During World War II in the Pacific, there were pilots of the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy who made suicide attacks, driving their planes to deliberately crash into carriers and battle- ships of the Allied forces. These were the pilots known as the Kamikaze pilots. Because right-wing organizations have used the Kamikaze pilots as a symbol of a militaristic and extremely nationalistic Japan, the current Japanese respond to the issue with ignorance and false stereotypes and with generally negative and unsympathetic remarks.
However, the Kamikaze fighters added a new wrinkle to navel warfare. Kamikaze expressed their feelings and thoughts about the missions through haiku poems. In many of the haiku that the Kamikaze pilots wrote, the Emperor is mentioned in the first line. According to those who have lived through the early Showa period (1926-1945), the presence of Emperor Showa was like that of a god and he was more of a religious figure than a political one (Scoggins 276-277). In public schools, students were taught to die for the emperor.
By late 1944, a slogan of Jusshi Reisho meaning “Sacrifice life,” was taught (Morimoto 148-151). Most of the pilots who volunteered for the suicide attacks were those who were born late in the Taisho period (1912-1926) or in the first two or three years of Showa. Therefore, they had gone through the brainwashing education, and were products of the militaristic Japan. In 1944 the General Staff had considered mounting organized suicide attacks, (Ikuta 25) “suicide attacks” had been made since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (Shinbusha 266) Two types of suicide attacks had been made.
The first was an organized attack which would, in 90% of the cases, result in the death of the soldiers. However, if the plan had worked on the battlefield as it did in theory, there was some possibility that the soldiers would survive (Ibid 49). The other type of suicide attack that had been made was completely voluntary, and the result of a sudden decision. This was usually done by aircraft. The pilots, finding no efficient way to fight the American aircraft, deliberately crashed into them, and caused an explosion, destroying the American aircraft as well as killing themselves (Ikuta 35-42).
Because these voluntary suicide attacks had shown that the young pilots had the spirit of dying rather than being defeated, by February, 1944, the staff officers had started to believe that although they were way below the Americans in the number of aircraft, battleships, skillful pilots and soldiers, and in the amount of natural resources (oil, for example), they were above the Americans in the number of young men who would fight to the death rather than be defeated. By organizing the “Tokkotai,” they thought it would also attack the Americans psychologically, and make them lose their will to continue the war (Ibid 28).
The person who suggested the Kamikaze attack at first is unknown, but it is often thought to be Admiral Takijiro Onishi. However, Onishi was in the position to command the first Shinpu Tokubetsu Kogekitai rather than suggest it (Kusayanagi 48) In October, 1944, the plans for the organized suicide attacks became reality. Having received permission from the Minister of the Navy, Admiral Onishi entered Clark Air Base prepared to command the first organized suicide attacks (Shinbun 25-33).
Onishi had not thought the organized suicide attacks to be an efficient tactic, but that they would be a powerful battle tactic, and he believed that it would be the best and most beautiful place for the pilots to die. Onishi once said, “if they (the young pilots) are on land, they would be bombed down, and if they are in the air, they would be shot down. That’s sad… Too sad… To let the young men die beautifully, that’s what Tokko is. To give beautiful death, that’s called sympathy” (Kusayanagi 28). This statement makes sense, considering the relative skills of the pilots of the time.
By 1944, air raids were made all over Japan, especially in the cities. Most of the best pilots of the Navy and the Army had been lost in previous battles. Training time was greatly reduced to the minimum, or even less than was necessary in order to train a pilot. By the time the organized suicide attacks had started, the pilots only had the ability to fly, not to fight. Although what happens to the pilot himself in doing the suicide attack is by no means anywhere near beauty, to die in such a way, for the Emperor, and for the country, was (at the time), honorable.
One thing that was decided upon by the General Staff was that the Kamikaze attacks were to be made only if it was in the will of the pilot himself. It was too much of a task to be “commanded” (Ikuta 43-44). The first organized suicide attack was made on October 21, 1944 by a squadron called the Shinpu Tokubetsu Kogekitai (Shinbun 48-51). Tokubetsu Kogekitai was the name generally used in the Japanese Imperial Navy and Army. The public had known them as the Tokkotai, the abbreviated form. Tokkotai referred to all the organized suicide attacks. Shinpu is what is better known as Kamikaze (52).
The captain of the first attack was to be Captain Yukio Seki (49). According to the subcommander of the First Air Fleet, Tamai, who brought the issue up to Captain Seki, the Captain had in a short time replied “I understand. Please let me do it” (48). According to another source, the reply that Captain Seki gave was, “Please let me think about it one night. I will accept the offer tomorrow morning” (Mori 626-627). The document which seems to have the most credibility is the book, The Divine Wind by Captain Rikihei Inoguchi and Commander Tadashi Nakajima.
