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December 14, 2007
Q. Why did kamikaze pilots wear helmets when they were going to die anyway?
A. In the wake of military setbacks in 1944, the Japanese military launched a campaign of kamikaze attacks where pilots attempted to crash their planes into U.S. warships, says Cornell's Robert Frank in “The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas.” The aviator helmet had become emblematic of what it meant to be a pilot: Kamikaze pilots were pilots, and all pilots wear helmets. Also, planes commonly experienced severe turbulence before reaching their targets, and here the Japanese commanders had clear reasons for wanting the pilots adequately protected.
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