A typical sense of 'abandonment' was revealed by a subordinate when Vice Admiral Ugaki, who had been in charge of kamikaze operations from Kyushu, left for his own suicide sortie on the very last day of the war. The senior officer of the Fifth Air Fleet staff, Captain Miyazaki, had tried to dissuade Ugaki on the grounds that such an attack was now inappropriate, but the Admiral was adamant and told him to follow his orders. Shortly afterwards Ugaki went to the airfield, carrying only his samurai sword and a pair of binoculars:

Captain Myizaki had been standing by quietly and solemnly, but finally, unable to restrain himself any longer, he stepped forward and said, 'Please take me with you, Admiral'.

Ugaki answered him sternly, 'You have more than enough to attend to here. You will remain'.

This refusal was too much for Miyazaki. He stopped in his tracks and burst into tears, crying openly and unshamed as the others walked past.

This, like the preceding posts, comes from Ivan Morris's The Nobility of Failure