Most people in Western culture believe the wordkamikaze was the name used by the Japanesemilitary forpilots, but that is not true. Their correct name wastokubetsu kōgeki tai (特別攻撃隊), whichliterally means"special attack team." This is usuallyabbreviatedtokkōtai (特攻隊) in a shortened form. The suicide attacks made byNavy pilots were calledshinpū tokubetsu kōgeki tai (神風特別攻撃隊,"divine wind special attack team"). TheAmerican translators used a differentstyle of pronunciation of theJapanese language by mistake, and read the wordshinpū ("divine wind") askamikaze, as thoseJapanese characters can be read both ways. The name became so well known after the war that Japanese also started using it.
Kiyoshi Ogawa,kamikaze pilot, hit theaircraft carrier USSBunker Hill (see picture right).USSBunker Hill was hit by Ogawa (see picture left) and anotherkamikaze nearKyūshū on May 11, 1945. Out of acrew of 2,600, 372sailors were killed.
After the attack onPearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Japanese Navy and itsAir force weredefeated in several important battles, likeMidway and thePhilippine Sea. They lost many ships (including nearly all the Japaneseaircraft carriers), hundreds offighter aircraft, and many of their best pilots. The Japanese industry was small and very poor compared to the American industry. For this reason, the United States replaced their lost ships and planes with better ones very quickly; but Japan could only make few, and of poor quality. During 1943-44, the Allied forces were moving towards Japan. At theBattle of the Philippine Sea, on June 19-20, 1944, the Japanese forces were pushed back to thePhilippines.
On July 15,Saipan (in theNorthern Mariana Islands) was captured by Allied forces. The capture of Saipan made it possible for theUnited States Army Air Force to attack Japan itself, usingB-29 Superfortressbombers. After the fall of Saipan, the Japanese commanders knew that the Allies would try to capture the Philippines next. The Philippines were very important because they were located between theoil fields of Southeast Asia and Japan. If Japan lost control over the Philippines, they would have littlefuel left for their ships. On October 17, the Allies started the attack on the Philippines in theBattle of Leyte Gulf.
Vice AdmiralTakijiro Onishi was in charge of the Japanese Air Force inManila. He understood that it was impossible to win the battle with so few aircraft andtrained pilots. For this reason, he decided to form a suicide attack force, the Special Attack Unit. A group of 24 student pilotsvolunteered for the mission. The Special Attack force wasorganized into 4 groups,Unit Shikishima,Unit Yamato,Unit Asahi, andUnit Yamazakura. These names were taken from apatriotic poem (waka ortanka), written by the Japaneseclassical poet,Motoori Norinaga: (敷島の 大和心を 人問はば 朝日に匂う 山桜花). The poem reads: "Shikishima no Yamato-gokoro wo hito towaba, asahi ni niou yamazakura bana
If someone asks about theYamato spirit (Spirit of Old/True Japan) ofShikishima (apoetic name for Japan) - it is the flowers ofyamazakura (mountaincherry blossom) that arefragrant in theAsahi (rising sun).[2]
(A lessliteral translation could be read as:If someone asks about the spirit of Japan, it is the flowers of mountain cherry blossoms that are fragrant in the rising sun.)
USSColumbia is attacked by a kamikaze on January 6, 1945.The kamikaze hitsColumbia, killing 13 sailors andinjuring 44.
The Japanese were defeated at the battle of Leyte Gulf, but the Special Attack force had great success. The firstkamikaze attack took place on October 21, 1944, against theflagship of theRoyal Australian Navy, HMASAustralia.[3] 30 sailors died in the attack, including itsCaptain Emile Dechaineux, and many more were wounded. By October 26, 47 more Allied ships had been attacked. Most of them were badly damaged or sunk, like the United States aircraft carrier USSSt. Lo.[4]
This early success convinced the Japanese commanders to continue thekamikaze attacks. Many more pilots were recruited to act askamikaze. Over the next few months, more than 2,000 planes made such attacks. When the Japanesestock of airplanes began to run low, new models of low quality were built for these missions. Some of them, like the Nakajima Ki-115Tsurugi, were made mostly ofwood and used stocks of olderengines. The plane'slanding gear was usually dropped by the pilot aftertakeoff so it could be used by other aircraft, because he would not be landing again. Similar suicide attackprograms were planned, includingrocket bombs with pilots (calledOhka) andsubmarinetorpedoes (Kaiten).
