POV: You're a Japanese Kamikaze Pilot

POV: You're a Japanese Kamikaze Pilot You arrive at the airbase carrying a single canvas bag. The predawn sky over Ibaraki is the color of old iron, and the pine trees lining the perimeter hold the dark like they've been paid to. Thirty young men stand in a loose row on the tarmac, none of them speaking above a murmur. The base smells of aviation fuel, pine resin, and something metallic and faintly sweet that you will later learn to recognize as hydraulic fluid baking off warm engines. Across the field, the Zero fighters stand in silhouette against the not-yet-light horizon. They look smaller than you imagined.