Kamikaze



In Japanese it translates to "god-wind" and in English it refers to suicide attacks. The Kamikaze were most common and best known form of Japanese Suicide attack during World War II. definition: kamikaze1. (during World War II) a member of a special corps in the Japanese air force charged with the suicidal mission of crashing an aircraft laden with explosives into an enemy target, esp. a warship.
 * Kamikaze**

These attacks were carried out between October 1944 and August 1945. Later, followed by many signifigant defeats for Japan. The Kamikaze pilots would attempt to intentionally crash their aircrafts into Allied Ships to try to slow down the Allied advance.
 * About the Attack**

Japanese people believed that the brave young pilots suffered tragic deaths in the defense of their homeland.
 * Japanese View**

When the Japanese attacked viewed death and destruction when the planes crashed into their ships which made them believe that the pilots were faceless people lacking individual personalties.
 * American View**

The Kamizaze was started by Admiral Takijiro Onishi.
 * Beginnings**

By the end of WWII, japan had sacrificed 2,225 suicidal kamikaze members. Adakijiro Onishi commited suicide of the hearing of japans surrender. Of all the 2,314 naval planes only 1,086 returned. The Kamikaze operations sank 34 ships and damaged 288 ships.
 * After Math**

Training was not needed to be a member. training was abot a week long, and flight expierience was not needed in order to fly.uring training soldiers were beaten almost to death.
 * Training**

Spirit
A certain spirit is needed to become a Kamikaze pilot. can be traced back to Samurai wariors. The Kamikaze flights were known to Japanese as ritual suisides.

Education
Education played a major role in shaping the Japanese soldiers. Schools in the first 45 years of the 20th century taught their children to die for the Emperor. Slogans like 'sacrifice life' were drilled into the childrens head. There were two types of higher level schooling, military school and university education. Two types of soldiers were created, military and university. There were also two types of letters sent back home. The Typical or military taught and Unique or university taught. The military education consisted of intense drilling, teaching students to die for their nation and emperor.

Surrender
In August 1945 two atomic bombs were dropped. One on Hiroshima and the other on Nagasaki which forced the Japanese to surrender. Surrender happened in Sep. 1945 on the U.S battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

Quotes
"Felt the moment of transition from life to death approaching me minute by minute. I gave up my effort to sleep and let my thoughts wander around. My short life of 21 years is going to switch to the world of death tommorrow. Some vague thoughts about my soul being enshrined in Yasukuni Shrine, about the incomprehensive world of death, and other thoughts came and went. I thought thee were more things I wanted to do in my life, but then I wasn't sure what it was that I wanted to do. I didn't know what, but I was certain there was still much that I had left to do here. I felt embarassed to realize that I was still so attached to life after all this time. What a coward! Shame on myself!" I would say to myself "So are you ready now?" and there was a self that would answer " Yes sir! I'm ready to go", but there was still another self who never stopped yelling "I don't want to die!" Goro Nagamine, pilot of the H8K flying boat that flew as pathfinder for the Azusa Special Attack unit which struck the US fleet in the evening of March 11th, 1945, writes about his feelings the night before the mission.

//__-Nishiki Daitei Kusenki__//

Facts
7,465 Kamikazes flew to their deaths 120 US ships were sunk, with many more damaged 3,048 allied sailors were killed and anther 6,025 wounded

Sources http://www.aviation-art.net/kamikaze.jpg http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/ http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/quotes/kamikaze.html ([|http://www.airgroup4.com/kamikaze.htm)]