Imperial Japanese Navy sailor Sadamu Kamita, who died in Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, is revered as a “war god” at the Yushukan exhibition facility of Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.

An explanation says the crew members of torpedo-carrying midget submarines, including Kamita, “all sortied with a determination to die and nine were killed in action, leaving only one survivor, and were lauded as the ‘Nine War Gods.’”

Their deaths were announced in March 1942.

While Zero fighters and other aircraft scored successes in the surprise attack on the U.S. naval base, the nine young men who were launched in submarines with little prospect of returning alive were praised for carrying out an “unprecedented feat in history.”

The Asahi Shimbun’s Tokyo edition ran the headline “Glorious exploits of special attack unit” and published portraits of all nine men.

Yasukuni Shrine guaranteed “honor” for the act of heading to harsh battlefields to die by nationally recognizing soldiers who gave their lives for the emperor as “heroic spirits.”

In honor of the nine men, biographies were published, and paintings and statues were created.

Kamita was posthumously promoted two ranks to warrant officer after his death at age 25.

A signpost reading “home of a war god” was erected at his family home in Kita-Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture.

In the Pacific War that began with the Pearl Harbor attack, civilians were conscripted and ushered in rapid succession into desperate battles, producing many “war gods.”

About 2.46 million people are enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine.

Today, next to Kamita’s family home stands a memorial monument built in 1970 by the local association of bereaved families of the war dead. The stone bears no words such as “heroic spirit.”

Sadamu’s nephew, Kenji Kamita, who maintains the site, said he has heard that his uncle was an “honest person who loved baseball.”

As the eldest son of a farming household, Sadamu longed to see the world, inspired by a friend’s family who had emigrated to Hawaii.

Kenji, 70, said he has no intention of denying enshrinement in Yasukuni Shrine as a bereaved relative.

However, he has come to feel a stronger sense of purpose in telling Sadamu’s story in recent years as he has watched Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

“Once a war begins, people have no choice but to fight for their country, and bereaved families are created,” Kenji said. “That is a lesson we must take to heart, especially now.”

Kenji has heard from relatives what the mood was when news of Sadamu’s death arrived at his family home.

When the village head said, “Congratulations on his having achieved great merit,” Sadamu’s mother replied, “To me, he was my precious eldest son.”

Kenji said, “In the end, (my uncle) was just used for propaganda to boost war morale.”

Toshiyuki Mimaki, co-chair of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo), visits Sadamu’s memorial monument every year around Dec. 8, which is the anniversary of the date of the Pearl Harbor attack in Japan.

Mimaki, 83, who also lives Kita-Hiroshima, is a distant relative of Sadamu.

Over the past year, since the hibakusha organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, he has been invited to speak in Japan and abroad.

He often began his speeches with the Pearl Harbor attack and projected a slide of a scene from a traditional picture card show about Sadamu.

Sadamu, who died at Pearl Harbor, was also a “victim of the state,” Mimaki said.

Mimaki has visited Yasukuni Shrine only once.

But he could not bring himself to mourn Sadamu in the same place as Class-A war criminals who have been enshrined there since 1978, such as wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.

That is why he has decided that he will pay his respects at the monument in Kita-Hiroshima on Sadamu’s death anniversary.

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While Yasukuni Shrine was supported by associations of bereaved families and former military personnel after the war, those connected to the Self-Defense Forces have increasingly taken their place in shouldering memorial activities.

Yoshifumi Hibako, 74, one of the shrine’s senior parishioner representatives, is a former chief of staff of the Ground SDF.

According to Hibako and other individuals, retired senior GSDF officials began participating in memorial activities in earnest during the 2000s, partly because former officers with the Imperial Japanese Army grew too advanced in age. 

Group visits by active-duty SDF personnel have also been repeatedly conducted for years.

Asked why SDF members feel a sense of affinity with Yasukuni Shrine, Hibako spoke of the need to provide the same “guarantee of honor” that was accorded to those who died during the war.

“Without the ‘ultimate honor’ from the people, we cannot properly reward those who risk their lives to defend the country,” he said.

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor after expanding its aggression across East Asia and clashing with the United States. Might Yasukuni Shrine also have played a role in mobilizing the public for war?

“We have absolutely no intention of returning to militarism,” Hibako said. “At present, there is no memorial facility that can take the place of Yasukuni Shrine.”