It's all a lie that they left filled with braveness and joy, crying, "Long live the emperor!" They were sheep at a slaughterhouse. Everybody was looking down and tottering. Some were unable to stand up and were carried and pushed into their aircraft by maintenance soldiers. Training destroyers, including the last ship to be sunk, USS Callaghan (DD-792) on 29 July 1945, off Okinawa Masami Takahashi, Last Kamikaze Testimonials from WWII Suicide Pilots (Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources, 2008) Saigo no Tokkōtai [88] (最後の特攻隊, The Last Kamikaze in English), released in 1970, produced by Toei, directed by Junya Sato and starring Kōji Tsuruta, Ken Takakura and Shinichi Chiba The Japanese word kamikaze is usually translated as "divine wind" ( kami is the word for "god", "spirit", or "divinity", and kaze for "wind"). The word originated from Makurakotoba of waka poetry modifying " Ise" [8] [ clarification needed] and has been used since August 1281 to refer to the major typhoons that dispersed Mongol-Koryo fleets which invaded Japan under Kublai Khan in 1274 and 1281. [9] [10]

In August 1944, it was announced by the Domei news agency that a flight instructor named Takeo Tagata was training pilots in Taiwan for suicide missions. [21] Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko (2002). Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, and Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics in Japanese History. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226620916. Kiyoshi Ogawa (left), 22, and Seizō Yasunori, 21, the pilots who flew their aircraft into Bunker HillInoguchi, Rikihei; Nakajima, Tadashi; Pineau, Roger (1959). The Divine Wind. London: Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd. Australian journalists Denis and Peggy Warner, in a 1982 book with Japanese naval historian Sadao Seno ( The Sacred Warriors: Japan's Suicide Legions), arrived at a total of 57 ships sunk by kamikazes. Bill Gordon, an American Japanologist who specializes in kamikazes, lists in a 2007 article 47 ships known to have been sunk by kamikaze aircraft. Gordon says that the Warners and Seno included ten ships that did not sink. He lists: It is said that young pilots on kamikaze missions often flew southwest from Japan over the 922m (3,025ft) Mount Kaimon. The mountain is also called "Satsuma Fuji" (meaning a mountain like Mount Fuji but located in the Satsuma Province region). Suicide-mission pilots looked over their shoulders to see the mountain, the southernmost on the Japanese mainland, said farewell to their country and saluted the mountain. Residents on Kikaishima Island, east of Amami Ōshima, say that pilots from suicide-mission units dropped flowers from the air as they departed on their final missions. Toland, John (1970). The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936–1945. New York: Random House. OCLC 105915. https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nmusn/explore/photography/wwii/wwii-japan/kamikaze/pre-okinawa.html . Retrieved 30 August 2023.

New York Times, The Saturday Profile; Shadow Shogun Steps Into Light, to Change Japan. Published: 11 February 2006. Retrieved 15 February 2007 When the volunteers arrived for duty in the corps, there were twice as many persons as aircraft available. "After the war, some commanders would express regret for allowing superfluous crews to accompany sorties, sometimes squeezing themselves aboard bombers and fighters so as to encourage the suicide pilots and, it seems, join in the exultation of sinking a large enemy vessel." Many of the kamikaze pilots believed their death would pay the debt they owed and show the love they had for their families, friends, and emperor. "So eager were many minimally trained pilots to take part in suicide missions that when their sorties were delayed or aborted, the pilots became deeply despondent. Many of those who were selected for a body crashing mission were described as being extraordinarily blissful immediately before their final sortie." [67] For the first time, my father presented before me a short sword forged by Awataguchi Yoshimitsu, a renowned swordsmith during the Kamakura period [1192-1333]. The sword was the very same one which Rikyu is believed to have used when he ended his life through harakiri [honorable suicide]. As he set it before my eyes I was told, “Take a good look at this [before you go].” At least one of these pilots was a conscripted Korean with a Japanese name, adopted under the pre-war Soshi-kaimei ordinance that compelled Koreans to take Japanese personal names. [80] Eleven of the 1,036 IJA kamikaze pilots who died in sorties from Chiran and other Japanese air bases during the Battle of Okinawa were Koreans.

