Kamicrazy

(Moving into seventh grade is a pretty big deal at my middle school because all of the classes are on the upper floors and the teachers are considered “cooler” in-general. I am sitting in my homeroom during first semester, and suddenly hear people shouting down the hall. Everyone else looks equally confused, except for our teacher.)

Classmate: “What was that?!”

Teacher: “Oh, don’t worry. That’s just Mr. [History Teacher]’s class.”

(That’s all she will tell us. We try asking other students about it, but they all just tell us to wait until we have his class during second semester. We are all pretty curious by this point. Second semester rolls around, and we have [History Teacher]’s class. The first few weeks go relatively normally. We had just started our section on WW II when…)

History Teacher: “All right, today we’ll be talking about the different weapons and tactics used by the participants of the war, starting with the use of kamikaze pilots by the Japanese. Does anyone know what kamikaze means?”

Classmate #1: “Um… suicide pilots?”

History Teacher: “Correct. And does anyone know the phrase attributed to the pilots? I’ll give you a hint, it roughly means ‘ten thousand years of long life.’”

Classmate #2: “Banzai?”

History Teacher: “Yes! Not to be confused with BONSAI, which is miniature tree gardening.”

(We all laugh. He goes on to explain the history of the phrase, and how we should respect the culture behind it, even though it was used during attacks on our own troops, etc.)

History Teacher: “Everyone stand up.”

(We all stand.)

History Teacher: “Now, stand on your chairs.”

(We all stare at him like lemmings. No teacher had ever told us to do something like that before.)

History Teacher: “I mean it! Get up there!” *he stands on his own chair so we do the same* “In preparation for our lesson we shall evoke the Japanese battle cry: BANZAI!”

Class: “Banzai?”

History Teacher: “You can do better than that! BANZAI!”

Class: “Banzai!”

History Teacher: “BANZAI!”

Class: “BANZAI!”

All Together: “BANZAI!”

History Teacher: “Great! You can all sit back down now.”

(We move on with the lesson, and one of my friends sitting behind me leans up to whisper:)

Friend: “I love this class!”