JAPAN: Kamikaze Over Tokyo

No one was particularly suspicious when Movie Actor Mitsuyasu Maeno appeared at Tokyo's Chofu Airport last week in a World War II kamikaze pilot's uniform, complete with white scarf and with risingsun flags emblazoned on his right sleeve and on his warrior's headband. As he rented a single-engine Piper Cherokee from a local flying club, he explained that he was merely doing a publicity turn for a new film on the 1944-45 suicide pilots.

So it seemed for a while after Maeno, 29, took off, accompanied by a photo plane. But after half...