According to this account a graduate of the Naval Academy, Naoshi Kanno, was originally nominated as the leader of this mission. However, he was away from Mabalacat on a mission to mainland Japan. Therefore, to take Kanno’s place Captain Seki was chosen, and was called to Commander Tamai’s room at midnight. After hearing of the mission, it appears, Seki remained silent for a while, then replied, “You must let me do it” (Inoguchi 32). Captain Seki agreed to lead the first Kamikaze attack, and, on October 25, 1944 during the battle off Samos, made one of the first attacks, on the American aircraft carrier Saint Lo (Shinbun 56).
Twenty-six fighter planes were prepared, of which half were to escort and the other half to make the suicide mission. That half was divided into the Shikishima, Yamato, Asahi and Yamazakura (Inoguchi 32). The youngest of the Kamikaze pilots of the Imperial Army was 17 years old, and the oldest, 35 (Kosaka 43-44). Most of them were in their late teens, or early twenties. As the battle in Okinawa [April to June 1945] worsened, the average age of the pilots got younger. Some had only completed the equivalent of an elementary school and middle school combined. Some had been to college.
There was a tendency for them not to be first sons. The eldest sons usually took over the family business. Most were therefore the younger sons who did not need to worry about the family business. Most of those who had come from college came in what is called the Gakuto Shutsujin. This was when the college students’ exemption from being drafted into the military was lifted, and the graduation of the seniors was shifted from April 1944 to September 1943 (Shimabarra 85). Many of these students were from prestigious colleges such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Keio, and Waseda Universities.
These students from college tended to have more liberal ideas, not having been educated in military schools, and also were more aware of the world outside of Japan. All the pilots involved in the “Okinawa Tokko” had been trained in/as one of the following: The Youth Pilot Training School, Candidates for Second Lieutenant, The Imperial Army Air Corps Academy, Pilot Trainee, Flight Officer Candidates, Special Flight Officer Probationary Cadet, Pilot Training Schools, or Special Flight Officer Candidate (Ikuta 134).
Since the Kamikaze attacks were to be made only if the pilots had volunteered, and could not be “commanded,” there were two methods to collect volunteers. One was for all pilots in general, and another was for the Special Flight Officer Probationary Cadet (College graduates) only. The former was an application form, and the latter was a survey. The survey asked: “Do you desire earnestly/wish/do not wish/to be involved in the Kamikaze attacks? ” They had to circle one of the three choices, or leave the paper blank. The important fact is that the pilots were required to sign their names (Kusayanagi 32).
When the military had the absolute power, and the whole atmosphere of Japan expected men to die for the country, there was great psychological pressure to circle “earnestly desire” or “wish. ” The Army selected those who had circled “earnestly desire. ” The reason that the Special Flight Officer Probationary Cadet had to answer such a survey rather than send the applications at their own will was probably because the military had known that the students who had come from college had a wider vision, and would not easily apply for such a mission.
For the regular application, the Army was confident that there would be many young pilots who would apply. They were correct. Every student of the 15th term of the Youth Pilot Training School had applied. Because there were so many volunteers, the military had decided to let the ones with better grades go first (Naemura 146). There are several factors which made so many young pilots volunteer for such a mission. Extreme patriotism must have been one factor for sure. Added to that, there was the reverence for the Emperor, a god.
Some say that it was generally believed that if one died for the emperor, and was praised in Yasukuni Shrine, they would become happy forever (Araki 43). The pilots were, as a matter of fact, not radical nor extremely patriotic, but were the average Japanese of the time. It was a dream for the young boys of late Taisho period and early Showa to serve in the military, especially in the Air Force, as a career. Not all pilots who wanted to become Kamikaze pilots could become one.
Although this may sound strange, there were so many volunteers to make the suicidal and fatal attacks, that the military, to be fair, had to let the ones with the better grades go earlier. Because of the aura that had covered Japan, the young pilots of 18 and 19 were eager to go. Those of the Special Flight Officer Probationary Cadets who had their own thoughts like Second lieutenants Suzuki, Uehara, and Anazawa were able to separate their personal life from what was required of them to do for the war.
They felt the responsibility to go. In any case, it seems that they were all optimistic. They volunteered, believing their death might save their family, the ones they loved, and Japan. However, as a student investigating fifty years after the events, it was not possible for me to understand exactly how the pilots had felt towards their mission. The overall picture in this paper, is that the Kamikaze missions had a huge effect in Japanese naval warfare.
