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    Part Six - The Kamikaze In the closing months of World War II, the term "kamikaze" was anything but amusing. Generally defined, it signified the will of the samurai warrior to quit his life for his nation and Emperor in waging an attack against the enemy of his nation. The term "kamikaze" is of Japanese origin and literally means "divine wind." It came into being as the name of infamous 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 kogeki tai which literally means "special attack unit." Beginning in 1944, kamikaze attacks started after several quite significant and critical military and strategic defeats for Japan. It became quite clear that Japan was finished off as a power in war on the sea and notably naval air warfare. Japan's only choice was to "save face." The only way Japan could do this was to make the war so costly for the Americans that there might be a negotiated peace by which the Emperor would stay as the spiritual leader of Japan. After Pearl Harbor and the Bataan Death March, the definition of General MacArthur as well as the USA used was "unconditional surrender." There was no turning back. In line with one of these kamikaze assaults, Japanese aviators would purposefully attempt to crash their aircraft into naval vessels and other ships. Kamikazes were the most typical and best known type of Japanese suicide attack during the second world war. The kamikaze hence started its deadly tour of duty when American forces invaded the Philipines. Captain Masafumi Arima personally led an assault on October 15, 1944 by about 100 dive bombers from the USS Franklin near Leyte Gulf. The Japanese high command captured on Arima's example. The Japanese high was promoted posthumously to Admiral, and was given official credit for making the very first kamikaze attack. Official reports of his assault bore little resemblance to the events concerned. According to eyewitness accounts, the very first kamikaze attack to hit an Allied ship was completed by an unknown aviator against the flagship of the Royal Australian Navy, HMAS Australia. The attack took place on October 21, 1944, near Leyte Island. On October 25, 1944 the Australia was hit again and was made to retire to the New Hebrides for repairs. That same day, the Kamikaze Special Attack Force assaulted several US Navy escort affilorama scam or not Zero under heavy fire and trailing smoke, aborted the effort 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 ending on October 26, 55 kamikaze from the particular strike force had additionally damaged six more big escort aircraft carriers. Early successes, like the sinking of the St. Lo were followed by an immediate growth of the plan, and over the next few months over 2,000 airplanes made such strikes. The Japanese built special purpose kamikaze planes that had no landing gear in the slightest. They were intended to use up existing supplies of engines in a wooden airframe. The undercarriage was non retractable. It was jettisoned shortly after take-off for a suicide mission, and then recovered and re-used on different airplanes. Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka rocket-bombs were essentially anti-ship missiles directed by pilots. Japanese pilots were first used in March 1945, additionally against B29 configurations over Japanese cities. They were derisively known as the Baka Bomb ("baka" is Japanese for "dingbat"). To counter the kamikaze threat, the Navy hurriedly started to cross-train their aircraft carrier pilots around the F6F Hellcat and brought Marine F4U Corsair squadrons aboard aircraft carriers. Naval air units made intensive fighter sweeps over Japanese airfields. The peak in kamikaze attacks arrived during the period of April-June 1945, in the Battle of Okinawa. On April 6, 1945, waves of planes made hundreds of attacks in Operation Kikusui ("floating chrysanthemums"). At Okinawa, kamikaze strikes focused at first on Allied destroyers on picket duty, and then to the carriers in the middle of the fleet. Suicide attacks by airplanes or boats at Okinawa sank or put out of action at least 30 US warships and at least three US merchant ships, along with some from other Allied forces. The assaults expended 1,465 planes. Many warships of all categories were damaged, some seriously, but no aircraft carriers, battleships or cruisers were sunk by kamikaze at Okinawa. The majority of the boats ruined were destroyers or smaller vessels, especially those on picket duty. The Japanese opposition at Okinawa included a one way assignment by the battleship Yamato, This failed to get anywhere close to the action, after being set upon by Allied planes, several hundred miles away. As the close of the war approached, the Allies did not suffer significantly more damage, despite having much more ships than was previously the case abindenpa.tumblr.com/post/126777750126/seopressor attacked in much greater density. By the end of World War II, the Japanese naval air service had sacrificed 2,525 kamikaze pilots and the army air force had given 1,387. According to an official Japanese announcement, the missions sank 81 boats and damaged 195, and according to a Japanese tally, suicide attacks accounted for up to 80 percent of US losses in the finished stage of the war in the Pacific. Aftermath And so, World War II indeed came to a conclusion. It began with the Germans invading Poland in 1939. It ended on the deck of the USS Missouri in 1945. The Japanese were the only combatants left of the Axis Powers after Germany surrendered in May 1945. There was no more demand for Japan to "save face." The entry of nuclear weapons to the war took good care of that. All Japan wanted now was that the Emperor Hirohito would remain as the spiritual leader of Japan. There could be no more nuclear bombs, no more surprise attacks, and no more kamikaze strikes. In the sixty-five years subsequent to the Japanese signed the documents of world peace, we've come quite a ways. Japan and Germany are not only our most trusted friends, but are two of the richest nations on our planet. The Japanese imperial dynasty remains to this very day. The Last Kamikaze The philosopher George Santayana published this now well-known quotation: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." The kamikaze had come to a finish. Or so we believed. It took 56 years for a terrorist group to reprise the kamikaze. This group referred to as Al Queida didn't belong to any peace loving nation. Their targets were not ships. They were office buildings. Their airplanes weren't Mitsubishi Zeroes or type "Judy" dive bombers. Office were commercial jetliners. Their victims weren't sailors. They were office workers, much like you and me The "day of infamy" was for real this time. In 1941, the Japanese Navy did not recognize they were flying across the international date line in launching the Pearl Harbor attack one day earlier than intended. On September 11, 2001, there clearly was no such blunder. The former opponents of World War II wept openly over this catastrophe. Lest we forget. We could just hope and pray that the suicide weapons the Japanese developed and not used are forever buried. That is now 2007, and we must now pay careful attention to what's in Mr. Santayana's
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