Kamikaze (神風 from Kami - "god" and kaze - "wind") means 'divine wind' in Japanese. It refers to the
typhoon which saved
Japan from a
Mongol invasion fleet in
1281.
By extension, during World War II the word came to be used for desperate suicide attacks, particularly by aircraft assigned to destroy US and Allied ships by flying directly into them. Japan had lost any pretext of having competitive fighters by 1944, and were hardly able to service them, so expending them as bombs was suggested by Admiral Takijiro Onishi[?] in October 1944[?]. The official name of the mission was 神風 (shinpuu; (same characters but different pronunciation from kamikaze) 特別 (tokubetsu) 攻撃隊 (ko-geki tai) literally meaning kamikaze special force units. Due to that name, Japanese often know kamikaze as tokko or 特攻 (from tokubetsu kogeki).
On the Japanese side, the human loss from the navy air force was 2,525 and from the army air force was 1,387. According to a Japanese announcement, the mission sunk 81 ships, damaged 195, but actually 34 were sunk and 288 were damaged. According to a Japanese tally, suicide attacks accounted for up to 80 percent of American losses in the final phase of the war in the Pacific. The military effect of kamikaze tactics was significant but not overwhelming. Even so, the psychological effect on Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen was profound.
The idea of kamikaze has been applied later in other parts of the world when the situation is hopeless. Instances are Selbstopfer in Nazi Germany in late World War II and terrorism that employs suicidal attack such as the September 11 terrorist attack, and suicide bombing in Israel by Palestinians.
The first
sortie[?] by the Special Attack Force (Tokkotai, or Kamikaze Squadron) took place in
Leyte Gulf of the
Philippines. The Japanese forces had lost their power they had at the beginning of the
Pacific War (it is officially the
Great Eastern Asian War[?] in
Japan) after their defeat in the
Battle of Midway, and the
US forces[?] were cornering the Japanese with its rich resources and strong industrial power. And finally in
July 15,
1944,
Saipan, which was the important base for the defense of
Japanese mainland[?], was fallen to the Americans. The capture of Saipan made it possible for the US forces to strike Japanese mainland with
B-29 Superfortress long-range bombers. After the capture of Saipan, the US captured the Philippines, the islands where General
MacArthur promised to return, and tried to make the islands the base for the attack on Japanese mainland. The Philippines were strategically important since the islands were located between the oil fields of
Southeast Asia and Japan. For that reason, the
Imperial Headquarter[?] was forecasting that the Americans would try to capture the Philippines.
On
October 17,
1944, the US forces started to land on
Suluan Island[?] at the entrance of
Leyte Gulf. On the next day, the Imperial Headquarter officially announced Shou ichi gou sakusen (捷１号作戦, The Operation Syou No.1) in order to defend the Philippines. In this operation,
Kurita fleet[?] (栗田), which was supplied in
Burney, Borneo Island[?], was supposed to storm into Leyte Gulf and destroy the US forces. Addition to that,
Ozawa fleet[?] (小沢) joined the operation as decoy, and
Nishimura fleet[?] (西村) and
Shima fleet[?] (志摩) joined the operation as
mobile forces[?]. Also, the First Air Fleet joined the lines to support the operation.
However, the First Air Fleet at that time only had 40 airplanes, which were 34 zeros (零戦), 1 reconnaissance plane, 3 Nakajima B6N Tenzan[?] (Jill, 天山), 1 Mitsubishi G4M1 (Betty, 一式陸攻), and 2 Yokosuka P1Y1 Ginga (Frances, 銀河). In order to make it possible for the mobile forces to destroy the US landing forces in Leyte Gulf, it was necessary to stop the movement of the US task forces. The task of the First Air Fleet was to fight the US task forces, however it seemed totally impossible to carry out the mission with only 40 airplanes.
The First Air Fleet, which was given such an impossible task, actually was the first squadron ever to form the Kamikaze Special Attack Force. Furthermore, the commandant of the First Air Fleet was Vice Admiral Onishi Takijirou, who was known as the father of kamikaze attack.
