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UH Outreach College
Masayuki Imai, left, and Daisuke Miyagawa, right,
lead the cast of "Winds of God." Reki Amada, center,
plays the senior unit commander and also a priest.

Audience experiences
strong ‘Winds’

The Winds of God (Kamikaze): 7:30 p.m., tomorrow through Friday, and 2 p.m. Saturday; Mamiya Theatre; $20 general admission, $10 seniors, students and military, plus applicable service charges; call 956-9492 for information, 526-4400 to charge by phone

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By John Berger
Special to the Star-Bulletin

TAKE it as history. Take it as a political statement on the human cost of war. Take it as powerful, thought-provoking drama. Without a doubt one of the best shows seen this year in Honolulu, Masayuki Imai's "The Winds Of God" is fascinating theater.

The premise is simple. Aniki (Imai) and Kinta (Daisuke Miyagawa), a struggling contemporary Japanese comedy team, regain consciousness after a Tokyo traffic accident and find themselves reincarnated back in 1945 into the bodies of Japanese Naval Air Force pilots, Kishida (Imai) and Fukumoto (Miyagawa).

The pilots were taking off on a "special attack" (suicide) mission when the plane's engine malfunctioned. The other pilots in the unit explain away the men's subsequent odd behavior as the result of concussions sustained in the crash.

Aniki and Kinta have no such simple explanation for their bewildering situation. Life in the wartime JNAF is so alien to everything in contemporary Japanese society that they assume at first that they are either in a prison or a mental hospital. Only when they open a window and see the Mitsubishi A6M ZERO fighters on the runway, and the destruction wrought by American bombers, do they realize that they are trapped in 1945. A conversation with another pilot in the unit, Yamamoto (Tom Tanigawa), a college student who studied the phenomenon of reincarnation before being called up for military service, fills in the audience as well as Aniki and Kinta.

Although his knowledge of World War II is extremely vague, Aniki recalls that the war ended after the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on a Japanese city. The obvious solution then to is hide somewhere until after the bomb falls.

Escape proves more difficult than expected. As they look for their chance to desert the unit, Aniki and Kinta get to know the other pilots in the tokkotai (Special Attack) unit. None of them really want to die but all are prepared to sacrifice themselves for their loved ones:

Yamamoto, the former student, regrets that he will be unable to finish his dissertation, but even when Aniki and Kinta tell him that Japan is going to lose the war he refuses to join them in deserting the unit.
Matsushima (Hiroshi Shimizu) lives with the guilt of being a member of the "barbarian religion" (Christianity). He accepts his orders to die for Japan but only with the greatest difficulty does he obey an order to step on his Bible.
Yamada (Reki Amada), the senior unit commander, is a career officer and tyrant whose only concerns are his men's unquestioning service to the emperor and continuing the war until Japan is victorious.
Terakawa (Yutaka Tanaka), the unit commander, is also a harsh martinet and only slightly less terrifying than Yamada. He and Kishida were classmates at Eta Jima (the naval academy) and he now waits for his friend to recover his senses and become a focused warrior once again.

Aniki meanwhile discovers that his outlook is starting to change. Yamamoto warns him that Kishida's personality is returning. Aniki can't fly a plane but is suddenly possessed of the urge to do so -- and flies perfectly.

Imai uses harsher facial expressions effectively in defining the moments when the warrior spirit of Kishida is present.

Imai and Miyagawa also use their costumes to indicate the change in the comedians' attitude toward the wartime outlook that "death is the beginning of a new life." When Aniki and Kinta first appear in 1945 they wear their JNAF uniforms like bums and mock the other pilots. As Aniki and Kinta become more imbued with the selflessness of the JNAF pilots, they start to wear their uniforms properly.

When news comes that the Americans have dropped a terrible new bomb on Hiroshima, Aniki and Kinta tell Yamamoto that the war must be almost over. There is no need to fly useless missions for a hopeless cause. And yet Aniki and Kinta find themselves wondering if the self-sacrificing pilots aren't more admirable than the materialistic Japanese of their own time.

Imai and his cast define interesting characters in memorable performances. The occasional use of Japanese words and phrases can be figured out in context. The effective comic interplay between Imai and Miyagawa adds a light facet to this fascinating production.

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