The Japanese Imperial Army was off to a good start. On 7 December 1941, the descendants of the samurai suddenly attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor, located in Hawaii, and destroyed almost the entire American Pacific Fleet.
Only the Japanese did not take into account the economic potential of the United States. A year later they restored naval aviation and fleet, and by 1944 had a total advantage over the enemy. And not only quantitative, but also qualitative. The best planes in the world at that time took off in huge numbers from the aerodromes and decks of American aircraft carriers.
The Japanese aircraft could not compete with them, and it was necessary to find a way to escape in the shortest possible time. And then the Japanese decided to ram American ships with their aircraft. The idea was already in the air, because by that time the pilots of the Japanese Air Force had accomplished many such feats. The first four - during the surprise raid on Pearl Harbor. Now the Japanese decided to put this business on a stream. They started training kamikaze pilots.
Kamikaze means ‘divine wind’ in Japanese. So in the 13th century called typhoon, which in 1275 and 1281 years saved Japan from the invasion of invincible Mongol-Chinese fleet of Khan Khubilai. The hurricane destroyed most of the invaders' ships and thus saved the Land of the Rising Sun from enslavement. Well, now kamikaze pilots had to save their homeland from defeat in World War II.
Some kamikaze aero planes were specially designed. But mostly engineers modified ordinary winged machines that were outdated by that time. They were stuffed full of explosives and bombs. A total of 8,000 such aircraft were trained, but there were not enough pilots for them. Before the end of the war in the Land of the Rising Sun managed to train 2.5 thousand kamikaze pilots from among volunteers. Another 1.4 thousand were recruited from the army.
In total, kamikazes made 2,800 attacks on enemy ships. The first one was on 21 October 1944 in Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, when a Japanese plane crashed into the heavy cruiser ‘Australia’. The ship was not sunk. Of the 2,800 attacks, only 19 per cent were successful, and in the rest the anti-aircraft guns worked well, destroying the enemy's suicide bombers. Damage was done to 380 ships of the Americans and their allies. 47 of them went down, including 14 destroyers and 3 escort aircraft carriers. Because of this fell 4.9 thousand sailors, another 6 thousand were wounded. Ordinary raids could not give such a result.
Warmed by propaganda, Japanese society, brought up on the code of ‘Bushido’ and belief in the divine emperor, treated kamikazes as heroes of the nation. Therefore, the number of those wishing to become such pilots was off the charts. The training of 17-18 year old's lasted from a month to two months. But the closer was the day ‘X’, the more soberly the future heroes looked at life. Many of them changed their minds, but it was impossible to say it openly. It meant condemning their family to eternal disgrace, which was unacceptable for the Japanese.
According to eyewitness accounts, after the last formation, some kamikazes could not walk and were carried into aero planes. So it is not surprising that many of them went back on one pretext or another. A point of clarity needs to be made here. There are myths among readers that the fatal winged machines had their landing gear fall off after takeoff or had 50% of their fuel poured into their tanks so that they could not return. Plus the pilots allegedly lacked parachutes. But this was far from true. The Japanese valued their pilots, and the planes returned often.
The returned kamikazes were interrogated and then divided into two groups. Those who failed to complete the mission for objective reasons: a) failed to detect enemy ships; b) prevented by a malfunction on board. And those who chickened out. In the first case, a special commission carried out a check and, if the words of the pilots were true, they were assigned to a new mission. But the cowards were dealt with harshly. Their families received shameful letters that they were now relatives of a traitor to the nation.
The angry response of their relatives forced 90% of cowardly pilots to take the ‘path of correction’. If relatives refused to write such letters, they were ‘interrogated’ together with the coward and forced to agree to fly. At the same time, such a pilot was accompanied on his last flight by a ‘barrier squad’, which had orders to shoot down a traitor to the nation in case of cowardice. Nevertheless, some kamikazes managed to return 4-5 times. The record holder has 9 such episodes, which the command deemed overkill. He was eventually sentenced for cowardice...
