Kamikaze

Japanese Reenactment Society forum. run by Tanaka.
http://groups.msn.com/WW2J-R-A/

Moderator: Tanaka

User avatar
Tanaka
Posts: 742
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 3:41 pm
Location: Republic of Cornwall
Contact:

Kamikaze

Post by Tanaka »

"All right you little gods. You've had the balls to come this far, now we'll see if you can go all the way! Me, I'm just an ordinary guy! If you've brought your name cards, you might as well donate them to the war effort, because your not going to need them! And if you're still virgins, you better go out and get laid right away!" Lieutenant-Commander Goro Nonaka

Legend has it that in feudal times Japan was under attack by sea and the force ranged against them was overpowering. They were certain to lose. Just before the battle was joined a typhoon blew up and scattered the enemy fleet, sinking many of them. The danger had passed. The Japanese called the typhoon "The Devine Wind". Some hoped that the kamikaze would get a similar result. They didn't even though they were named for it.

There were two basic types of "special attack" groups. Kamikazes were line pilots who used their own aircraft, commonly fighters, to crash into enemy shipping. Thunder Gods were specially trained pilots who used the Ohka, the manned Japanese equivalent to the German V-1. Once the Ohka's vulnerability became apparent, some Thunder Gods switched to flying fighter-bombers overloaded with standard ordinance. The resulting unit was called the Kemmu Squadron, although it remained closely associated with the Ohka operations.

More than 5,000 kamikaze died before the end of the war, and 20,000 were still awaiting missions. But a handful who did take off on suicide missions are still alive today.

"We had no other way to fight back," said Kenichiro Onuki, a volunteer who crash-landed before reaching his target. "This was the only way to prevent the U.S. military from advancing into our homeland." Another survivor, Kensuke Kunuki, said through a translator: "I had no fear. I wanted to sacrifice my life." Kunuki suffered terrible burns when his plane was forced down by mechanical problems. He said his first thought at the time was that he wanted to try again because he hadn't killed any Americans.
Immediately after the war, a demoralized Japan saw the kamikaze as symbols of military madness. The very word "kamikaze" became a synonym for crazy, reckless behaviour.

Yet few Japanese could ignore the fact that the kamikaze spirit was deeply ingrained in the Japanese psyche — duty, loyalty, sacrifice for the good of the group. Half a century later, the kamikaze are no longer viewed in such black-and-white terms. Rare colour images of the suicide attacks from American archives are now included on popular videos in Japan. They are among a flood of retrospective books, documentaries and commercial films that portray the kamikaze more heroically. Most of the kamikaze took off on their one-way missions from bases on Japan's southernmost island of Kyushu, and the largest base was in the town of Chiran. Today, Chiran has become a testament to Japan's renewed fascination with the suicide pilots. It's now home to the country's largest kamikaze museum, which attracts nearly 1 million visitors a year. Many are moved to tears by the haunting faces of the boys about to die and the emotional poems and farewell letters they wrote.

"At the moment of death," a visitor remarked, "they must have been calling out for their mothers." The museum has become a favourite of Japanese nationalists, who want Japan to stop apologizing for the war and to build a strong military again. For them, the kamikaze embodied Japan's samurai warrior spirit and should be idolized.

‘They Could Not Back Down’

That's exactly what Akihisa Torihama hopes will never happen. He is the grandson of Tore Torihama, a woman once called the kamikaze's "mama-san." She ran a small restaurant in Chiran where many of the pilots had their last meals and confided all the things they could not say in their heavily censored letters home. "My grandmother told me the boys knew the war was lost, knew their lives were being thrown away by their commanders," he said through a translator. "They flew their missions because the social pressures on them were so great, they could not back down." Today, he has transformed the old restaurant into an alternative kamikaze museum, to keep alive the message passed on by his grandmother — that the suicide pilots were not heroes, but the victims of fanaticism. And what's the verdict of the surviving kamikaze? Kuniki says he has no regrets. "My nation and my family were in danger," he said. "History will judge if we were right or wrong." But Onuki said it was wrong to waste so many young lives. "Yes, we volunteered, but we were ordered to volunteer," he said. "It could have taken real courage to disobey that order."
The surviving kamikaze, like most Japanese, bristle at suggestions that the kamikaze were the same as the al Qaeda suicide pilots. "They killed only military personnel," Kase said. "Not a single civilian." That distinction is not lost on Spiro, who as an American sailor who faced the kamikaze in combat. "At least it was a military tactic and they were not attacking our wives, children, friends, mothers," Spiro said.

