“I firmly believe that the only way to swing the war in our favor is to resort to crash-dive attacks with our planes…. There will be more than enough volunteers for this chance to save our country.”
Captain Motoharu Okamura
Throughout the war, it was not uncommon for crashing pilots to aim their falling aircraft at enemy ships or supply centers in a last ditch attempt to do something useful for their country. They were doomed to die anyway-- it would not hurt to take out a few enemies in the process.
The Japanese took this idea to a whole new level.
On October 25th, 1944, the very first organized kamikaze attack was launched at the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Twenty-four volunteers from Japan’s 201st Navy Air Group flew into battle with no intention of returning home, taking down 34 American ships and over 500 men with them.
Although the Japanese government definitely painted the kamikazes as highly esteemed national heroes, suicide pilots were really a final resort after conventional naval and aerial attacks continuously failed.
At the start of the war, the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 aircraft (nicknamed “the Zero”) was one of the best dogfighters of the time. However, as the war went on, Japan found their technology rapidly falling behind that of the Allies.
Feeling hopelessly behind, instead of trying to devise faster and better planes of their own, the Japanese looked for a miracle, much like the divine winds that saved their country from the Mongols so long ago.
As Japanese Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi noted, crashing planes inflicted the most damage on Allied naval ships-- one accidental crash could do more harm than ten planes firing machine guns.
With the support of both the Japanese Army Air Force and the Imperial Navy, Onishi began training a group of kamikaze fliers who were not afraid to give up their lives for their country. This group was called the Special Attack Corps, and their infamous suicidal missions became known as special attacks.
As it turns out, the “spirit of Japan” was not enough to win a war. Even so, the kamikaze were a source of hope to a desperate country.
“The spirit of the Special Attack Corps is the great spirit that runs in the blood of every Japanese… the crashing action which simultaneously kills the enemy and oneself without fail….”
Lieutenant Sekio Nishina
