Kamikaze
Kamikaze, officially, were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to destroy warships more effectively than with conventional air attacks. About 3,800 kamikaze pilots died during the war in attacks that killed more than 7,000 Allied naval personnel, sank several dozen warships, and damaged scores more. The term is used generically in modern warfare for an attacking vehicle, often unmanned, which is itself destroyed when attacking a target; for example, a kamikaze drone.
Kamikaze aircraft were pilot-guided explosive cruise missiles, either purpose-built or converted from conventional aircraft. Pilots would attempt to crash their aircraft into enemy ships in what was called a "body attack" in aircraft loaded with bombs, torpedoes or other explosives. About 19 percent of kamikaze attacks were successful. The Japanese considered the goal of damaging or sinking large numbers of Allied ships to be a just reason for suicide attacks. By late 1944, Allied qualitative and quantitative superiority over the Japanese in both aircrew and aircraft meant that kamikaze attacks were more accurate than conventional airstrikes, and often caused more damage. Some kamikazes hit their targets even after their aircraft had been crippled.
The attacks began in October 1944, at a time when the war was looking increasingly bleak for the Japanese. They had lost several decisive battles; many of their best pilots had been killed, and skilled replacements could not be trained fast enough; their aircraft were becoming outdated; and they had lost command of the air and sea. These factors, along with Japan's unwillingness to surrender, led to the institutionalization of kamikaze tactics as a core aspect of Japanese air warfare strategy as Allied forces advanced towards the home islands.
A tradition of death instead of defeat, capture, and shame was deeply entrenched in Japanese military culture; one of the primary values in the samurai way of life and the Bushido code was loyalty and honor until death. In addition to kamikazes, the Japanese military also used or made plans for non-aerial Japanese Special Attack Units, including those involving Kairyu, Kaiten, Shinyo speedboats, Smertnik infantrymen, and Fukuryu divers.
Definition and origin
The Japanese word kamikaze is usually translated as "divine wind". The word originated from Makurakotoba of waka poetry modifying "Ise" and has been used since August 1281 to refer to the major typhoons that dispersed Mongol-Koryo fleets which invaded Japan under Kublai Khan in 1274 and 1281.A Japanese monoplane that made a record-breaking flight from Tokyo to London in 1937 for the Asahi newspaper group was named Kamikaze. She was a prototype for the Mitsubishi Ki-15.
In Japanese, the formal term used for units carrying out suicide attacks during 1944–1945 is tokubetsu kōgekitai, which literally means "special attack unit". This is usually abbreviated to tokkōtai. More specifically, air suicide attack units from the Imperial Japanese Navy were officially called shinpū tokubetsu kōgeki tai. Shinpū is the on-reading of the same characters as the kun-reading kamikaze in Japanese. During World War II, the pronunciation kamikaze was used only informally in the Japanese press in relation to suicide attacks, but after the war, this usage gained acceptance worldwide and was re-imported into Japan.
History
Background
Before the official formation of kamikaze units, pilots had made deliberate crashes as a last resort when their aircraft had suffered severe damage and they did not want to risk being captured or wanted to do as much damage to the enemy as possible, since they were crashing anyway. Such situations occurred in both the Axis and Allied air forces. Axell and Kase see these suicides as "individual, impromptu decisions by men who were mentally prepared to die".One example of this may have occurred on 7 December 1941 during the attack on Pearl Harbor. First Lieutenant Fusata Iida's aircraft had taken a hit and had started leaking fuel when he apparently used it to make a suicide attack on Naval Air Station Kaneohe. Before taking off, he had told his men that if his aircraft was badly damaged he would crash it into a "worthy enemy target". In late February 1942, Imperial Japanese Headquarters mentioned, for the first time, that a "human bomb" or Taiatari, had destroyed a US aircraft carrier. It was explained that the term, which meant "thrust of body," was the practice of Japanese airmen to dive with the full load of bombs on to their target. Another possible example occurred at the Battle of Midway when a damaged American bomber flew at the 's bridge but missed. During the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal the US flagship,, was heavily damaged during a Japanese bombing raid when a large twin-engined Japanese Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" medium bomber, which was in flames from anti-aircraft fire, most likely intentionally crashed into her backup conning tower, destroying almost all of the backup command equipment for the flagship. Most of the officers and men stationed there, including the executive officer, were killed or wounded. This de facto kamikaze strike greatly changed the course of what was to happen during the infamous "Friday the 13th" battle 12 hours later.
