A term identifying the volunteer suicide pilots of the Japanese Imperial Navy, who guided their explosive-packed aircraft onto enemy ships in World War 2. They emerged in the last year of the Pacific War, when 1465 pilots died in the battle for Okinawa, destroying 26 US warships and damaging 164. Other kamikaze tactics (eg using boats and submarines) were also employed. Death for the Emperor was always a great honour.
kami = god, spirit kaze = wind) is a word of Japanese origin, which in the English language 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. Kamikaze attacks of this kind were the most common and best-known, however the Japanese made wider use of — or had plans for — suicide attacks by other Japanese personnel, including suicide torpedoes, boats, submarines (see Japanese Special Attack Units).
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.
Origins of the word kamikaze
See also: kamikaze (typhoon)In the Japanese language, kamikaze (IPA: [kamikaze]) (Japanese:神風), usually translated as "divine wind" (kami is the word for "god", "spirit", or "divinity";
In Japanese, the formal term used for units carrying out these suicide attacks during World War II is tokubetsu kōgeki tai (特別攻撃隊), which literally means "special attack unit." More specifically, air suicide attack units from the Imperial Japanese Navy were officially called shinpū tokubetsu kōgeki tai (神風特別攻撃隊, "divine wind special attack units". 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.
While kamikaze is pronounced with short vowels in Japanese, it is generally pronounced with a long "e" sound in English, and often with the "i" replaced with a short "a".
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.
History
Background
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.
Japan's fighter planes were becoming outnumbered and outclassed by newer US-made planes, especially the F4U Corsair and F6F Hellcat.
On July 15, 1944, the important Japanese base of Saipan fell to the Allied forces.
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. The 1st Air Fleet commandant, Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi decided to form a suicide attack unit, the Kamikaze Special Attack Force.
The first kamikaze unit
Commander Asaiki Tamai asked a group of 23 talented student pilots, all of whom he had trained, to volunteer for the special attack force. Later, Tamai asked Lt Yukio Seki to command the special attack force.
The names of four sub-units within the Kamikaze Special Attack Force, were Unit Shikishima, Unit Yamato, Unit Asahi, and Unit Yamazakura. The poem reads:
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.
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.
In any case, the idea of suicide attacks was not new and — according to eyewitness accounts by Allied personnel — the first kamikaze attack was carried out by an unknown pilot, who was not a member of the Kamikaze Special Attack Force; The attack took place on October 21, 1944, near Leyte Island; At least 30 crew members died as a result of the attack, including the commanding officer, Captain Emile Dechaineux;
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 an escort carrier, the USS St. Lo.
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. 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 main wave of kamikaze attacks
In a 2004 book, World War II, the historians Wilmott, Cross &
Traditions and folklore
While commonly perceived that volunteers signed up in droves for Kamikaze missions, it has also been contended that there was extensive coercion and peer pressure involved in recruiting soldiers for the sacrifice.
Special ceremonies were often held, immediately prior to kamikaze missions, in which pilots, carrying prayers from their families, were given military decorations.
According to legend, young pilots on kamikaze missions often flew southwest from Japan over the 922 metre (~3000 ft) Mount Kaimon.
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.
With the passing of time, some prominent Japanese military figures who survived the war became critical of the policy.
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