When the tides of war favored the allies, Japan was desperately making plans to gain their supremacy back when their losses started to mounting. Kamikaze planes or well- known to the U.S. seamen who witnessed their horrific acts, as Flying Coffins, dreadfully crashed their planes toward Allied ships, which then causes a terrible number of casualties. It was indeed a ghastly act of heroism, But eventually we thought they were just following orders, but we were wrong. The Kamikaze pilots were all volunters and have dedicated their lives to the service of their Divine Emperor and to their country. It is their great to honor to die in service than to survive.

Information below exerpts from various historical books and websites to give us enough information regarding the planes of Kamikazes.

Kamikaze

Kamikaze (help·info) (Japanese: 神風; literally: "god's wind"; common translation: "divine wind") is a word of Japanese origin, which in English usually refers to the suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan, against Allied shipping, in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II.

These attacks, beginning in 1944, followed several very significant and critical military and strategic defeats for Japan, its decreasing capacity to wage war along with loss of experienced pilots, and the Allies' increased ability, due largely to the industrial capacity of the United States and Japan's reluctance to surrender. In these attacks Japanese pilots would deliberately attempt to crash their aircraft into naval vessels and other ships. Sometimes laden with explosives, extra bombs, and carrying full fuel tanks, their objective was to stop the Allied advance towards the Japanese home islands by causing as much damage and destruction as possible.

Kamikazes were the most common and best-known form of Japanese suicide attack during World War II. The Imperial Japanese Army had long used "banzai charges", in some situations. However, the Imperial Japanese Navy, in particular, used or made plans for various suicide attacks, including midget submarines, human torpedoes, speedboats (some of which were also commissioned by the army) and divers.

Since the end of the war the term has sometimes been used as a pars pro toto for other kinds of attack in which an attacker is deliberately sacrificed. These include a variety of suicide attacks, in other historical contexts, such as the proposed use of Selbstopfer aircraft by Nazi Germany and various suicide bombings by terrorist organizations around the world, such as the September 11, 2001 attacks.

In English, the word kamikaze may also be used in a hyperbolic or metaphorical fashion to refer to non-fatal actions which result in significant loss for the attacker, such as injury or the end of a career.

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Origins of the word kamikaze

In the Japanese language, kamikaze (IPA: [kamikaze]) (Japanese), usually translated as "divine wind" (kami is the word for "god", "spirit", or "divinity"; and kaze for "wind"), came into being as the name of legendary typhoons said to have saved Japan from Mongol invasion fleets in 1274 and 1281.

In Japanese, the formal term used for units carrying out these suicide attacks during World War II is tokubetsu kōgeki tai , 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 ( "divine wind special attack units". Shinpū is the on-reading (on'yomi or Chinese-derived pronunciation) of the same characters that form the word Kamikaze in Japanese. However, during World War II, the actual word Kamikaze was never, or rarely, used in Japan in relation to suicide attacks. U.S. translators during the war erroneously used the kun'yomi (indigenous Japanese pronunciation) for Shinpū, giving the English language the word kamikaze, for Japanese suicide units in general. This usage gained acceptance worldwide. After the war, Japanese speakers re-imported the word and the English language pronunciation, under the influence of U.S. media sources. As a result, the special attack units are sometimes known in Japan as kamikaze tokubetsu kōgeki tai.

Background

A kamikaze (just left of center near the top border), a Mitsubishi Zero in this case, about to hit the Missouri. Model 52c Zeros are sent back from Korea to Kyūshū island, to take part in a Kamikaze attack (early 1945).

After six months of continuous victories following their Attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces were checked at the Battle of the Coral Sea in May of 1942, defeated at the Battle of Midway in June of that year, and finally lost their momentum at Guadalcanal. 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 F6F Hellcat. Following losses at Midway, the battles of attrition which wore down IJN naval aviation in the Solomon Islands and over Rabaul, and the Battle of the Philippine Sea where Japan lost over 400 carrier-based planes and pilots (in an action referred to in the United States, albeit less so in recent years, as the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot), skilled fighter pilots became extremely scarce. Low availability of parts and fuel made even normal flight operations difficult.

On July 15, 1944, the important Japanese base of Saipan fell to the Allied forces. Its capture provided adequate forward bases which enabled US air forces using B-29 Superfortress long-range bombers to strike the Japanese home islands. 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 in October 17, 1944, when 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 which would attempt to destroy Allied forces in Leyte Gulf. However, the 1st 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, with one additional reconnaissance plane. The task facing the Japanese air forces seemed totally impossible. The 1st Air Fleet commandant, Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi decided to form a suicide attack unit, the Kamikaze Special Attack Force. 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 [to hold the Philippines], than to put a 250 kg bomb on a Zero and let it crash into a U.S. carrier, in order to disable her for a week."

