The Kamikazes Essays - Military History Of Japan During World War II

The Kamikazes Kamikaze was a type of Japanese pilot who flew suicide missions during the last months of World War II (1939-1945). The kamikazes were trained to dive airplanes loaded with the explosives into certain targets, usually American naval vessels. They were much like a human bullet. The suicide planes were also called kamikazes. Japan was desperate when it launched the kamikaze missions. Its military leaders viewed the kamikazes as the last hope of stopping the powerful Allied advance. But the plan didn't work. The first kamikaze attacks occurred in October 1944, when the Allies invaded the Japanese-held Philippines. More than a thousand kamikazes took part in the defense of Okinawa in 1945. Kamikaze pilots, sacrificing their lives in a last-ditch effort to stop the American advance, sank about 30-40 ships and damaged more than 350 others. They thought the Allied forces would have some trouble because they were losing so many warships. America would've been long time ago. In those days naval vessels were so abundant that the U.S. were having trouble finding enough sailors to man the ship. But the kamikazes failed to sink any large aircraft carriers-their main targets-and in time proved to be a costly failure. They became more important for the kind of resistance they symbolized than for the damage they caused. The word kamikaze means ?divine wind?. During the summer of 1281 the Emperor assigned an enormous army of 140,000 troops to the conquest of the Japanese islands. An armada of four thousands ships sailed, once again bound for Hakata Bay to fight the Mongols. Kublai Khan's forces landed. The battle was fought again, and once more the Mongols turned back to the beach. The Japanese fought valiantly, but with the enormous resources of the Mongols breached the defenses. Then, one night almost without warning, a powerful typhoon blew through most of their battle equipment and horses, and drowned thousands of the warriors. As the storm ended, the pitiful remnants of the great fighting force struggled back to Korea. Japan was saved. Once again, the people of Japan gave thanks to the Kami Kaze. The problem that this paper will analyze is what were the reasons of the Japanese that made them go on these suicide missions. In the Suicide Squads: W.W.II, Richard O'Neill says that the Japanese went on these suicide missions because they considered it a privilege to die for their emperor. The Japanese believed in the nationalistic State Shinto creed of the 20th century. It said that Japan was the first-born of all the nations of Earth, the offspring of divine copulation. Dominion was granted to the storm god Susanowo, ancestor of the Japanese people. But because of his misbehavior, Ninigi grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu replaced Susanowo. Amaterasu was the great-grandmother of Jimmu Tenno (Tenno, ?Emperor?) became the first mortal yet still divine ruler of Japan. Thus, while both Japanese people and Emperor are traditionally of divine descent, the Emperor's line is by far greater. The Japanese believed that the living god dwelled among the people, and no act in his name, or for the cause of patriotic duty, was too much to ask. All schools and universities displayed portraits of the Emperor to be pro tected with their lives. In The Kamikazes, Hoyt explains that in the Japanese society suicide was acceptable and even honorable, from the schoolboy atoning for the shame of flunking an examination to the defeated general writing his report with his life's blood. Every schoolboy in Japan had admiration for the samurai, the warrior class who for a time were also the educated class in Japan. Since the Meiji restoration, the mystique of the samurai and their code of honor bushido, had again seized the Japanese imagination. The warrior code, bushido, said that they must gladly sacrifice their lives for Emperor and country. Outwardly, at least, all the young men involved were eager to give their lives. From the beginning Admiral Onishi had the presence of mind to create decorative and symbolic trappings for the sacrificial fliers. They were said to be already gods and should have no further interest in human affairs. On completion of their missions, their spirits would fly to the Yasukuni shrine near the Imperial Palace