Figure 1.--The Japanese Kamikazes effort are perhaps the least understood aspect of World War II. The young pilots were not frenzied maniacs. Many but not all were volunteers. They were for the most part educated young men who grimly saw no option to defending their country against an ememy with superior resources in every area of warfare. Virtually all were young men, not yet well teained pilots. The idea behind the Kamikazes was to use young men with little training in an inexpensive plane to destoy an expensive warship and its crew. They were virtually the only effective weapon left to Japan. And not often reported, the Japanese were building up in the Home Islands a mssive secret air force of Kamikzes to hurl at any American invasion fleet. The first Kamikazes flew from bases in the Philippines. This is a depiction by Japanese artist Usaburo Ihara.

Kamikaze means Divine Wind. It refers to the Mongol invasion of 1281. The Mongol Emperor of China was Kublan Kahn introduced to the West by Marco Polo. China at the time wa the most poweful country in the world Mongul armies had conquered China and then swept all opponents and pushed into the Middle East and Eastern Europe. When the Japanese Shoigun refused to pay homage to the Mongol Emperor, Kubla Khan launced a massice invassion in 1281. The invasion fleet was made up of 4,200 ships and 142,000 men--larger than the D-Day invasion at Normandy. It was, however, destroyed by a typhoon which the Japanese came to call the divine wind. This became the foundation of a holy myth, buttressed in the next century by a Samari General Kusunoke who launched the hopeless battle of Minatagowi at the order of the Japanese Emperor. As a result, his obedience and sacrifice came to be lionized in Japan and a holy natianal myth was built around him. His life was seen as the basis for the Kamikaze campaign. And inded the letters, diaries, and poems of the Kamikaze pilots wre filled with references to him. Interestingly, the Kamikaze was not conceived by the Japanese General Staff. Rather it was a tactic demanded by junior officers who saw that they could not match the rising power of American air and naval power. Only reluctantly did the Generl Staff adopt the tactic. Junior naval officers wrote to the General Staff in their own bold demanding that Kamikaze units and operations be employed. Admiral Onishi, a naval aviator, was the driving force behind the Kamikaze pilot attacks. Kamikaze attacks had resulted from individual acts of Japanese pilots. After the loss of the Philippines, however, it was adopt as a major defense policy. It was central to the Japanese effort to defend Okinawa and to fend off the impending American invasion.

Historical Background

Kamikaze means Divine Wind. It refers to the Mongol invasion of 1281. The Mongol Emperor of China was Kublan Kahn introduced to the West by Marco Polo. China at the time wa the most poweful country in the world Mongul armies had conquered China and then swept all opponents and pushed into the Middle East and Eastern Europe. When the Japanese Shoigun refused to pay homage to the Mongol Emperor, Kubla Khan launced a massice invassion in 1281. The invasion fleet was made up of 4,200 ships and 142,000 men--larger than the D-Day invasion at Normandy. It was, however, destroyed by a typhoon which the Japanese came to call the divine wind. This became the foundation of a holy myth, buttressed in the next century by a Samari General Kusunoke who launched the hopeless battle of Minatagowi at the order of theJapanese Emperor. As a result, his obedience and sacrifice came to be lionized in Japan and a holy natianal myth was built around him. His life was seen as the basis for the Kamikaze campaign. And inded the letters, diaries, and poems of the Kamikaze pilots were filled with references to him.

The Marianas (June 1944)

The Marines had proven in one bloody assault after another that Japanese soldiers could not hold its Pacific Island bastions no matter how well fortified. The Battle of the Phillipine Sea showed that the Imperial Navy was also encapable of stopuing the remorless surge of American power. The fall of the Marianas was thus a tipping point in the War. The logical response for Japan would have been to seak peace. But this would have required the Japanese miklitarists who made war to have admitted that they had blundered, dragging their country into an unwinable war. It would have also mean surrender, a concept alien to the spirit of Bushido. So instead the Japanese began to work on new tactics and the major thread of the new tactics was suiside. Jaanese planners began to talk about "guerilla warfare" as well as "new ideas" and new weaopons". Suiside as a tactic had been generally rejected by militar plnners, but the increasingly desperate situation changed this.

