World War II · The Pacific · October 1944 – August 1945
Kamikaze
In the last ten months of the war Japan sent about 3,800 airmen, and thousands more in boats, manned torpedoes and rocket bombs, to die by crashing into Allied ships. They sank dozens of vessels, damaged hundreds and killed thousands of American, British and Australian sailors. This is the record of who they were, how it was done, what it cost both sides, and how it is remembered.
The collection
What the special attacks were
On 25 October 1944, off the island of Samar in the Philippines, five Zeros of the Japanese Navy’s Shikishima unit, each carrying a 250-kilogram bomb, dived deliberately into American escort carriers. One of them sank USS St. Lo. It was the first organized attack of the Shinpū Special Attack Corps — the “kamikaze”, from the “divine wind” of the typhoons said to have wrecked the Mongol invasion fleets of 1274 and 1281 — and it began ten months in which Japan made deliberate self-destruction a central part of its strategy.
By August 1945 about 3,800 to 3,950 Navy and Army airmen had died in special air attacks, and with the crews of explosive boats, Kaiten manned torpedoes and other weapons the toll of the special attack units passes 5,800. Their attacks sank between 34 and 57 Allied ships, depending on how they are counted, damaged some 300 or more, and killed thousands of sailors; off Okinawa alone the U.S. Navy lost more than 4,900 men killed, more than the Army or the Marine Corps lost ashore. The collection follows the story from the decision at Mabalacat to the last flights of August 1945, from the pilots and their letters to the sailors on the picket destroyers, and labels throughout what comes from wartime records, what from later testimony and what from historians’ estimates.
The numbers
How many died, how many ships were hit
Almost every number in this history comes in several versions. Japanese counts of the special-attack dead differ according to whether they include only pilots or every man lost in the units — boat crews, Kaiten pilots, the crews of the bombers that carried Ohka — and because the Navy and Army kept separate registers. Counts of ships sunk run from 34 to 57 for suicide aircraft alone, depending on whether scuttled ships, ships later scrapped and duplicates are counted; the National Air and Space Museum’s “defensible” figure for all special weapons is 66 sunk and more than 300 damaged. Select a row for details; Chapter 8 explains each figure.
Atlas
From Mabalacat to Okinawa
The special attacks began from the airfields of Luzon against the fleets at Leyte Gulf and moved north with the war: to Formosa, to Kyushu, and across the 600 kilometres of sea between the Kyushu bases and the ships off Okinawa. Use the buttons to follow the campaign; select any point for details.
Nine chapters
Read the history
Origins
A losing war, a shrinking pool of pilots, Ōnishi Takijirō’s meeting at Mabalacat, Seki Yukio’s Shikishima unit and the long argument over policy and “spontaneity”.
Leyte Gulf and the Philippines
St. Lo, the fast carriers, Ormoc Bay, Mindoro and the ordeal of the Lingayen Gulf invasion force: the first three months, day by day.
The Pilots
Teenage “boy pilots” and drafted students, how “volunteering” worked, the bases, the last nights at Torihama Tome’s restaurant and the letters they left.
The Weapons
Zeros with a single bomb, the Ohka and its Betty mother planes, the Kaiten manned torpedo, the Shinyo boats and the weapons never used.
Okinawa: the Kikusui attacks
The ten mass attacks of April to June 1945, Yamato’s one-way sortie, “Busted Ship Bay” and the U.S. Navy’s deadliest campaign.
The Picket Line and the Ships
Laffey’s eighty minutes, Bunker Hill and Enterprise, the British armoured carriers, and the damage control that saved ships.
The American Answer
Radar and fighter direction, the Big Blue Blanket, proximity fuzes, the 40 mm and 20 mm guns, ship-handling, and the men at the mounts.
By the Numbers, and the End
Every count and why they differ, what the attacks achieved, the aircraft held back for the invasion, Ugaki’s last flight and Ōnishi’s death.
Memory
The postwar silence, the Chiran museum and the letters, Yasukuni, films and debates in Japan, the word in English, and the American museum ships.
People and ships
Records and stories
The admiral who began it and the admiral who flew after the surrender, the first leader, the woman the pilots called “mother”, the Ohka unit — and three of the ships they struck. Each has a page in the Special Units collection.
RECORD · 1ST AIR FLEET
Ōnishi Takijirō
The admiral who proposed the first organized special attacks at Mabalacat and took his own life the day after the surrender broadcast.
