Word: hatsuyo
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...After the war, the public turned against the kamikazes. "The world thought they were crazy fanatics who died shouting banzai for the Emperor," says Hatsuyo Torihama, who is married to another of Tome's grandchildren. Tome waged a one-woman battle to untaint their memory, showing the soldiers' photos to customers and collecting donations for the town to put up a statue of the goddess of mercy in 1955. "But no one came," says Hatsuyo. "Not a soul...
...deadly missions warmed to the granny's tale. Ken Takakura, the John Wayne of Japan, conceived of a motion picture after visiting Chiran, in which he starred as a former kamikaze pilot who survived. Among the top-grossing domestic films of 2001, it was called Hotaru (Firefly). Hatsuyo now runs the Tomiya Inn in the building that once housed the eatery. Last fall, Akihisa, her brother-in-law, opened a near-exact replica of the eatery next door to display the soldiers' letters and photographs. It is called the Hotaru-kan, or the Firefly House...
...which the Japanese mark as the date of the war's end, trucks roll through the streets blaring nationalist messages and songs. But in Tome's eyes, the kamikazes were kids, not political symbols, and she relentlessly preached peace. "She always said, 'No one wins in war,'" recalls Hatsuyo. "To her, these boys were victims." Many of the families visiting Chiran this Aug. 15 heed her message, and express pity and sorrow rather than jingoistic pride. "I came because I wanted to know the truth," says Kazunori Matsuo, 38, who rode from Nagasaki on his motorbike. Another visitor, Kazuo Nakajima...
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