The Pacific war was a new kind of war. The scale was astounding and the distances involved immense. Both sides struck at their enemies thousands of miles from their home bases. Projection of power was the key concept here and in the American island-hoppng campaigns of 1943,44 and 45 it achieved a level both in concept and execution that can only be called epic. There were no titanic clashes of armies as experienced in Russia, France or even the Western Desert. Sea power was the instrument of victory and that sea power was centred on the aircraft-carriers that gave every task force its most potent weapon of either offence or defence. The carrier-borne planes swept the skies of enemy aerial resistance, the seas of enemy ships and allowed the fleet to take the soldiers and marines anywhere they wanted.
The ships couldn’t, however, take or hold a piece of land. The very idea of warships alone being able to cow recalcitrant natives into submission had died spectacularly with the failure of the Royal Navy at the Dardanelles and the Japanese were no ‘lesser race but a highly developed people with a potent war machine. When the fleets had done their job it was still up to the footsloggers to go ashore and and take the land. In the Pacific war this was a particularly bloody affair.

All generals order their soldiers to fight until the last man and all armies expect their men to do this. Only the Japanese, in the modern era, have ever done this with any consistency. Folly, insanity, fanaticism one might say but no less a trial for the men trying to destroy such resistance. On atolls now remembered only by the men who fought on them the drama was played out a hundred times. Despite the pounding of naval guns and carrier planes, every yard had to be cleared with rifle, grenade and flamethrowers. Like most soldiers the Japanese knew that the deeper you burrow the better your chances, and they were veritable moles.

The most costly and terrible of these actions took place in 1945 on the island of Okinawa. To get their troops onto the beaches the US navy assembled a fleet of 1500 vessels. They carried over 550,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. They provide landing decks for hundreds of planes and they operated in hostile waters 6,000 miles from the continental United States. It was a floating city replete with repair shops, hospitals, kitchens, laundries, arsenals of millions of rounds of ammunition and tens of thousands of shells, living quarters, chapels, combat control centres, radar rooms and of course the teeth in the shape of massive guns and fast modern aircraft.

It took the Americans 83 days to secure the island and in that time the fleet stayed loyally offshore in the face of the fiercest attacks the US navy has ever had to suffer. The attackers were known as the Kamikaze, the Divine Wind, in honour of the fortuitous typhoons that had wrecked Kublai Khan’s Mongol fleets in 1274 and 1281 and saved Japan from its first foreign invasions. The official name was the Tokubetsu Kogeki Tai ,or Special Attack Group. The pilots were mostly young men, often very very young. They were given a rudimentary training and flew old antiquated planes that had no chance in any kind of air-to-air combat.

There were, however, thousands of them and they possessed a singular determination. It’s not they wanted to die rather that they felt they had to die if their country was to have any prospect of survival. Once they had taken off there was no way they could return honorably and alone in their cockpits in the last moments of their lives they had only two possible finales; to die having failed or to die having succeeded. There is no young man who would choose the latter. They were almost always picked up on radar for , novice pilots that so many of them were, wave-hopping was a dangerous course. Combat air patrols flying the highly effective Hellcat fighter piloted by experienced naval aviators would strike them down in great numbers but still they came on. Some would penetrate the fighter screen and then would begin that intense battle between shipboard gunners who wanted to live and airmen who wished to die.

The horror the sailors felt in the face of such suicidal rushes was compounded by the almost continuous nature of the attacks. One British correspondent noted that every Kamikaze seemed to be targeted exclusively on yourself. (The smaller British fleet near Formosa drew off only a few of the attackers from the main action at Okinawa and suffered much less than the Americans. One reason for this was the armoured decks of the British carriers.)

Militarily these attacks were foolishness on a grand scale and reflected the bankruptcy of the Japanese high command in the final days of the war. The results were paltry. Although eight carriesr hit and some seriously damaged not one was sunk. The smaller ships of the radar pickets and anti-aircraft screens suffered badly and in total more than 300 kamikazes succeeded in crashing onto a ship. Only 30 of these ships were lost, another 288 damaged. To achieve this the Japanese squandered more than 3,500 planes. Vice-Admiral Takijiro Onishi, the man who had pushed hardest for Kamikaze attacks to be undertaken, committed seppuku (the ritual suicide in which cuts open ones own belly) when Japan surrendered. His whole strategy had been based on the impossibility of Japan ever giving up and in the 18 agonising hours it took him to die perhaps he felt remorse for the men he had needlessly sent to their deaths.


If you have any questions about the Kamikaze please feel free to ask.
User avatar
Schäfer
Posts: 1256
Joined: Sat Dec 31, 2005 2:27 am
Location: Libya and Essex.
Contact:

Post by Schäfer »

An excellent read, Tanaka.
'Heia Safari' Facebook group page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/341661532588540

Image
User avatar
LAH650
Posts: 649
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2006 6:52 pm
Contact:

Post by LAH650 »

5,000 died...

3,500 planes lost...

Are these figures for air losses only, or do they include Kytan (sp) submarine attacks etc.

Or were some aircraft 2 or 3 seater’s, old bombers requiring crews....

