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Kamikaze

 A kamikaze, a Mitsubishi Zero in this case, about to hit the .
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A kamikaze, a Mitsubishi Zero in this case, about to hit the USS Missouri.
For other uses of the word Kamikaze, see Kamikaze (disambiguation).

Kamikaze (Kamikaze-tokkō-tai 神風特攻隊)(神風 from kami meaning "god" and kaze meaning "wind") is a Japanese word — usually translated as divine wind — which came into being as the name of a typhoon that is said to have saved Japan from a Mongol invasion fleet led by Kublai Khan, in 1281. In Japanese the name "kamikaze" is used only for this typhoon. In the English language, however, the word "kamikaze" usually refers to suicide attacks carried out by Japanese aircrews against Allied shipping, towards the end of the Pacific campaign of World War II.

Air attacks were the predominant and best-known aspect of a wider use of — or plans for — suicide attacks by Japanese personnel, including soldiers carrying explosives, and boat crews. In Japanese, the term used for units carrying out these attacks is 特別攻撃隊 tokubetsu kōgeki tai, which literally means "special attack unit." This is usually abbreviated to 特攻隊 tokkōtai. In World War II, suicide squads that came from the Imperial Japanese Navy were called 神風特別攻撃隊 kamikaze tokubetsu kōgeki tai, or shinpū tokubetsu kōgeki tai.

Since the end of World War II, the word kamikaze has been applied to a wider variety of suicide attacks, in other parts of the world and at later times. Examples of these include Selbstopfer in Nazi Germany in World War II and terrorism that employs suicidal attack such as the September 11, 2001 attacks, and suicide bombing in Israel by Palestinians.

Contents

World War II

Background

Japanese forces, after their defeat at the Battle of Midway in 1942, lost the momentum they had at the beginning of the Pacific War (known officially as the Great Eastern Asian War in Japan). During 1943-44, Allied forces, backed by the industrial might and rich resources of the United States, were advancing steadily towards Japan.

Japan's fighter planes were becoming outnumbered and outclassed by newer US-made planes, especially the F4U Corsair and P-51 Mustang. Because of combat losses, skilled fighter pilots were becoming extremely scarce. Finally, the low availability of parts and fuel made even normal flight operation a problem.

On July 15, 1944, Saipan, an important Japanese base fell to Allied forces. The capture of Saipan made it possible for US air forces, using B-29 Superfortress long-range bombers to strike the Japanese mainland. After the fall of Saipan, the Japanese high command predicted that the Allies would try to capture the Philippines, which were strategically important due to their location between the oil fields of Southeast Asia and Japan.

The prediction came true on October 17, 1944, when Allied forces assaulted Suluan Island, beginning the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The Imperial Japanese Navy's First Air Fleet, based at Manila was assigned the task of assisting the Japanese ships which would attempt to destroy Allied forces in Leyte Gulf. However, the First Air Fleet at that time only had 40 aircraft: 34 Mitsubishi Zero carrier-based fighters, three Nakajima B6N torpedo bombers, one Mitsubishi G4M and two Yokosuka P1Y land-based bombers, and one reconnaissance plane. The task facing the Japanese air forces seemed totally impossible. The First Air Fleet commandant, Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi decided to form a Kamikaze Special Attack Force; Onishi became known as "the father of the kamikaze". In a meeting at Magracut Airfield near Manila on October 19, Onishi, visiting the 201st Navy Flying Corps headquarters, suggested: "I don't think there would be any other certain way to carry out the operation, than to put a 250kg bomb on a Zero and let it crash into a US carrier, in order to disable her for a week."

The first kamikaze unit

Commander Asaiki Tamai asked a group of 23 talented student pilots, whom he had personally trained, to join the special attack force. All of the pilots raised both of their hands, thereby agreeing to join the operation. Later, Tamai asked Lieutenant Seki Yukio to command the special attack force. Seki is said to have closed his eyes, lowered his head and thought for ten seconds, before asking Tamai: "please let me do that." Seki thereby became the 24th kamikaze pilot to be chosen.

The names of four sub-units within the Kamikaze Special Attack Force, were Unit Shikishima, Unit Yamato, Unit Asahi, and Unit Yamazakura. These names were taken from a patriotic poem (waka or tanka) by the Japanese classical scholar, Motoori Norinaga. The poem reads:

If someone asks about the Yamato (Japanese) spirit of Shikishima (Japan),
It is the flowers of yamazakura (mountain cherry blossom) that are fragrant
in the Asahi (rising sun).

The first attacks

At least one source cites Japanese planes crashing into the USS Indiana and USS Reno in mid-late 1944 as the first kamikaze attacks of World War II.[1] However, there is little evidence that these hits were more than accidental collisions, of the kind likely to happen in intense sea-air battles.

