By late 1944 it was painfully obvious to all that Japan was losing the war in the Pacific.  Early victories at Pearl Harbor, Bataan and Corregidor had given way to crushing defeats at Midway and Guadacanal; already USAF bombers had launched raids on the Japanese mainland.  Even so many Japanese officers were horrified by Vice-Admiral Takajiro Ohnishi’s suggestion.  Sending pilots on missions to crash bomb-laden planes into enemy ships was thought an obscene waste of life – and of trained men.  Still, nobody had any better ideas, and, besides, it was easier to train pilots to dive-bomb a plane than to train them in air-to-air dogfighting.  Ohnishi finally received reluctant permission to implement his “kamikaze (divine wind)” plan, on the condition that all participants volunteer.  In October 1944 Ohnishi announced his plan before the 201st Flying Corps at Mabalacat Air Base in the Philippines.  All 23 pilots volunteered. 

Late in the morning of October 25, 1944 anti-aircraft gunners aboard the escort carrier St. Lô. saw Japanese Zeros headed straight for their formation.  As one approached their ship, they tried desperately to knock it out of the air but to no avail.  Crashing into the St. Lô’s flight deck, the plane disgorged a bomb deep in the ship's interior. As sailors on nearby ships watched in horrified fascination, the St. Lô exploded, heeled over on its side, and sank with 114 sailors dead and 400 injured.  The next day yet another suicide attack targeted the already-damagedSuwanee; it was disabled and 143 sailors lost their lives.  By the time the kamikaze operations in the Philippines ended (in January 1945), they had sunk 2 carriers, 4 destroyers and 7 transports and disabling 6 battleships, 23 carriers, 12 cruisers and 31 destroyers. 

Surprisingly (maybe not so surprising, given Japan’s Bushido code and its emphasis on duty and loyalty), there was a waiting list to get into Kamikaze squadrons.  Their families received special privileges and they were regularly honored in newspapers and ceremonies.  The planes they flew were kept scrupulously clean, as they were literally “flying coffins,” and were stripped of all extraneous equipment before being filled with explosives.  The Kamikazes prepared for their missions with ritual prayers and the composition of farewell poems and letters.  “You are to live from moment to moment in reality.  Anazawa no longer exists in reality,” Toshio Anazawa wrote to his fiancé.  “Please congratulate me,” 23 year-old Isao Matsuo told his parents.  “I have been given a splendid opportunity to die.  This is my last day. The destiny of our homeland hinges on the decisive battle in the seas to the south where I shall fall like a blossom from a radiant cherry tree...”  To his 3-year old and 5-year old children, Lt. Col. Masanobu Kuno wrote “Your Daddy was a jolly fellow who got on board a big heavy bomber and wiped out the enemy. You two grow up and be as strong as Daddy, and please avenge my death.” 

Kublai Khan’s armada had almost reached Japan when it was decimated by a typhoon.  Much as that kami kaze or “divine wind” had driven away the Mongols, the Japanese hoped the Kamikazes would drive away the Allies.  Unfortunately, the allies were able to counter the kamikaze attacks by setting up “picket lines” of destroyers.  The kamikazes did tremendous damage to these smaller ships – of 148 destroyers assigned to the Okinawa picket line, 122 were struck by kamikazes, with 43 sunk or destroyed – but the aircraft carriers and larger ships were shielded from the worst.  Still, at Okinawa the kamikazes left some 5,000 Americans dead and 10,000 injured – a death toll which would lead the U.S. to reject a Japanese land invasion in favor of firebombing, and, later, nuclear weapons.

“You are already gods without earthly cares,” Ohnishi told the kamikazes as they sang their songs and prepared for their deaths.  On August 6, 1945 the Emperor declared Japan’s unconditional surrender.  While this technically freed them from their death oath, many kamikazes nevertheless chose to commit suicide.  Among them was Ohnishi: alas, seppuku had been out of fashion for centuries in Japan.  There was no close associate left to behead Ohnishi after his ritual self-disembowelment and it took him eighteen agonizing hours to die.