"Suicidal resistance is not merely fanatical and irrational but it is a "higher" form of commitment to one's struggle for freedom".
Suicidal resistance has been given unprecedented importance in world news, in particular in Palestine and now Iraq. Suicide bombings have a particular effect on their victims and, more so, on the international community. In every society, suicide, not only in bombings but also in other circumstances, has been portrayed as being a "higher" form of action. In the Christian world, suicide was, and still looked upon, as being the betrayal of life, given by God, and only by whom it can be taken . In Asia, in particular Japan, suicide is considered to be the highest form of honour. This tactic was used by the Japanese in the Second World War when they employed Kamikaze pilots flying Mitsubishi Zero Aircraft into American warships. .
Suicide is also associated with psychological-cum-social or personal problems which leads a person into committing suicide as a means of relief. In Japan, if a person if found responsible for gross mismanagement he is "expected" to perform suicide as a means of restoring his honour. These however are not forms of suicide resistance, in which the rules of the game change. As I have mentioned earlier, the Japanese used suicide as a means of resistance against the Americans during the pacific war in 1944-1945. It was a desperate, last-minute stunt of a dying regime. What struck the Americans though was the fact that these people, normally usual fighter pilots, were so devoted to their emperor's service that they gladly accepted to become kamikaze pilots because they believed that by their actions the tide of the war would be turned in favour of the Japanese. In truth, this only led to Japanese waste of life, since by that time the tide of the war was clearly in favour of the Americans. .
This can be termed as being fanatical loyalty to their emperor.