Read the record →
201ST AIR GROUP
Seki Yukio and the Shikishima unit
The 23-year-old Naval Academy graduate chosen to lead the first organized attack, and the men who flew with him on 25 October 1944.
Read more →RECORD · 5TH AIR FLEET
Ugaki Matome
The commander of the Kyushu special attacks, who flew to his death hours after the emperor announced the surrender.
Read the record →
CHIRAN
Torihama Tome
The restaurant keeper who fed and wrote for the Army pilots of Chiran and kept their memory for the rest of her life.
Read more →
RECORD · 721ST AIR GROUP
Jinrai Butai and the Ohka
The “Thunder Gods” unit of rocket-bomb pilots and Betty crews, and the disaster of its first mission.
Read the record →
DD-724 · RADAR PICKET STATION 1
USS Laffey
The destroyer that survived some 80 minutes of attacks by 22 aircraft, now a museum ship at Patriots Point, South Carolina.
Read more →CV-17 · TASK FORCE 58
USS Bunker Hill
Mitscher’s flagship, hit by two kamikazes in thirty seconds; the heaviest loss of life from kamikazes on any ship.
Read more →CVE-63 · TAFFY 3
USS St. Lo
The escort carrier that survived the battle off Samar that morning and was sunk by the first organized kamikaze attack.
Read more →In photographs
The record in pictures
Photographs taken by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps and by Japanese press and navy photographers, and the museums of today.
In brief
Common questions
What does “kamikaze” mean?
“Divine wind”, after the typhoons said to have destroyed the Mongol invasion fleets of 1274 and 1281. The Navy’s units were officially the Shinpū Tokubetsu Kōgekitai, Shinpū being another reading of the same characters; Japanese usually called them tokkō, special attack. Chapter 1 →
How many kamikaze pilots died?
About 3,800 to 3,950 Navy and Army airmen, depending on the register; with the crews of boats, Kaiten and other special attack weapons, more than 5,800. Chapter 8 →
How many ships did they sink?
Between 34 and 57 ships sunk by suicide aircraft, depending on the definition; 47 is the best-documented named list. Some 300 or more were damaged. No ship larger than an escort carrier was sunk. Chapter 8 →
Were the pilots volunteers?
Officially, yes; in practice volunteering often took place under heavy group and command pressure, and many letters and postwar accounts show reluctance as well as resolve. Historians debate how free the choice was. Chapter 3 →
How effective were the attacks?
The U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey counted hits or damaging near misses by 18.6 per cent of missions, far more than conventional attacks achieved; but improved American defences reduced the rate, and no fleet carrier or battleship was sunk. Chapter 7 →
Which American ship took the worst kamikaze damage?
In lives, USS Bunker Hill on 11 May 1945, with some 389 to 396 dead. USS Laffey survived attacks by 22 aircraft on 16 April 1945 and is a museum ship today. Chapter 6 →
What was the Ohka?
A rocket-powered piloted bomb carried under a twin-engine Betty bomber and released near the target. Americans called it “Baka”, fool. It sank one ship, the destroyer Mannert L. Abele, on 12 April 1945. Chapter 4 →
When did the last kamikaze attack happen?
Attacks continued until mid-August 1945; Vice Admiral Ugaki Matome led a final sortie from Ōita on the evening of 15 August, after the emperor’s surrender broadcast. Chapter 8 →
Where can you see the history today?
At the Chiran Peace Museum and the Kanoya base museum in Kyushu, the Yūshūkan at Yasukuni in Tokyo, and aboard USS Laffey at Patriots Point, South Carolina, and USS Kidd in Baton Rouge. Chapter 9 →
Keep exploring
Related collections and sources
Principal sources
- U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, Summary Report (Pacific War) (1946).
- Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, Anti-Suicide Action Summary (August 1945), and radar picket bulletin (July 1945).
- Naval History and Heritage Command, H-Grams 039–051 and Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Read online
- Inoguchi Rikihei and Nakajima Tadashi, with Roger Pineau, The Divine Wind (Naval Institute Press, 1958).
- Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, Kamikaze Diaries: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers (University of Chicago Press, 2006).
- M. G. Sheftall, Blossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze (NAL Caliber, 2005).
- Robin L. Rielly, Kamikazes, Corsairs, and Picket Ships: Okinawa, 1945 (Casemate, 2008).
- Bill Gordon, Kamikaze Images. Read online
- National Air and Space Museum, Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka 22 object record.
- F. Julian Becton with Joseph Morschauser III, The Ship That Would Not Die (Prentice-Hall, 1980).
- Full sources are listed at the end of each chapter.