZES

   "Takeshi is tall and fat (but doesn't braid his
hair like that Margaret O'Brien), Ichizo is short and
skinny.  Takeshi flies a Zero, while Ichizo flies an
Ohka device ..." (GR, Pt. IV, p. 690)


"the history books"

E.g., ...

Inoguchi, Rikihei, Tadashi Nakajima, and Roger
   Pineau.  The Divine Wind: Japan's Kamikaze Force
   in World War II.  Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1959.

By the way, that "who, I understand from the history
books," strikes me as an (atypically) clumsy way for
Pynchon to sneak in his research here, but ...


"fairly picky about who flew for 'em"

"Takeshi only had to go to Kamikaze school for two
weeks, on Formosa.  Ichizo had to go to Ohka scool for
six months, in Tokyo." (GR, Pt. IV, p. 690)

And see as well, e.g., ...

Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko.  Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms,
   and Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics
   in Japanese History.  Chicago: U of Chicago P,
   2002.

In this fascinating study of the role of symbolism and
aesthetics in totalitarian ideology, Emiko
Ohnuki-Tierney shows how the state manipulated the
time-honored Japanese symbol of the cherry blossom to
convince people that it was their honor to "die like
beautiful falling cherry petals" for the emperor.
Drawing on diaries never before published in English,
Ohnuki-Tierney describes these young men's agonies and
even defiance against the imperial ideology.
Passionately devoted to cosmopolitan intellectual
traditions, the pilots saw the cherry blossom not in
militaristic terms, but as a symbol of the painful
beauty and unresolved ambiguities of their tragically
brief lives.

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/15259.ctl

And see as well ...

http://www.iias.nl/iiasn/31/IIASN31_35.pdf

http://www.isop.ucla.edu/showevent_avantgo.asp?eventid=983

Thanks again for bringing that one to my attention,
Doug.  I'd cite from it, but I'll never find it at
home.  Maybe if the library has a copy, but ...

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