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One example of this may have occurred on 7 December 1941 during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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Axell and Kase see these suicides as "individual, impromptu decisions by men who were mentally prepared to die". Such situations occurred in both the Axis and Allied air forces. The dive brakes are extended and the non- self-sealing port wing tank trails fuel vapor and/or smoke.īefore the formation of kamikaze units, pilots had made deliberate crashes as a last resort when their aircraft had suffered severe damage and they did not want to risk being captured or wanted to do as much damage to the enemy as possible, since they were crashing anyway. The attack left 15 killed and 44 wounded. Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex on 25 November 1944. During World War II, the pronunciation kamikaze was used only informally in the Japanese press in relation to suicide attacks, but after the war, this usage gained acceptance worldwide and was re-imported into Japan. Shinpū is the on-reading ( on'yomi or Chinese-derived pronunciation) of the same characters as the kun-reading ( kun'yomi or Japanese pronunciation) kamikaze in Japanese. 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"). This is usually abbreviated to tokkōtai (特攻隊). In Japanese, the formal term used for units carrying out suicide attacks during 1944–1945 is tokubetsu kōgekitai (特別攻撃隊), which literally means "special attack unit". She was a prototype for the Mitsubishi Ki-15 ("Babs"). Ī Japanese monoplane that made a record-breaking flight from Tokyo to London in 1937 for the Asahi newspaper group was named Kamikaze. The word originated from Makurakotoba of waka poetry modifying " Ise" and has been used since August 1281 to refer to the major typhoons that dispersed Mongol-Koryo fleets which invaded Japan under Kublai Khan in 12. The Japanese word kamikaze is usually translated as "divine wind" ( kami is the word for "god", "spirit", or "divinity", and kaze for "wind"). See also: Mongol invasions of Japan Kamikaze was a reference to the two typhoons that sank or dispersed Kublai Khan's invading Mongol fleets In addition to kamikazes, the Japanese military also used or made plans for non-aerial Japanese Special Attack Units, including those involving Kairyu (submarines), Kaiten (human torpedoes), Shinyo speedboats, and Fukuryu divers.
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The tradition of death instead of defeat, capture, and shame was deeply entrenched in Japanese military culture one of the primary values in the samurai life and the Bushido code was loyalty and honor until death. These factors, along with Japan's unwillingness to surrender, led to the use of kamikaze tactics as Allied forces advanced towards the Japanese home islands. Japan was losing pilots faster than it could train their replacements, and the nation's industrial capacity was diminishing relative to that of the Allies. They had lost several important battles, many of their best pilots had been killed, their aircraft were becoming outdated, and they had lost command of the air. The attacks began in October 1944, at a time when the war was looking increasingly bleak for the Japanese. Some kamikazes were still able to hit their targets even after their aircraft had been crippled. The Japanese considered the goal of damaging or sinking large numbers of Allied ships to be a just reason for suicide attacks kamikaze was more accurate than conventional attacks, and often caused more damage. About 19% of kamikaze attacks were successful. Pilots would attempt to crash their aircraft into enemy ships in what was called a "body attack" ( tai-atari) in aircraft loaded with bombs, torpedoes, and/or other explosives. Kamikaze aircraft were essentially pilot-guided explosive missiles, purpose-built or converted from conventional aircraft. About 3,800 kamikaze pilots died during the war, and more than 7,000 naval personnel were killed by kamikaze attacks.
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Kamikaze ( 神風, pronounced "divine wind" or " spirit wind"), officially Shinpū Tokubetsu Kōgekitai ( 神風特別攻撃隊, "Divine Wind Special Attack Unit"), were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to destroy warships more effectively than with conventional air attacks. Kiyoshi Ogawa (left), 22, and Seizō Yasunori, 21, the pilots who flew their aircraft into Bunker Hill
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