Vice Admiral
Onishi[?] (大西) was assigned to
Manila on
October 17,
1944. Two days later, he went to
Magracut Airport[?]. At the 201st Navy Flying Corps headquarter in Magracut, a historical meeting was held. Finally, Vice Admiral
Onishi[?] suggested to his men. "I don't think there would be any other certain ways than to put 250kg (app. 552lbs)-bomb on a zero and let it crush into an US carrier, in order to disable her for a week, and carry out the operation." Captain of the 201st Flying Corps Commander
Tamai[?] (玉井), who was supposed respond, told Vice Admiral Onishi that he couldn't make any decision without a presence of Admiral
Yamamoto Isoroku (山本 五十六). Vice Admiral Onishi told Commander Tamai that he had already gotten an approval from Admiral Yamamoto. Then Commander Tamai asked for a time to think, and left with Lieutenant Shijuku to discuss about the suicidal mission proposed by Vice Admiral Onishi. Finally,
Commander Tamai, who was known for his gentleness and modesty, decided that there would be no other way than to carry out the suicidal mission. And he told his decision to Vice Admiral Onishi.
The formation of the special attack force was finally decided officially. Then Commander Tamai asked the twenty-three pilots from the Class-A Student Pilots of the 10th Session Training, who Commander Tamai brought up with his own care, to participate in the operation. All pilots agreed to join the operation, raising their both hands. The morale of the soldiers was very high although it was being obvious that Japan was starting to lose the war (details on their morale is described on another page).
For the commander of the special attack force, Lieutenant Seki Yukio, the 70th graduate of the Naval Academy, was named. When Lieutenant Seki was asked by Commander Tamai to be a commander of the special attack force, Lieutenant Seki closed his eyes and thought for ten seconds, hanging down his head. Then finally, he told Commander Tamai "please let me do that." Therefore the 24 fist kamikaze pilots were chosen. The name of the special attack force was officially decided to Kamikaze Special Attack Force. The names of each four units, which were Unit Shikishima, Unit Yamato, Unit Asahi, Unit Yamazakura, was taken from a patriotic poem (waka or tanka) by an old Japanese classical scholar, Motoori Norinaga, which reads;
- If someone asks about the Yamato (Japanese) spirit of Shikishima (Japan),
- It is the flowers of yamazakura (mountain cherry blossom) that is fragrant
in the Asahi (rising sun).
The first kamikaze strike came on October 25, 1944, off the Philippine island of Leyte. Twenty-six Mitsubishi Zeros were split into four groups to attack shipping, and five of these were able to hit the US aircraft carrier St. Louis[?] with their load of 250kg of explosives, and sink her. Others hit and damaged several other carriers, and a submarine attack added to the confusion.
This success was 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.
Their "high-point" 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 US fighters several hundred miles away. Starting with destroyers on "picket duty" and then moving on to the carriers in the middle of the fleet, the kamikaze aircraft attacks created enough havoc to threaten the Allied mission. By the end of the battle just under 30 ships had been sunk, and over 160 more damaged, expending 1,465 planes in the process.
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. It was never used.
Young pilots of suicide missions departed from the airbase shown on the map above. They flew Southwest over Kaimon mountain[?]. The Kaimon mountain is 922 meter (approximately 3000 feet) tall, and is also called Satsuma Fuji (geometrically symmetrical beautiful mountain like Mt. Fuji located in Satsuma region). Legend tells that pilots of suicide attack mission looked over their shoulders many times to see this most Southern mountain of Japanese mainland while in the air and said good-bye to the country they grew up in. Also some of the young pilots saluted the mountain.
There is an island called Kikaijima[?]. This island is located East of Amami Oshima islands[?]. The hill on the Kikaijima airport has beds of cornflower that bloom in early May. The island residents say that the pilots of suicide mission units dropped flowers from air when they departed for their final mission, and these flower seeds created the flower beds. Passage quoted from "Kyou ware Ikiteari"
The article contains materials from Mr.Nobu's personal website http://www.geocities.co.jp/WallStreet-Stock/6210/index2.html with the permission of use
- Kamikaze (http://www.geocities.co.jp/WallStreet-Stock/6210/index2.html)
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