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. However, there is little evidence that these hits were more than accidental collisions or last-minute decisions by pilots in doomed aircraft, of the kind likely to happen in intense sea-air battles.

Another source claims that the first kamikaze mission happened on September 13, 1944. A group of pilots, from the army's 31st Fighter Squadron, on Negros Island decided to launch a suicide attack the following morning.[2] First Lieutenant Takeshi Kosai and a sergeant were selected. Two 100-kilogram bombs were attached to two fighters, and the pilots took off before dawn on September 13, planning to crash into carriers. They never returned and there is no record of an enemy plane hitting an Allied ship on September 13, 1944.

Captain Masafumi Arima, the commander of the 26th Air Flotilla (part of the 11th Air Fleet), is also sometimes credited with inventing the kamikaze tactic. Arima personally led an attack by about 100 Yokosuka D4Y Suisei (or "Judy") dive bombers against a large Essex class aircraft carrier, USS Franklin near Leyte Gulf, on (or about, accounts vary) October 15, 1944. Although Arima was killed, and part of a plane hit the Franklin, it is not clear that this was a planned suicide attack. The Japanese high command and propagandists seized on Arima's example: he was promoted posthumously to Admiral, and was given official credit for making the first kamikaze attack. Official accounts of his attack bore little resemblance to the events concerned.

According to eyewitness accounts, the first kamikaze attack to hit an Allied ship was carried out by an unknown pilot, who was also not a member of the Kamikaze Special Attack Force; the target was the flagship of the Royal Australian Navy, HMAS Australia. The attack took place on October 21, 1944, near Leyte Island; gunners from HMAS Australia and HMAS Shropshire fired at, and reportedly hit, an unidentified Japanese aircraft. The plane then flew away from the ships, before turning and flying into Australia, striking the ship's superstructure above the bridge, and spewing burning fuel and debris over a large area, before falling into the sea. A 200 kg (440 pound) bomb carried by the plane 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, 1944 the Australia was hit again and was forced to retire to the New Hebrides for repairs. That same day, the Kamikaze Special Attack Force carried out its first mission. Five Zeros, led by Seki, and escorted to the target by leading Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, attacked several escort carriers. One Zero attempted to hit the bridge of the USS Kitkun Bay, but instead exploded on the port catwalk and cartwheeled into the sea. Two others dove at USS Fanshaw Bay, but were destroyed by anti-aircraft fire. The last two ran at the USS White Plains, however one, under heavy fire and trailing smoke, aborted the attempt on the White Plains and instead banked toward the USS St. Lo, plowing into the flight deck. Its bomb caused fires that resulted in the bomb magazine exploding, sinking the carrier.

By day's end on October 26, 55 kamikaze from the special attack force had also damaged the large escort carriers USS Sangamon (CVE-26), USS Suwannee (CVE-27), USS Santee (CVE-29), and the smaller escorts USS White Plains, USS Kalinin Bay, and USS Kitkun Bay. In total seven carriers had been hit, as well as 40 other ships (five sunk, 23 heavily damaged, and 12 moderately damaged).

HMAS Australia returned to combat at the Battle of Lingayen Gulf in January 1945. However, on January 5, 6, 8 and 9, the ship was again attacked by kamikazes and suffered damage which forced it to retire once more. The ship lost about 70 crew members to kamikaze hits. Other Allied ships which survived repeated hits from kamikazes during World War II included the Franklin and another Essex class carrier, USS Intrepid.

The main wave of kamikaze attacks

When you eliminate all thoughts about life and death, you will be able to totally disregard your earthly life. This will also enable you to concentrate your attention on eradicating the enemy with unwavering determination, meanwhile reinforcing your excellence in flight skills.(A paragraph from the kamikaze pilots' manual.)

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.

Purpose-built kamikaze planes, as opposed to converted fighters and dive-bombers, had no landing gear at all. A specially-designed propellor plane, the Nakajima Ki-115 Tsurugi, was a simple, easy-to-build plane, intended to use up existing stocks of engines, in a wooden airframe. The undercarriage was non-retractable: it was jettisoned shortly after take-off for a suicide mission, and then re-used on other planes. Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka rocket-bombs - essentially anti-ship missiles guided by pilots; were first used in March 1945. These were also used against B-29 formations over Japanese cities, and were derisively known as the Baka Bomb ("baka" is Japanese for "idiot" or "stupid"). Small boats packed with explosives, and manned torpedoes, called Kaiten were also manufactured.

