Bonzai With a Z

Bonzai With a Z

Bonzai With a Z

Just to change the subject a little.

When I was just a lad during World War II, I have very distinct memories of the kamikaze pilots who sacrificed their lives for their country by diving and crashing into ships and strategic locations.

As memory serves, at least from the WWII movies that I saw, is that these pilots yelled out ‘Bonzai” before they crashed.  From that point on, I always associated that term with crashing and dying.

Bonzai = Designated to Die

When I first heard the word bonsai as it applies to little sculpted trees, I associated it with those kamikaze pilots from my youth.  The connection between bonzai and bonsai was that the ‘Designed to die’ applied to my first bonsai.  I didn’t crash into it, but I may as well have, as the result was the same.

“Bonzai, bonsai”