Desperate search underway for survivors after Vietnam tourist boat capsizes
The boat was overturned by strong winds during a sudden thunderstorm, leading to a tragic incident.
At least 34 people have been confirmed dead following the capsizing.
Authorities reported that 11 individuals were rescued, while eight people remain missing.
Among the survivors was a 14-year-old boy who recounted being trapped in the overturned hull before his rescue.
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Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Telegraph
Is it time to forgive kamikaze pilots? This documentary thinks so
The idea of Second World War kamikaze pilots as brainwashed fanatics, willingly going to their deaths, is a pervasive one. And there is an element of truth in it, because the Japanese population was certainly taught that this was the ultimate, glorious sacrifice. Teachers drummed into primary school children that these 'divine hawks' were to be revered. Yet Kamikaze: An Untold History (BBC Four), a sombre, Japanese-made film which takes a wholly compassionate view, shows the reality. Ordered to carry out suicide missions on the US fleet, or pressured to volunteer, they had little choice but to accept their task in a society where conformity was everything. Behind the last letters home, in which they told their families that they were proud to be dying for their country, lay a truth that could not be spoken. An elderly lady, remembering the older brother whose first combat mission was also his last, said: 'In the end, he gave up and accepted his fate. That's how he must have felt – that it was inescapable.' While the pilots did feel a special kind of pride, that did not mean they were without fear. They hid that fear in the moments before they went into battle. An airman tasked with escorting the squadron towards their target recalls a 'ghastly atmosphere' in the dormitory the night before a mission, 'but when dawn broke and they went to the airfield, they left that all behind and appeared happy. They went cheerfully. They didn't want others to see any self-doubt or distress.' The 90-minute documentary lays out the facts and figures – close to 4,000 pilots died on kamikaze missions, with an average age of 21, some of them the products of elite naval and military academies, others recent university graduates – and explains the strategy. Japan was losing the war but believed that inflicting as much damage as possible would constitute a late show of strength and secure them more favourable terms. An unconditional surrender would damage the Emperor's position. A pilot remembered his squadron being summoned to a briefing room and given the news. 'The commander said the war situation was so bad that we had to conduct kamikaze attacks. He told us that it was our only chance at victory. At that moment, I thought my life was over. They were asking us to sacrifice our lives.' The stories of the kamikaze pilots are told through letters, photographs and the recollections of their relatives. There are other interviews, conducted at least a decade ago, with pilots who were not selected. Some of these were passed over because they had scored highest on tests, and high command did not want to waste the lives of the brightest. Volunteers were asked to indicate in writing how deeply they wished to be a kamikaze: they could say 'desire', 'strongly desire' or 'negative'. A historian looks over these records, and sees that some wrote 'desire' in the smallest script, a desperate way to indicate their reluctance. But very few said no. A man recalled playing rock, paper, scissors with a fellow pilot for the one kamikaze flight leaving that day. He was disappointed to lose. 'Looking back, I can't believe I volunteered,' he said, 'but at the time I felt trapped. Maybe that's the psychology behind suicide. I was suffocating.' An American survivor of a kamikaze attack, who volunteered for the US Navy shortly after Pearl Harbor, is one of the few non-Japanese interviewees. He was aboard the USS Ommaney Bay when it was attacked off the coast of the Philippines in January 1945. 'I don't have no grudge against nobody. They were ordered to go,' he says of the kamikaze. I'd wager that some other US veterans would have been less forgiving, but this is a film in which all the sympathy lies in one place.
Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Daily Mail
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews last night's TV: Astonishing reason 4,000 Japanese kamikaze pilots were picked to die during the Second World War
Kamikaze: An Untold History (BBC4) How much do you want to die for your country? Please tick the applicable box: 'Strongly desire', 'Desire', or 'Negative', and hand your application form to the admin officer. Astonishing almost beyond belief, this was the question posed to Japanese air force pilots during World War II, as revealed in Kamikaze: An Untold History. Slightly less surprising, since armies are the same the world over, their answers were largely ignored as officials selected the fliers who would attempt to crash their planes into Allied aircraft carriers and other ships. Instead, kamikaze pilots were chosen according to their exam results. Those with the highest marks were excused suicide duties, since their intellect made them too valuable. The ones with the lowest scores were also not picked, because they had not earned the right to sacrifice themselves. But nearly 4,000 Japanese men, average age 21 and four months, did fly kamikaze missions between October 1944 and August 1945. This grimly fascinating documentary tried to explain the mentality, not only of the pilots who flew to certain death, but of the nation that encouraged them to do it. As Japanese newsreels showed the pilots sharing a solemn ceremonial drink — lemonade, since they had sworn off alcohol — and radio announcers read out the young men's wills, a cult of kamikaze gripped the country. Their self-immolation became a symbol of what was expected from every citizen, and the slogan '100 million kamikaze' was a national catchphrase. The pilots were known as 'war gods' and 'mighty eagles'. 'Your divine battle will be known for eternity,' declared the newsreader on one piece of archive footage. Workers wore white bandanas in their honour. It seems incomprehensible, until we realise that many of the young men didn't want to die at all. They simply felt they had no choice. One man who wasn't picked said he saw a comrade receive his orders to 'volunteer' with horror: 'My parents didn't send me to university to die,' the doomed man howled. Another survivor, Hijikata Toshio, bravely marked his questionnaire 'negative'. He was engaged to be married, and his ambition was to be a maths teacher, he said. 'Taking a bullet from an enemy is one thing but blowing myself up didn't seem right.' Most of the veterans, filmed over several years, were in their 90s. One, an American sailor named Seth Irving who described waves of kamikaze planes divebombing his fleet, was 103. By the end of the war, so many Japanese aircraft had been destroyed that the pilots were sent out in trainer biplanes with explosives strapped to their fuselage. Slow and cumbersome, they were easily shot down. Survival had become a matter of chance. One pilot, Arai Toshio, played rock-paper-scissors with a fellow flier, for the right to die in their last remaining plane. He lost . . . and lived to be 99.
BBC News
13 hours ago
- BBC News
Posthumous degrees for Nottingham attacks victims
Two students who died in the Nottingham attacks in 2023 have been awarded posthumous degrees by the University of O'Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, both 19, were stabbed to death on 13 June 2023, in a series of attacks that also claimed the life of school caretaker Ian younger brother Charlie, 17, accepted a history degree in his honour on Monday, while Ms O'Malley-Kumar was awarded a bachelor of medical science on the ceremony, Charlie said it was a "monumental moment" for the family. "We know how much he would have been so chuffed to have gotten his degree this time if he was still here," he said. "It means a lot to come up here, and I feel honoured to be able to collect my brother's degree for him."Charlie thanked the university and the people of Nottingham for supporting the family, and said his brother had a huge connection with the city."He loved it - from the social life to his academics to his sport up here, he was obsessed with Nottingham - it was a real job for my parents to get him back to Taunton," he said."The city was there for us immediately - they didn't know us, they'd never met us, they didn't know our names, they wouldn't have even met Barney, but they were there for us the whole time." At the degree ceremony on Monday, friends and family of Mr Webber paid Brant, who has just graduated with a geography degree, knew Barnaby when they were at school in Somerset before they reconnected while studying in said it was "bittersweet" to attend the event."We're just here to support Charlie and the family," she said."It's such a tough day, but it's also such a lovely day to celebrate Barney's graduation."Although he's not here, it's nice to be able to support the family, and it's great that the university has honoured Barney as well." 'Proud moment' Politics and international relations graduate Ollie Chaplin, 22, met Mr Webber through the university's cricket said the posthumous degree is "a great gesture" to show the lasting legacy of his friend."It's a sign that he's not forgotten, not just by his friends, but by the institutions that he went to," he said."It's a really proud moment for his family, but also for his friends - obviously he can't be with us, but it's a great day to honour his memory."
