Photo/Illutration Former kamikaze pilot Ryozo Kotoge speaks in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, in September during an online interview with Thomas Hahn. (Shuhei Yamashita)

TAKAYAMA, Gifu Prefecture--A former kamikaze pilot is sharing his story with a German audience for the first time 75 years after his suicide mission was unexpectedly called off in the closing days of World War II.

Thomas Hahn, a correspondent covering Japan and South Korea for the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, interviewed Ryozo Kotoge, 93, in September. His article about Kotoge’s memories, headlined “The death pilot who survived,” ran in October.

The exchange has given Hahn, 48, a chance to re-evaluate wartime history and gain a better understanding of the cultural differences between the two countries at the time.

Kotoge was ordered to prepare for a suicide attack on Aug. 10, 1945, when he was 17. But the truck that was supposed to pick him up never came, and the war ended with Japan’s surrender five days later.

Hahn said he was shocked by Kotoge’s response when he asked if he was relieved when the truck did not appear.

“I did not feel that way,” Kotoge said.

In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun, Hahn later said, “I got the impression that he never allowed himself to feel anxiety or fear and blindly followed an order without thinking whether it was right or wrong.

“It might have been a methodical way of thinking, but it allowed (soldiers) to kill themselves. It is difficult to understand the spirit of suicide attacks,” he added. “There were some parts that I did not want to understand fully.”

Hahn decided to interview Kotoge, who lives in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, after reading an Asahi Shimbun article about his life that was translated into English.

“A suicide attack is very unique from the European perspective, so I became interested in what sort of people they were and how they thought about it,” he said.

He spoke with Kotoge online for about one hour via an interpreter from Tokyo on Sept. 25 out of safety precautions against the novel coronavirus.

When asked about suicide attacks during the interview, Kotoge said, “Wartime education instilled in us that men would become soldiers and serve their country (by going to war).”

Kotoge volunteered to join the former Imperial Japanese Navy when he was 15. He witnessed the dropping of an atomic bomb on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, from his barracks in the neighboring city of Isahaya, also in Nagasaki Prefecture.

He also walked around Hiroshima on Aug. 23, observing firsthand the devastation from the first atomic bombing about two weeks earlier, on his way back to his hometown of Takayama.

Hahn, who has in the past interviewed atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima, said he grew up with a clear understanding of Germany’s responsibilities for wartime actions, such as the Holocaust.

His grandfather was sent to the battlefield during World War II, and two of his brothers were killed during the war.

Hahn said that the idea of a suicide attack is alien to Germans.

“Cultures differ and ways of thinking also differ,” he said, pointing to a different military education system in his country.

For Kotoge, it was the first time being interviewed by foreign media. He was happy to share his story.

“I wanted to talk with him face to face, but I was glad that I could convey what I felt to a foreign reporter,” he said.

When Hahn asked what his life is like now, Kotoge said he owes his life to his fallen comrades, expressing remorse and gratitude.

“I am leading a happy life thanks to the war dead,” said Kotoge, who has six grandchildren. “Every day I feel a great gratitude toward them.”

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