Tadao Hara: The former kamikaze pilot became a scholar of English, education and theology.
Instead, the end of World War II saved his life, and he would go on to become an educator and minister who bridged the cultural divide between his native country and its one-time enemy, the United States.
Hara died Aug. 31 at his Los Alamitos home from the effects of various cancers, said his daughter Izumi Hara of Montclair, N.J. He was 87.
The fortuitous onset of peace was not the only time that Hara cheated death.
Once, during training at an airfield on Formosa (now Taiwan), Hara was walking with a friend who was hit by anti-aircraft fire, killing him where he stood.
In another incident, Hara was caught in the open as American fighter planes strafed a runway, shooting up the few Japanese planes that remained at that point in the war.
Seeking cover, Hara jumped in a nearby ditch. He felt the bullets thudding into the dirt around him and expected death. Somehow, he survived.
“It all made him really wonder why he was alive,” his daughter said.
Those answers came after the war, but it was not without hardship.
A Sept. 27, 1964, article in the Independent Press-Telegram featured an interview with Hara, then studying at Cal State Long Beach. He told the newspaper that he attempted suicide, overcome by the abrupt end of the war in which he was expected to die for Emperor Hirohito as a Kamikaze pilot — the term means “divine wind,” and about 4,000 aviators died serving in the special squadrons formed to fly airplanes into Allied ships near the close of the conflict.
“I had lost the light in my life,” Hara recalled. “Everything had crashed. I had no hope — nothing. There was just a vacuum.”
Failing suicide, the 19-year-old Buddhist turned to philosophy, and finally, after an American missionary woman used the Bible to teach him English, to Christianity.
It changed his life.
“When he kind of got to that point where he was considering Christianity, it really made him realize why he was here,” Izumi Hara explained. “That purpose was to spread the gospel.”
His remaining life was devoted to scholarship and religion while living between Japan and Southern California. The degrees held by Hara were numerous: a bachelor’s in English literature from Tamagawa University in Tokyo, a master’s in theology from Northwest University in Kirkland, Wash., and a master’s in education from Cal State Long Beach, among others.
When he retired from the position of dean of students at Tamagawa University in 1978, he came to the United States to live full time, founding the International Bilingual School of Los Angeles in 1979 and leading the institution until his 2003 retirement. The school was formed to educate children of Japanese nationals working for companies such as Toyota and Honda, preparing them for the rigorous education system in their home country.
Concurrently with his career as an educator, Hara led Bible studies and services, most recently the Japanese language worship fellowship at Mesa Verde United Methodist Church in Costa Mesa.
Born on Oct. 21, 1926, in Shimonoseki, Hara was preceded in death by his parents, Ikuhisa and Chitose Hara, and half-sister Kouko Tatsuuma.
In addition to his daughter, Hara is survived by his wife of 63 years, Suzuko; son Nobumichi Hara of Phoenix, Ariz.; seven grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; and his half-sister, Masako Muro of Chuo-Rinkan, Japan.
In peace, ex-Kamikaze pilot Tadao Hara bridged cultural divide