The high point ofkamikaze attacks came from April 6 to May 25, 1945 during theBattle of Okinawa, inOperation Kikusui ("floatingchrysanthemums"). In that time, seven importantwaves of attacks took place, with more than 1,500kamikaze planes. Because their training had been too short and their airplanes were poorly made,kamikaze pilots were easy targets for the experienced Allied pilots, who also had much better planes. But still, thekamikaze who escaped theanti-aircraft fire and the enemyfighter airplanes did great damage to the Allied fleet. The Allies won the battle, but they lost many ships and men because ofkamikaze attacks. By the end of the battle, at least 21 American ships had been sunk bykamikazes. Some ships from other Allied navies were also sunk, and dozens more were damaged.[5]
Hundreds of extrakamikaze planes were ready to defend Japan from invasion. However, with Japan's surrender on August 15 after theatomic bombings ofHiroshima andNagasaki and the declaration of war by theSoviet Union, they were never used again.
The most important effect of the attacks was creatingfear among the Allied troops. When the American ships went to the last battles, thecrews were very afraid ofkamikaze pilots. By the end of World War II, the Japanese Navy hadsacrificed 2,525kamikaze pilots, and the Air force had lost 1,387. The Japanesegovernment said, the missions sank 81 ships and damaged 195. They also claimed that thekamikaze attacks were the cause of 80% of Allied deaths in the last years of the War.
The Americansources claim thatkamikaze sunk less ships than the Japanese say. But still, they agree that they did very important damage. According to aU.S. Air Force source, thekamikaze attackers sunk 34 Navy ships, damaged 368 others, killed 4,900 sailors, and wounded over 4,800.[6] In a 2010 book, thehistorian Robin Rielly said that about 60 U.S. ships were sunk by kamikazes, and over 400 were damaged by them.[7]
Manykamikaze pilots offered themselves as volunteers for the mission. They were usually very young, between 18 and 24 years old. Theirbelief was that dying when striking the enemies of Japan and theEmperor down was a veryhonorable death. Thisprinciple was traditional since the days of thesamurai, and gave great importance to the sense of duty andobedience. This idea was calledGiri ("Obligation"), and was part of the code of conduct of the Japanese warriors since the Middle Ages, theBushido. Many young mensacrificed themselves by theirfree will because these beliefs and their love for the home land were the most important things for them. Thetokkōtai pilot'smanual told pilots to never close their eyes. This was because if a pilot closed his eyes he would miss his target.[8][9] In the final moments before the crash, the pilot was toshout"Hissatsu!" ("Special Death!") as loud as he could.[10]
However, many others did so because ofsocialpressure. Not offering oneself as a volunteer was a sign ofcowardice anddishonor. Several professional pilots who were ordered to do suicide attacks did it because of military obedience, not because of honor. One of the firstkamikaze pilots,Lieutenant Yukio Seki, wrote after nearly being forced to volunteer:
Japan's future is pale if it is forced to kill one of its best pilots. I am not going on this mission for theEmperor or for the Empire... I am going because I was ordered to.[11]
A special ceremony before going to combat usually took place. Pilots dranksake and ate a ball ofrice. They were givenmedals, and akatanasword. They put on aheadband with the rising sun, and asennibari, a"belt of a thousandstitches" made by a thousand women, who made one stitch each.[12] Many times, they tookprayers written by their families with them.[13] According tolegend, young pilots onkamikaze missions many timesflewsouthwest from Japan over the 922-metre (~3000 ft)Mount Kaimon. Suicide mission pilots looked over theirshoulders to see this, and said farewell to their country. Another legend says thatkamikaze pilots dropped flowers from the air, as they departed on their final missions. Some places, like the hills near Kikajimaairport, are said to have beds ofcornflower thatbloom in early May from those days.[14]
A kamikaze is asurprise attack, according to our ancient wartactics. Surprise attacks will be successful the first time, maybe two or three times. But what fool would continue the same attacks for ten months?Emperor Hirohito must have realized it. He should have said "Stop."
↑Rielly, Robin L. (2010).Kamikaze Attacks of World War II: A Complete History of Japanese Suicide Strikes on American Ships, by Aircraft and Other Means. McFarland. pp. 317–324.ISBN978-0-78644-654-4.
↑Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko (2006).Kamikaze Diaries - Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers. University of Chicago Press.ISBN978-0-226-61951-4. |pages=1-11
KaitenArchived 2007-02-04 at theWayback Machine. Photos of theKaiten Suicide Submarine at the NJ Naval Museum in Hackensack, New Jersey. Accessed 30-08-2007.
Okinawa Suicide Boat. Photos of the Japanese Suicide Demolition Boat at the Battleship Cove Naval Museum in Fall River, Massachusetts. Accessed 30-08-2007.
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