Origins in World War II

The Japanese Kamikaze cmpaign was not conceived by the Japanese General Staff. Rather it was a tactic demanded by junior officers who by 1944 saw that they could not match the rising power of American air and naval power. Only reluctantly did the Generl Staff adopt the tactic. Junior naval officers wrote to the General Staff in their own blood demanding that Kamikaze units and operations be employed. Admiral Onishi, a naval aviator, was the driving force behind the Kamikaze pilot attacks. Kamikaze attacks had occured almost from the beginning of the War, but ere the individual acts of Japanese pilots, not an organized campaign.

Japanese Military Aviation

The Mitubishi Zero when the War began in 1941 was the finest fighter in the Pacific and Japanes aviators the best trained. Althoughtly lightly armored, the Japanese planes were fast and manuverable. As the War developed in 1942, improved American ighter began reaching the Pacific. As a result of the new American planes like the Corsair, Hell Cat, and P38 Lightings, the ballance in the air began to change. The Japanese used the navy zero and the Army Oskar throughout the war with only minor technical improvements. Not only did the technical balance shift, but the American planes were delivered in numbers that the Japanese could not hope to match. The Japanes also experienced a devestating attrituon of their trained polots. Losses at the Coral sea (April 1942), Midway (June 1942), Guadacanal (August 1942-Fenruary 1943), and the Phiippine Sea (???, 1943) substantually reduced the kadre of experienced pilots. Worse for the Japanese, they had no training program capable of rapidly replacing the lost pilots. As a result, by 1943 the Japanese which once dominated the Pacifiv has poorly trained pilots flying inferiir planes to confront the torrant of merican carriers moving aganst them.

Admiral Takashiro Ohnishi

Japanese Vice Admiral Takashiro Ohnishi concluded that the most effective way to sink American ships was to crash planes into them. Ge firmly believed that Japan should persue thewar regardless of the costs. Onishi was a carrier aviation expert abd was involved in the carrier battles during the first 2 years of the War. He watched the decline in Japanese naval aviation. Ohnishi was a a flamboyant and independent officer. He was also totaly imbued wirh samari bushido code. When his plan to form Kamikaze units was rejected by the High Command, he flew to Tokyo to see the Emperor, but was stopped at the palace gates. Ohnishi appealed to the young officers who had already begun spradic Kamakazi attacks >rose against Shonogate og Hojo family, emperpr's restored outnumbered, poor position, but emperor wanted him to fight courage, obedience, and self sacrifice opitmi og Japanese he o>

The Planes

The Kamikaze planes were loaded with half a ton of explosives.

The Pilots

The major Japanese Soldier code was unyielding allegiance to Emperor and country. There was no shortage of voluteers to fly Kamkazee missions, althought not all the pilots were truly volunteers. There were three the number of volunteers as there were available planes. The Kamikazes were not experienced pilots. Experienced pilots were in very short supply. Japan began the War having gone for quality over quantity. They had a small cadre of very well trained and experienced pilots. A major concern of Admiral Yamanoto, Admiral Nagumo, and other naval commanders was preserving their corps of pilots and not expending them before the Pacific fleet was destroyed. Having failed that, after the Battle of the Philippones Sea, the Japanese wre forced to go for quantity over quality. They had neither the time or the aviation fuel to properly train pilots. The Kamakazze pilots were generally recruited from young, often idealistic students. Most were older teenagers drafted before completing their studies. Many would have pursued university educations. Many had at least some training in science and technology making them more suitanle for pilot training. Most of the Kanikaze pilots were students. Some believed that because of their sacrifice for the Emperor God, that the the Kamikaze campaign would save Japan from defeat. There were, hiwever, a wide range of feelings. Some of the pilots saw the War as lost, but felt duty compeled to then to sacrifice themselves. Others were youths anxious to be treated as adult men. They wre not as often deficted mindless fanatics. Their country through no fault of their own was enperiled and they saw resising the Americans as their duty, to both protect their country and their people.

The Philippines

General Kimpai Teraoki commanded Japanese air forces in the Philippines. He rejcted Onishi's plan and refused permission to form Kamaikaze units to oppose the American invasion. He was apauled of the idea of using youth so recklessly. An unauthorize Kamikaze from the 26th Air Flotila on the U.S. carrier Franklin elecrtifies the Japanese Navy. The increasingly desperate High Command changes itsopinion. Teraoki is dismissed and replaced by Onishi. Kamikaze pilots in the Philippines sank 16 American ships.