According to eyewitness accounts by Allied personnel, the first kamikaze attack — in the generally accepted sense of the term — was not carried out by Tamai's unit, but by an unidentified Japanese pilot. On October 21, 1944, the flagship of the Royal Australian Navy, the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia, was hit by a Japanese plane carrying a 200 kg (441 pound) bomb, off Leyte Island. The plane struck the superstructure of the Australia above the bridge, spewing burning fuel and debris over a large area. However, the bomb failed to explode; if it had, the ship might have been effectively destroyed. At least 30 crew members died as a result of the attack, including the commanding officer, Captain Emile Dechaineux ; among the wounded was Commodore John Collins, the Australian force commander.

On October 25, the Australia was hit again and was forced to retire to the New Hebrides for repairs. That same day, five Zeros, led by Seki, attacked a US escort carrier, the USS St. Lo, although only one kamikaze actually hit the ship. Its bomb caused fires that resulted in the bomb magazine exploding, sinking the carrier. Others hit and damaged several other Allied ships. Because many of them had wooden flight decks, US aircraft carriers soon came to be seen as more vulnerable to kamikaze attacks than the steel-decked British carriers from the British Pacific Fleet which operated in the theatre during 1945.

HMAS Australia returned to combat in January 1945; by the end of the war, the ship had survived being hit by kamikazes on six separate occasions, with the loss of 86 lives. Other ships which survived repeated hits from kamikazes during World war II included two of the relatively large, Essex class aircraft carriers: USS Intrepid and USS Franklin.

The main wave of kamikaze attacks


Early successes such as the sinking of the St. Lo were followed by an immediate expansion of the program, and over the next few months over 2,000 planes made such attacks. This included new types of attacks, including purpose-built Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka rocket-bombs, small boats packed with explosives, and manned torpedoes, called the Kaiten.

The peak came during the Battle of Okinawa, when waves of planes made hundreds of attacks. The effort included a one-way mission by the battleship Yamato, which failed to get anywhere near the fight after being set upon by Allied fighters several hundred miles away.

Allied naval crews had begun to develop techniques to negate kamikaze attacks, such as firing their big guns into the sea in front of attacking planes, in order to swamp them. Although such tactics could not be used against Okhas and other fast, high angle attacks, these were more vulnerable to anti-aircaft fire and Allied fighter planes.

Off Okinawa, Kamikaze aircraft attacks focused at first on Allied destroyers on "picket duty", and then on the carriers in the middle of the fleet. These attacks, which expended 1,465 planes, created havoc: accounts of losses vary, but by the end of the battle, at least 21 US ships had been sunk by kamikazes, along with some from other Allied navies, and dozens more had been damaged. It is claimed that about 5,000 Allied personnel were killed by kamikazes at Okinawa alone.

As stocks of older planes started to dry up, a new kamikaze-only plane, the Nakajima Ki-115 Tsurugi, was designed to provide a simple, easy-to-build plane that could use up existing stocks of engines in a wooden airframe. The undercarriage was non-retractable, to be jettisoned shortly after take-off for a suicide mission, to be reused. The Japanese were stockpiling hundreds of these planes, along with more Ohkas and boats, for the eventual invasion of Japan. They were never used.

Effects

By the end of World War II, the Japanese naval air service had sacrificed 2,525 kamikaze pilots and the army air force had given 1,387. According to an official Japanese announcement, the missions sank 81 ships and damaged 195 and according to a Japanese tally, suicide attacks accounted for up to 80 percent of US losses in the final phase of the war in the Pacific. But in reality only 34 ships were sunk and 288 were damaged. The military effect of kamikaze tactics was significant but not overwhelming. Even so, the psychological effect on Allied soldiers, sailors, and airmen was profound.

Traditions and Folklore

The Japanese military never had a problem in recruiting volunteers for kamikaze missions; indeed, there were three times as many volunteers as there were aircraft. As a result, experienced pilots were turned away, as they were considered too valuable in defensive and training roles. The average kamikaze pilot was a 20-something studying science at university. Their motivations in volunteering varied from patriotism, to a desire to bring honour to their families, or to prove themselves personally — in an extreme fashion.

Special ceremonies were often held, immediately prior to kamikaze missions, in which pilots, carrying prayers from their families, were given military decorations. Such practices helped to glamourise the suicide missions, thereby attracting further volunteers.

According to legend, young pilots on kamikaze missions often flew southwest from Japan over the 922 metre (~3000 ft) Mount Kaimon . The mountain is also called "Satsuma Fuji" (meaning a geometrically symmetrical beautiful mountain like Mount Fuji, but located in the Satsuma Province region). Suicide mission pilots looked over their shoulders to see this, the most southern mountain on the Japanese mainland, while they were in the air, said "goodbye" to their country, and saluted the mountain.

Residents on Kikaijima island, east of Amami Oshima, say that pilots from suicide mission units dropped flowers from the air, as they departed on their final missions. Supposedly the hills above Kikaijima airport have beds of cornflower that bloom in early May. (Source: Jiro Kosaka, 1995, Kyō ware Ikiteari)

Related topics

Books

  • Albert Axell and Hideaki Kase - Kamikaze: Japan's suicide gods

External reference

Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04