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Feb 7, 2024 · The word is referenced in Japanese history and dates back to the 16th Century, when Mongol emperor Kublai Khan’s attempts to invade the country were thwarted by the gods who sent a heavenly wind that sank the Mongol fleet. In late 1944, American troops were closing in on Japan, seizing the country’s islands one by one.
Nov 19, 2014 · According to the U.S. Air Force, nearly three thousand kamikaze attacks took place, managing to damage 368 ships, sinking 34 of them, while killing 4,900 navy soldiers and wounding another 4,800, but with only about 14% of attacking kamikaze pilots managing to hit a ship.
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Jan 15, 2024 · A re-creation of a bunker where kamikaze pilots spent their last night before their missions on the grounds of the Chiran Peace Museum. As the room was cleaned after the pilots left, workers...
- Kamikaze Pilots
- Signing Up to Be A Kamikaze
- Son of Tea Ceremony Master Selected to Be Kamikaze
- Kamikaze Preparation and Motivation
- Kamikaze Training
- Kamikaze Sweethearts
- Kamikaze Pilots Who Escaped Death Because The War Ended
- Kamikaze Pilot Who Escaped Death For Mechanical Reasons
- Well-Connected Kamikaze Pilot Gets Reassigned
- Guilt of A Kamikaze Survivors
Kamikaze pilots were officially members of the "Special Attack Corps." The pilots wore a special ceremonial uniform, white scarfs and a headband that said "Kamikaze." Many kept a samurai sword and picture of the Emperor with them in the cockpit. At first, during the early missions in 1944, pilots vied among themselves for the opportunity to die for...
Yuri Kageyama of Associated Press wrote: “The pilots filed into the room and were presented with a form that asked if they wanted to be kamikaze. It was multiple-choice, and there were three answers: "I passionately wish to join," ''I wish to join," and "I don't wish to join." This was 1945. Many were university students who had been previously exe...
The Japanese air force and navy selected young men, many of them taken from other parts of the military and from Japan’s best universities, to be kamikaze pilots. Sen Genshitsu, the 15th grand master of a tea ceremony school known as Urasenke, which has roots dating back to the 16th century, was elected to be a kamikaze pilot while he was a univers...
Hisao Horiyama was a young soldier in an artillery unit of the Japanese imperial army when he was drafted into the air force. Justin McCurry wrote in The Guardian, “It was late 1944, and the tide of war was turning against Japan. In the newly formed kamikaze, Tokyo’s military leaders envisioned a dedicated unit of ideologically conditioned warriors...
Sen Genshitsu told the Yomiuri Shimbun: “I applied for the unit in March 1945. I received training earlier on to be a naval officer in the navy’s air unit in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture, as a trainee of the navy’s 14th preparatory pilot training course. I was later transferred to the navy’s air unit in Tokushima. Our unit’s commanding officer tol...
Yuri Kageyama of Associated Press wrote: “Zero pilots were the heartthrobs of the era. In fading photographs, they pose in portraits, hugging shoulders, wearing big smiles, seemingly oblivious to what lay ahead. Their goggles are flipped cockily over their helmets, their scarves tucked under their jackets. The Zero won accolades, even from the enem...
Not all kamikaze pilots died. Most of those that survived did so because the war ended before they were scheduled to fulfill their missions. Justin McCurry wrote in The Guardian, “Horiyama first learned how he was due to die from a simple slip of white paper. On it were written three options: to volunteer willingly, to simply volunteer, or to say n...
Justin McCurry wrote in The Guardian, “Not every would-be kamikaze was as fervent in their belief in death for the motherland. When Takehiko Ena learned he had been chosen to fly a suicide mission he greeted the news in a way he still finds confusing. “I felt the blood drain from my face,” he told the Guardian. “The other pilots and I congratulated...
Sen Genshitsu, the future tea ceremony master, told the Yomiuri Shimbun: “During a break between training flights, I performed a tea ceremony beside my beloved fighter plane. I had a portable tea box with me and served rationed yokan bean-paste jelly from Toraya—a sweets shop long famed for its yokan. Then a friend of mine, Yoshikage Hatabu from Ky...
Yuri Kageyama of Associated Press wrote: “Yoshiomi Yanai, 93, survived because he could not locate his target — a rare error for a kamikaze operation. He visits the Tsukuba facility often. "I feel so bad for all the others who died," he says, bemoaning the fate of comrades who died so young, never having really experienced life. [Source: Yuri Kagey...
About one in every five kamikaze planes managed to hit an enemy target. Books and movies have depicted them as crazed suicide bombers who screamed Banzai as they met their end. But interviews with survivors and families, as well as letters and documents, offer a different portrait — of men driven by patriotism, self-sacrifice and necessity.
As American ground forces fought for control of Okinawa in the spring of 1945, Japanese Kamikaze pilots wreaked a grim toll on American naval forces. The Divine Wind: Japan's Kamikaze Pilots of World War II by Author Saul David, PhD | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans
Jun 23, 2021 · An excerpt from the manuals given to kamikaze pilots is revealing: At the very moment of impact: do your best. Every deity and the spirits of your dead comrades are watching you intently.