Just like to know as things as written don't add up :?
User avatar
Tanaka
Posts: 742
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 3:41 pm
Location: Republic of Cornwall
Contact:

Post by Tanaka »

Andrew, these are just the air Kamikaze stats, and at first when you look at them they don't quite add up straight away, but your idea about using planes which require more than 1 crew member is the reason why there are alot more dead Kamikaze pilots than there are wrecked planes. The Japanese used every kind of plane they could get there hands on to launch Kamikaze raids and these did include both large bombers, like the betty and also torpedo and dive bomber planes, which obviously have 2 and 3 man crews. Alot of planes that flew kamikaze missions had a traditional attack role like a torpedo run or a dive bomb attempt to do before there final dive, so a full crew was often required. Also don't forget the number of pilots which made the decision in the air to make a kamikaze attack after they had run out of ammunition or had sustained damage to there plane and instead or returning to base they decieded it would be better to ram a ship.


Glad you found it interesting Schafer :D
User avatar
jdeleur
Posts: 271
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 8:29 pm

Post by jdeleur »

Sorry it's in Dutch but has some tech. drawings of the planes and boots used for these actions.

http://www.documentatiegroep40-45.nl/mo ... age&pid=22
Looking for T30 bayonet info.
Image
User avatar
Tanaka
Posts: 742
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 3:41 pm
Location: Republic of Cornwall
Contact:

Post by Tanaka »

i've got more than a passing interest in the Shinyo, is there anywhere i can get that translated into English as it might really help me with something i've got planned
JRA site http://www.japanesereenacting.co.uk/

New Japanese reenactors forum

http://s13.invisionfree.com/IJA_Reenacting/

''i think the phrase ryhmes with clucking bell''
Image
Shergar
Posts: 1618
Joined: Sat Mar 11, 2006 12:25 pm

great read

Post by Shergar »

great read although you have got me in the shit as i preferred to read your thread rather than meet the lads for a few beers in the hat bar

keep up the good work
User avatar
Tanaka
Posts: 742
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 3:41 pm
Location: Republic of Cornwall
Contact:

Post by Tanaka »

bloody hell, get pissed or read the stuff i write, i know which one i'd chose and i certainly wouldn't be sat here :lol: :wink:
JRA site http://www.japanesereenacting.co.uk/

New Japanese reenactors forum

http://s13.invisionfree.com/IJA_Reenacting/

''i think the phrase ryhmes with clucking bell''
Image
User avatar
jdeleur
Posts: 271
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 8:29 pm

Post by jdeleur »

Haha...

What info do you need because i speak dutch ;) :P
Looking for T30 bayonet info.
Image
User avatar
Tanaka
Posts: 742
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 3:41 pm
Location: Republic of Cornwall
Contact:

Post by Tanaka »

really, you speak dutch, never :wink:

like i said, anything about the Shinyo, or maru-ni because i see they have a few plans of them on there.
JRA site http://www.japanesereenacting.co.uk/

New Japanese reenactors forum

http://s13.invisionfree.com/IJA_Reenacting/

''i think the phrase ryhmes with clucking bell''
Image
User avatar
jdeleur
Posts: 271
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 8:29 pm

Post by jdeleur »

Will start translating them tomorow for you if you like :lol:
Looking for T30 bayonet info.
Image
User avatar
Tanaka
Posts: 742
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2005 3:41 pm
Location: Republic of Cornwall
Contact:

Post by Tanaka »

i think any dimensions they give for the shinyo's would be the main things mate
JRA site http://www.japanesereenacting.co.uk/

New Japanese reenactors forum

http://s13.invisionfree.com/IJA_Reenacting/

''i think the phrase ryhmes with clucking bell''
Image
User avatar
jdeleur
Posts: 271
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 8:29 pm

Post by jdeleur »

No prob. mate !
Gonna translate it at this moment.
Looking for T30 bayonet info.
Image
User avatar
jdeleur
Posts: 271
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 8:29 pm

Post by jdeleur »

Tech specs on the different Shinyos.

Type 1

-Material: Steel, wood
-Length: 6 meters
-Width: 1,67 meter
-Water displacement: 1,35 tonnes
-Max. speed: 26 knobs
-Total engines: 1
-HP: 67
-Fuel tank: 140 liters
-effective range: 250 miles
-Crew: 1


Type 1/1

-Material: wood
-Length: 5,10 meters
-Width: 1,67 meter
-Water displacement: 2,40 tonnes
-Max. speed: 23 knobs
-Total engines: 1
-HP: 67
-Fuel tank: 140 liters
-effective range: 250 miles
-Crew: 1


Type 5

-Material: wood
-Length: 6,50 meters
-Width: 1,86 meter
-Water displacement: 1,40 tonnes
-Max. speed: 25 knobs
-Total engines: 2
-HP: 134
-Fuel tank: 280 liters
-effective range: 275 miles
-Crew: 2


Type 8

-Material: Wood
-Length: 8 meters
-Width: 2,50 meter
-Water displacement: 4,00 tonnes
-Max. speed: 22 knobs
-Total engines: 3
-HP: 200
-Fuel tank: 600 liters
-effective range: 350 miles
-Crew: 3
Looking for T30 bayonet info.
Image
User avatar
jdeleur
Posts: 271
Joined: Thu May 25, 2006 8:29 pm

Post by jdeleur »

Looking for T30 bayonet info.
Image
Post Reply

Return to “Japanese Discussion”