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LEGENDARY COMBAT UNITSKAMIKAZE!Japan’s Special Attack Unitsswept like a “divine wind” through Allied fleetsin the final year of the Pacific War.April 11, 1945. AJapanese kamikazeattacks the USSMissouri as thevessel operatesoff the coast ofOkinawa. The planehit the side of thebattleship, belowthe main deck, causingminor damage.In the summer of 1944, as LieutenantCommander Tadanao Miki of Japan’sAeronautical Research Laboratory struggledto develop an effective guidance systemfor a new “flying bomb” design,Sub-lieutenant ShoichiFAST FACTSOta offered him a solution: Put pilotsinside the deadly rockets. AlthoughOta’s suggestion for a foolproofguidance system horrified Miki, seniorJapanese navy and army officersfavored the idea that piloted suicideaircraft might turn the tide of thewar back in Japan’s favor.Since the earliest days of thewar, pilots (on both sides) had occasionallysacrificed themselves insuicide attacks. But with the conflictincreasingly going badly forJapan, such attacks became officialpolicy. Special Attack Units – commonlycalled kamikaze – beganforming to wreak destruction onthe powerful Allied fleets surgingever closer to Japan’s home islands.The first “official” kamikaze sortiesby a Tokubetsu Kogeki Tai (SpecialAttack Unit) took place in theDESIGNATION:Special Attack UnitsNICKNAME: Kamikaze(divine wind)ESTABLISHED: Oct. 19,1944 (the first formalunit, the 201st FlyingGroup, was comprisedof 24 volunteers; othernavy and army unitsformed later)NOTABLE CAMPAIGNSAND BATTLES: LeyteGulf, Oct. 23-26, 1944;Iwo Jima, Feb. 19-Mar.26, 1945; Okinawa,April 1-June 23, 1945NOTABLE KAMIKAZESTRIKES: USS St. Lo, USSMissouri, USS Saratoga,USS Essex, USS BunkerHill, USS FranklinOTHER KAMIKAZEWEAPONS: Ohka flyingbomb, Kaiten midgetsubmarine, speedboatsPhilippines in October 1944, principally atthe Battle of Leyte Gulf. By early 1945kamikazes had struck seven American aircraftcarriers and sank or damaged 40 otherNATIONAL ARCHIVESships. Far more effective than theconventional sorties by the thennearly impotent Japanese navy,these attacks quashed any remainingdebate about the value ofkamikazes versus the time andmoney wasted on training pilotsand building combat aircraft. Infact, the program was expanded intime to undergo its next major testoff the shores of Okinawa.In waves of persistent aerial attackstermed Operation Kikusui(Floating Chrysanthemums),kamikaze strikes began in the watersoff Okinawa on April 6, 1945.Initially concentrated against thescreen of lightly armored destroyersand escorts 50 miles from theAllies’ main fleet, the suicide attacksoften devastated these smallerships. (The USS Laffey was struckApril 15 by four bombs and sixkamikazes; remarkably it remainedafloat, although nearly a third of its crewwere killed or wounded.)The Japanese eventually focused on thelarger vessels of the main fleet. Wave after waveof kamikaze planes struck the Allied ships untilthe Battle of Okinawa ended in June 1945.All told, 1,450 Japanese aircraft took to the airagainst the Allied fleet, killing almost 5,000Sailors and wounding nearly that number.Over 350 Allied ships and landing craft weredamaged and 36 were sunk. However, of theseveral aircraft carriers (including the heavilydamaged Franklin) and battleships that werehit, none was sunk. Kamikaze attacks contin-18 ✯ ARMCHAIR GENERAL ✯ MARCH 2009