Photos and letters from Japan's WWII kamikaze pilots could be immortalised by the UN, if some Japanese war veterans get their way.

During the final months of the war, kamikaze pilots were ordered to adopt suicide tactics by their commanders - targeting Allied ships with their aircraft and crashing into them.

HMAS Australia was the first to be hit, killing 30 people including the captain.

War veterans are now seeking UNESCO World Heritage status for the final letters and photos of the Japanese pilots.

Former pilot Tadamasa Itatsu survived two kamikaze missions.

His engine failed on the first mission so he ditched the plane. The second mission was stopped by bad weather.

He is now 89 and lives in the Japanese city of Nagoya, where he has been compiling the collection.

"At the time the pilots had to think this way," he said.

"We were the defensive wall to protect our families and the nation from invasion.

"Everybody went together and everybody dived and died but I survived.

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"After the war I got a job and married but I was terribly depressed and I don't know how many times I thought of committing suicide, but I didn't have the courage."

In the 1970s he found salvation in collecting the farewell letters and photos of other kamikaze pilots.

His collection is now being reviewed by UNESCO for World Heritage listing.

"Everybody went with joy," he said.

"I know it's hard for people to believe but the pilots were happy to go for emperor and country. It's written in many letters I collected."

However, not every Japanese war veteran agrees with the move.

Kamikaze pilots 'did not want to die'

Tadamasa Iwai was another kind of kamikaze. He trained as a human torpedo.

He was strapped into a mini submarine and his mission was to slam himself and his load into enemy ships.

Instead, he became seriously ill with tuberculosis and never went on a mission. He is now in his nineties and lives in Tokyo where his health is failing.

He is opposing the UNESCO application because he says the kamikaze were forced to undertake the missions against their will.

"The young kamikaze didn't want to die, so the young men wrote these words to persuade themselves that this was a beautiful act and there's nothing to regret," he said.

"They only knew the words and vocabulary because it was hammered into their heads.

"We were educated that we had to sacrifice our lives.

"Even if you thought it was strange you couldn't oppose it in public. The world was like that at the time.

"We couldn't say it out loud but we kept it in our hearts."

The kamikaze letters have been submitted to UNESCO's Memory of the World Registry, which includes the Magna Carta and the Declaration of the Rights of Man.

South Korea and China oppose the move because they believe Japan is trying to sanitise its wartime history.