In the late 13th century, after Genghis Khan had united the Mongol empire, it was left up to his successors to continue his conquests throughout Asia, the Middle East and Europe, and Kublai Khan, Genghis' grandson, was diligently continuing his grandfather's work. His victories, however, would not extend to Japan. According to legend, a series of two intense typhoons—known as the “Kamikaze" for their exceptional strength and supposedly divine origins—decimated the Mongol fleet on its approach to Japan, both in 1274 and 1281.
By 1944, the American army and naval air forces not only outnumbered their Japanese counterparts, it also had technologically superior aircraft, and better pilots. Unlike the five million German soldiers who eventually surrendered to the Allies in Europe, less than 5% of Japanese forces were captured. They considered it a disgrace to their families, and instead fought to the death. Although Allied troops were acquainted with their enemy's sacrificial nature, they were unprepared for what came out of the sky during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944. Japanese pilots flew their planes and themselves directly into American warships, causing massive damage. So attacked, the U.S.S. St. Lo sank with 114 hands — the first, but far from the last, victims of the kamikazes.
Japanese high school girls wave farewell to departing Kamikaze pilots.
The concept was Vice Admiral Onishi Takijiro's. Japanese air forces were no longer competitive, so Takijiro proposed turning planes into human missiles. The pilots needed little training — takeoffs, but no landings — and a sacrificial dive-bomber would be hard to shoot down. Kamikaze pilots were often university students, motivated by obligation and gratitude to family and country. They prepared by holding ceremonials, writing farewell poems, and receiving a “thousand stitch belt" — cloth into which 1,000 women had sewn one stitch as a symbolic uniting with the pilot. Then, in planes wrapped around 550 pound bombs, they would fly off to die.
"Shigeko,
Are you well? It is now a month since that day. The happy dream is over. Tomorrow I will dive my plane into an enemy ship. I will cross the river into the other world, taking some Yankees with me. When I look back, I see that I was very cold-hearted to you. After I had been cruel to you, I used to regret it. Please forgive me.
When I think of your future, and the long life ahead, it tears at my heart. Please remain steadfast and live happily. After my death, please take care of my father for me.
I, who have lived for the eternal principles of justice, will forever protect this nation from the enemies that surround us."
Commander of the Air Unit Eternity, Haruo Araki in a letter to his wife, May 10, 1945, prior to the
2,000 Japanese servicemen perished in kamikaze attacks during the three month long battle for the island of Okinawa, located just 400 miles south of mainland Japan, that raged from April 1 to June 22, 1945. They were at the centre of a desperate and ill-thought out strategy by the Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo—known as Operation Ten-Go—to defeat the next phase of the American advance in the Pacific. “I firmly believed,” wrote the navy’s chief of operations, “that Okinawa alone was the decisive battleground where we would be able to reverse the war situation.” The plan was to sink so many American ships that the US Fifth Fleet would withdraw, abandoning its troops on Okinawa who could then be mopped up by the large Japanese garrison. It failed, though various forms of kamikaze attack—including planes, manned rockets and human torpedoes—did sink 36 American ships and damage a further 368, inflicting 10,000 casualties (half of them killed.)
By war's end, kamikazes had sunk or damaged more than 300 U.S. ships, with 15,000 casualties. Several thousand kamikaze planes had been set aside for the invasion of the Japanese mainland that never came. Ironically, the kamikaze — and the sacrificial philosophy behind them — were one of the reasons President Truman decided to drop the atomic bombs.
On the eve of the Japanese surrender, Onishi Takijiro committed suicide, leaving a note apologizing to his dead pilots because their sacrifice had been in vain.
Kamikaze pilots of the 72nd Shinbu Squadron on May 26, 1945, the day before launching attacks off Okinawa.
The USS Bunker Hill in flames after being hit by Kamikazes on May 11, 1945.
USS St. Lo Being Hit by Kamikaze, October 25, 1945