The carrier battles in 1942, particularly the Battle of Midway, inflicted irreparable damage on the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, such that it could no longer field a large number of fleet carriers with well-trained aircrews. Japanese planners had based their assumptions on a quick war and lacked comprehensive programs to replace mounting losses to ships, pilots, and sailors. Prior to the war, Japanese carrier pilots were carefully selected after undergoing years of training in specialized schools, which produced high-quality aircrew but at low volume; the Japanese military never meaningfully expanded or restructured this training pipeline. The Battle of Midway, the Solomon Islands campaign and the New Guinea campaign notably the naval battles of the Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz Islands decimated the IJNAS veteran aircrews, and replacing their combat experience proved impossible.
During 1943–1944, US forces steadily advanced toward Japan. Newer US-made aircraft, especially the Grumman F6F Hellcat and Vought F4U Corsair, outclassed and soon outnumbered Japan's fighters. Tropical diseases, as well as shortages of spare parts and fuel, made operations more and more difficult for the IJNAS. By the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Japanese had to make do with obsolete aircraft and inexperienced aviators in the fight against better-trained and more experienced US Navy airmen who flew radar-directed combat air patrols. The Japanese lost over 400 carrier-based aircraft and pilots in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, effectively destroying the IJN's carrier air arm. Allied aviators called the action the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot".
On 19 June 1944, aircraft from the carrier approached a US task group. According to some accounts, two made suicide attacks, one of which hit.
The important Japanese base of Saipan fell to the Allied forces on 15 July 1944. Its capture provided adequate forward bases that enabled US air forces using the Boeing B-29 Superfortress to strike at the Japanese home islands. After the fall of Saipan, the Japanese High Command predicted that the Allies would try to capture the Philippines, strategically important to Tokyo because of the islands' location between the oilfields of Southeast Asia and Japan.
Beginnings
Captain Motoharu Okamura, in charge of the Tateyama Base in Tokyo, as well as the 341st Air Group Home, was, according to some sources, the first officer to officially propose kamikaze attack tactics. With his superiors, he arranged the first investigations into the plausibility and mechanisms of intentional suicide attacks on 15 June 1944. In August 1944, it was announced by the Domei news agency that a flight instructor named Takeo Tagata was training pilots in Taiwan for suicide missions.One source claims that the first kamikaze mission occurred on 13 September 1944. A group of pilots from the army's 31st Fighter Squadron on Negros Island decided to launch a suicide attack the following morning. First Lieutenant Takeshi Kosai and a sergeant were selected. Two bombs were attached to two fighters, and the pilots took off before dawn, planning to crash into carriers. They never returned, but there is no record of a kamikaze hitting an Allied ship that day. According to some sources, on 14 October 1944, was hit by a deliberately crashed Japanese aircraft.
Rear Admiral Masafumi Arima, the commander of the 26th Air Flotilla, is sometimes credited with inventing the kamikaze tactic. Arima personally led an attack by a Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" twin-engined bomber against a large,, near Leyte Gulf, on or about 15 October 1944. Arima was killed and part of an aircraft hit Franklin. The Japanese high command and propagandas seized on Arima's example. He was promoted posthumously to vice admiral and was given official credit for making the first kamikaze attack.
On 17 October 1944, Allied forces assaulted Suluan Island, beginning the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The Imperial Japanese Navy's 1st Air Fleet, based at Manila, was assigned the task of assisting the Japanese ships that would attempt to destroy Allied forces in Leyte Gulf. That unit had only 41 aircraft: 34 Mitsubishi A6M Zero carrier-based fighters, three Nakajima B6N Tenzan torpedo bombers, one Mitsubishi G4M and two Yokosuka P1Y Ginga land-based bombers, and one reconnaissance aircraft. The task facing the Japanese air forces seemed impossible. The 1st Air Fleet commandant, Vice Admiral Takijirō Ōnishi, decided to form a suicide offensive force, the Special Attack Unit. In a meeting on 19 October at Mabalacat Airfield near Manila, Onishi told officers of the 201st Flying Group headquarters: "I don't think there would be any other certain way to carry out the operation than to put a 250 kg bomb on a Zero and let it crash into a US carrier, in order to disable her for a week."