Kamikaze Air Units

Onishi begins forming his Kamikazi units from volunteers. The trining is rigorous. The Cadets are subjected to a strict routein. Thre is no free time. The morning begins with the singingof the national anthem followed by the imperial oath. The oath included the phrase, "duty is weigter than a mountain, death is lighter than a feather". Then there was a ptriotic lecture about national heroes like Kuzanoki Masahige and the Battle of Minigawa. Before flying on their missions, the Kamikazi pilots would cut off a lock of hair for their family or loved onesto remember them. They would also clip their finger nles which could be used to produce ashes for Shinto ceremonies. They had hand bands on which they had written brave phrases. Some carried flags signed by friends. Some mothers had sent 1,000 stich belts. (They would have friends add a stitch and even seek strangers on the street toreach the 1,000 stitch total. Manu put on new uniforms to symbolize purity.

Naval Kamikazes

While the air Kamikazes were the best known. There were also naval Kamikazes. The idea was at first resisted by the High Command until junior officers began submitting demands for such attacks written in their own blood. Emperor Hirohito's naval aide, Cpt. Eiichiro Jo began advocating "special" (meaning suisidal) attacks. Naval planners began working on the Kaiten or "Heaven Shaker"--a suiside torpedo. [Thomas, p. 138.] The Japanese modified their Type 93 Long Lance torpedo so that it could be guided by a man. The weapon had little success, however, as a specially equipped submarine had to bring it in range and by 1944 the U.S. Navy had very effective anti-sunmarine warfare capabilities. There was lso the Shinyo ("Ocean Shaker"), a suiside speedboat, and Fukuryus ("Crawling Dragons"), suiside frogmen. These were preared to fend off the American invasion. The ultimate naval Kamikaze proved to be ikon of the Imperial Navy--the Battleship Yamato.

Okinawa

The American submarine campaign in 1944 was making it very difficult for Japan to obtain food and raw materials, especially oil. After the loss of the Philippines, Japan was essentially cut off from oil. It was apparent to all but the most fanatical that Japan was losing the War. With the fleet destroyed and unanble to match the americans in qyantity or quality of planes, the Japanes were desperate for any weapon to resist the massive American invasion fleet descending on Okinawa. Their answer was the Kamikazes. After the loss of the Philippines, however, it was adopt as a major defense policy. It was central to the Japanese plan to defend Okinawa. The Kamikaze missions suceeded in sinking 40 American ships and damaging many more. The cost to the Japanese wwere hundreds of lives and planes.

Japan

The first Kamakazis were flown from isolated Fillipines bases. The last Kamakazis flew from bases in Japan. The U.S. fleet off Okinawa was in range of Kamikazis flown from bases in southern Japan. From these bases the Kamikzi pilots were given a stirring send off. The Government recrited virgin school girls who waved and threw cherry blooms as the pilots took off (Spring 1945). [Thomas, p. 2.] The Japanese built up a huge flotilla of planes that were to be launched against the American invasion fleet. Many of the planes werehidden in caves or other sites. American intelligence was not aware of the magnitude of the secret air force the Japanese were massing and the ait defense that awaited them. Given the success of the Kamakazis in the Okinawa campaign, the carnage would have been massive.

Ohkas

The Ohka "Cherry Blossom" was a piolted rocket powered bomb. It was deadly if it could strike a big ship, but it was very hard to pilot and had to be carried into position by slow-moving bombers that were relatively easy to shoot down. The Americans naed it the Baka ("Stupid"). One Ohka struck one Navy DE, but the hull was so thin that the Ohka went right through the ship and exploded beyond it.

Assessment

The Japanese kamikaze attacks are generally seen as crazed attacks by fanatical,mindless Japnese pilots anxious to die for their Emperor. This is a misunderstanding. The young Japanese pilot may have been fanatical, but they were neither minfless of anxious to die. The volunteered out of a decdication to their county and a desire to defend it. The Japanese by 1945 had no effective weapons to use agains the American fleet. There only hope was to exact such casulties that America would tire of the War. In this regard they were effective. The Pacific fleet did sustain serious losses at a relatively light cost on the part of the Japanese. The pilots involved were not anxious to die, but thought theu were making a contribution to the defense of their country. Peer pressure among these young men was a very powerful force. [Spector]

Sources

Spector, Ronald H. At War at Sea: Sailors and Naval Combat in the Twentieth Century (Viking, 2001), 463p.

Thomas, Evan. Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign, 1941-1945 (Simon & Schuster: New York, 2006), 414p.

Created: January 18, 2003
Last updated: 6:47 AM 10/13/2008