BBC, Asharq Nab NHK’s Kamikaze Doc

The BBC and Asharq Documentary have acquired NHK’s documentary KAMIKAZE: An Untold Story from NHK Enterprises.

“By exploring the kamikaze missions in depth, I hope that this documentary offers a lens through which we can examine universal truths that resonate today,” said Takayuki Oshima, director of the documentary, who has spent the past 15 years investigating and reporting on the kamikaze missions. “I would be truly grateful if we could reflect on these truths together with people around the world.”

“Eighty years have passed since the end of World War II, yet conflicts continue to erupt, political tensions between nations persist and events that seem almost ‘insane’ keep unfolding around the world,” he said. “However, behind these ‘insane’ acts lies the same species—Homo sapiens.”

Throughout Japan’s imperial armed forces’ kamikaze attacks, which continued for ten months, about 4,000 crew lost their lives. The documentary utilizes 15 years of extensive interviews with both U.S. and Japanese former military personnel as well as experts, combined with a detailed hometown map created from the data of each and every life lost and the latest analysis of archival footage and documents to delve into the mechanism of how a crazed madness swept through an entire nation.