I feel like this is something that people who both do and don't like the Japanese would choose to believe. Americans would want to uphold this image as a way of glazing the japs and making them feel like they are a respected former enemy. Butthurt changs might choose to believe it because they want to dehumanize their enemies.

But I find it hard to believe that some young guy plucked off of some rice field in rural Japan would be so ready to die violently. Especially when most Japanese probably didn't even know what the emperor looked like outside of grainy photographs. So am I wrong to assume that these guys were probably scared shitless and terrorized by their commanders into following reckless orders?