According to some sources, on 14 October 1944, USS Reno was hit by a deliberately crashed Japanese aircraft. [24] Rear Admiral Masafumi Arima However, an evidence-based study of 2,000 pilots' uncensored letters revealed that the pilots candidly expressed myriad emotions in private. Typically, they declared their determination to die to protect the homeland and thanked their school teachers, parents, siblings, and friends for their selfless devotion. Although most pilots were unmarried (the average age was 19), some young fathers left loving instructions for their young wives and children to live well, and others expressed memories of unrequited love or the sorrow of dying young. [68] The war zone is where these beautiful emotions are put to the test. If death means a return to this world of love, there is no need for me to fear. There is nothing left to do but press on and fulfill my duty. As an aside, at war's end, the Japanese had, by actual count, a total of 16,397 aircraft still available for service, including 6,374 operational fighters and bombers, and if they had used only the fighters and bombers for

Kennedy, Maxwell Taylor: Danger's Hour, The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot who Crippled Her, Simon and Schuster, New York, 2008 ISBN 978-0743260800 International Herald Tribune, Publisher dismayed by Japanese nationalism. Published: 10 February 2006. Retrieved 11 March 2007 The this dismal mechanical record of Japan’s aging planes – “a reflection of the desperate lengths to which Japan’s military leaders were willing to go to win the war – that was to be Ena’s salvation. On 28 April 1945 he steered his aircraft along the runway at Kushira airfield in Kagoshima prefecture, but failed to get airborne. His second mission ended in failure when engine trouble forced him to make an emergency landing at a Japanese army base, still carrying the bomb intended for the enemy. Two weeks later, on 11 May, he was steeling himself for a third attempt, accompanied by a 20-year-old co-pilot and an 18-year-old communications officer. Masao Kanai died on a kamikaze mission near Okinawa in 1945. He was 23. Under a program that encouraged students to support the imperialist military, he had been pen pals with a 17-year-old schoolgirl, Toshi Negishi. All in all, they exchanged 200 letters. They tried to go on a date, just once, when he had a rare opportunity to get out of training and visit Tokyo. But that was March 10, 1945, right after the massive air raids known as the firebombing of Tokyo. So they never met. +++ Another wrote in his mother in his final letter: "Although I have tried many times to call you 'Mother.' I have have never been able to do so...Please forgive your timid son. You must have felt sad and rejected. Now I warn to call to you loudly and clearly "mother, mother, mother.'" A 26-year-old pilot wrote his daughter: "I want you to respect your mother and be like her, always honest and kind. I hope you will be a good wife. I won’t see you again in this life, so when you want to see me, you should come to Yasukina Shrine. If pray hard enough, I will be there beside you, and share your happiness as my own. Never say you have no father. I will always be with you, by you side...Your loving Daddy."Mulero, Alexis R., Fusata Iida: WWII's first 'Kamikaza' pilot. Marine Corps Base Hawaii, United States Marine Corps. 7 December 2001. During 1943–1944, U.S. forces steadily advanced toward Japan. Newer U.S.-made aircraft, especially the Grumman F6F Hellcat and Vought F4U Corsair, outclassed and soon outnumbered Japan's fighters. Tropical diseases, as well as shortages of spare parts and fuel, made operations more and more difficult for the IJNAS. By the Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 1944), the Japanese had to make do with obsolete aircraft and inexperienced aviators in the fight against better-trained and more experienced US Navy airmen who flew radar-directed combat air patrols. The Japanese lost over 400 carrier-based aircraft and pilots in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, effectively putting an end to their carriers' potency. Allied aviators called the action the " Great Marianas Turkey Shoot". https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1945/battle-of-okinawa/spruance-letter.html . Retrieved 30 August 2023.