In early 1945, Commander John Thach, a U.S. Navy air operations officer, who was already famous for developing effective aerial tactics against the Japanese such as the Thach Weave, developed an anti-kamikaze strategy called the "big blue blanket". This plan called for round-the-clock fighter patrols over Allied fleets. However, the US Navy had cut back training of fighter pilots due to a perceived need for a higher percentage of pilots to fly bombers and transport aircraft,[citation needed] so there were not enough Navy pilots available to counter the kamikaze threat. The Navy hurriedly began to cross-train their carrier pilots on the F6F Hellcat,[citation needed] and brought Marine F4U Corsair squadrons aboard aircraft carriers.[citation needed]

Thach also recommended larger combat air patrols (CAP), further from the carriers than had previously been the case, intensive fighter sweeps over Japanese airfields, the bombing of Japanese runways with delayed action fuses, to make repairs more difficult, a line of picket destroyers and destroyer escorts at least 50 miles (80 km) from the main body of the fleet, to provide earlier radar interception, and improved coordination between fighter direction officers on carriers.

The peak in kamikaze attacks came during the period of April-June 1945, at the Battle of Okinawa. On April 6, 1945 waves of planes made hundreds of attacks, in Operation Kikusui ("floating chrysanthemums"). At Okinawa, kamikaze attacks focused at first on Allied destroyers on picket duty, and then on the carriers in the middle of the fleet. Suicide attacks by planes or boats at Okinawa sank or put out of action at least 30 US warships and at least three US merchant ships[6], along with some from other Allied forces. The attacks expended 1,465 planes. Many warships of all classes were damaged, some severely, but no aircraft carriers, battleships or cruisers were sunk by kamikaze at Okinawa. Most of the ships destroyed were destroyers or smaller vessels, especially those on picket duty.

US aircraft carriers, with their wooden flight decks, were more vulnerable to kamikaze hits, than the reinforced steel-decked carriers from the British Pacific Fleet (BPF) which operated in the theatre during 1945. The resilience of well-armoured vessels was shown on May 4. Just after 11.30 a.m. there was a wave of attacks against the BPF. One Japanese plane made a steep dive from "a great height" at the carrier HMS Formidable and was engaged by AA guns. The kamikaze was hit at close range, but crashed into the flight deck, making a massive dent about 10 feet (3 m) long, two feet (0.6 m) wide and two feet deep in the armoured flight deck. A large steel splinter speared down through the hangar deck and the centre boiler-room, where it ruptured a steam line, and came to rest in a fuel tank, starting a major fire in the aircraft park. Eight crew members were killed and 47 were wounded. One Corsair and 10 Grumman Avengers were destroyed. However, the fires were gradually brought under control and the crater in the deck was repaired with concrete and steel plate. By 5 p.m., Corsairs were again able to land on Formidable.

As the end of the war approached, the Allies did not suffer significantly more damage, despite having far more ships than was previously the case and being attacked in far greater density. Due to their poor training, kamikaze pilots tended to be easy targets for experienced Allied pilots, who also flew superior aircraft. Moreover the U.S. Fast Carrier Task Force alone could bring over 1,000 fighter aircraft into play. Allied pilots also became adept at destroying enemy aircraft before they struck ships. Allied naval crews had also begun to develop techniques to negate kamikaze attacks, such as firing their high-caliber guns into the sea in front of attacking planes flying near sea level, in order to create walls of water which would swamp the attacking planes. Although such tactics could not be used against Okhas and other fast, high angle attacks, these were in turn more vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire.

During 1945, the Japanese military began stockpiling hundreds of Tsurugi, other propellor planes, Ohka, and suicide boats, for use against Allied forces expected to invade Japan. Few were ever 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 lost 1,387. An unknown number of these pilots were Koreans with Japanese names, adopted under the pre-war Soshi-kaimei ordinance that compelled Koreans to take Japanese personal names. [5] 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.

According to a U.S. Air Force source:

Approximately 2,800 Kamikaze attackers sunk 34 Navy ships, damaged 368 others, killed 4,900 sailors, and wounded over 4,800. Despite radar detection and cuing, airborne interception and attrition, and massive anti-aircraft barrages, a distressing 14 percent of Kamikazes survived to score a hit on a ship; nearly 8.5 percent of all ships hit by Kamikazes sank.

In a 2004 book, World War II, the historians Wilmott, Cross & Messenger stated that more than 70 U.S. vessels were "sunk or damaged beyond repair" by kamikazes.