Writing it down
POST FALLS - As the kamikaze zeroed in on Harold Kiel's ship, even the aviator's leather helmet and goggles became clear.
Kiel prepared for death near Okinawa, Japan, on April 1, 1945.
"The clouds were so very low that, at the speed the plane was diving, it was impossible to train the guns on him and try to stop him or even attempt to change course and maneuver out of its outrushing charge," the Hayden World War II veteran wrote in his diary. "It looked as if it was going to crash directly into the bridge and everyone just seemed to freeze at their battle stations, unable to move or utter a sound.
"It narrowly missed the stack by a few scant yards and crashed into the sea just 25 feet off the starboard quarter. As it hit, pieces flew in every direction. Yes, our good luck still holds."
Kiel's war stories in his diary from 1942 to 1945 are documented in a newly-released book called "Harold's Voyage." The author is Mike Kincaid, Kiel's neighbor.
Kiel was a clerk on his Navy rescue ship. He took orders from the gunnery officer on when to have shipmates fire at the enemy.
The ship's mission was to take survivors off ships hit by suicide planes.
"It was horrendous," Kiel said. "Some of them had their entire body burned. I don't wish on anybody what we went through. And I know the Marines and Army went through a hell of a lot worse than what we did on the ship."
Kiel's diary also highlights the five-week Battle of Iwo Jima, which featured some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific.
"Night and day, the Naval ships continue to bombard the Japanese positions," he wrote on Feb. 2, 1945. "All night the island is illuminated buy a constant bursting of star shells ... ."
Kiel said, with binoculars from his ship, he witnessed the iconic moment in which Marines and a Navy corpsman raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi, memorializing the Iwo Jima victory. The moment was photographed by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press and placed on a U.S. postage stamp.
"Harold's Voyage" illustrates the parallels between Kiel and Japan's Hayashi Ichizo, who was "volunteered" to be a kamikaze suicide pilot.
The men were the same age, lacked father figures, bonded closely with their mothers and kept diaries about the war.
Fate brought the two together one afternoon near Okinawa, but only one of them would go home.
Ichizo wrote a letter to his mom the night before his final flight.
"Life and death in this world are of no importance ... I read the Bible every day," he wrote. "I shall bring the Bible and the book of hymns on my plane ... . I will die with dignity as a soldier. I will sing a hymn as I dive onto an enemy vessel."
Kiel said he considers himself "very lucky" to not only have survived the war, but to fully recoup from the stress.
Writing in his diary, he said, gave him a "release" during the war.
"Many times we had to sleep on the deck because we couldn't leave our battle stations," he said. "(The diary) helped me hang in there as long as I did."
Today, the 90-year-old widower's release is making intricate wooden items ranging from decorations to showcases. Kiel spends four to eight hours a day in his wood shop at his home in the Rocking R subdivision. He designed his house and built the wood fence in his back yard that borders a creek and wooded mountainside.
Kiel credits his upbringing, with his mother Hannah as the biggest factor, with helping him pull through the emotional wounds of war. That experience built a rock-solid foundation, he said.
"I didn't have an easy upbringing, but I had a great relationship with my mom and helped her however I could," he said.
Kiel said the parallels between his war experiences and those of Ichizo's are touching.
He said he has no ill feelings toward Japanese people despite the constant gruesome results of war that he saw. One of his best friends today is Japanese.
"I have no animosity toward the nationality," Kiel said. "They were just serving and obeying orders as we were."
• Book it
"Harold's Voyage," a book written by Hayden's Mike Kincaid that's based on the World War II diaries of Seaman Harold Kiel, is available on Amazon, both in paperback and in e-book format.
Neighbors Kiel and Kincaid will hold a book signing on Feb. 15 at 1:30 p.m. at the Hastings book store on Appleway in Coeur d'Alene. The cost of the book is $15.