LotR -- Book 5 - Chapter 05 - The Ride of the Rohirrim

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

Do the descriptions of "joy of battle" and singing that was "fair and terrible" strike you as paradox? Can you feel a connection between battling and singing, or does that seem irreconcilable to you?

I have just come from watching a television documentary which reminded me of these words of Estelyn's.

The documentary concerned the story of what I suppose can be called the original suicide bombers--at least of the twentieth century--the Japanese kamikaze pilots of WWII.

I won't go into the very fascinating story of how the Japanese military developed the concept of the kamikaze missions, but will restrain myself only to the relevant point.

Apparently, the pilots for each mission were named and then sent to climb a steep hill covered in bamboo. At the top of the hill was the air strip where their planes were waiting for takeoff. I saw the man who made the decisions of which pilot to send describe the occasion. (Well, he was speaking in Japanese and I read the subtitled translations.)

He said the pilots would sing songs as they trod up the bamboo hill. He even sang one of them for the interviewer. Very clearly he was suggesting that the songs helped prepare the pilots for their mission.

There is a museum dedicated to the stories of the kamikaze pilots. The last story in the museum is about a man who was refused, over and over again, every time he volunteered for a kamikaze mission. He was refused because he was married with three young daughters. Finally, his wife drowned the daughters and then killed herself. He was then accepted for a kamikaze mission.

War does very horrible things to people and art--song--can help that happen.