Shows the true meaning of the General Patton quote - ( You don't win wars by dying for your country. You win wars by making them die for theirs )

It should be mentioned that the US Navy packed extra anti-aircraft guns onto every square inch of the battleships - the crews were nearly double the normal complement as a result. The photos of US battleships in the late WW2 period are striking for how many extra guns were on the decks. In addition, the US had developed its first radar guided gun firing systems, the Mark I gun director, which were installed into these ships, and the larger caliber ammo had proximity fuses that allowed for knocking down an aircraft with a near-miss. Finally, there were the combat air patrol aircraft. It was a multi-layer air defense system that was quite effective at destroying most of the kamikazes

By the time kamikaze tactics were used, Japan had lost its best pilots, and it's easier to teach someone how to crash a plane vs how to actually fly one for combat purposes.

No interviews with former pilots I see. ;)

It's a lucky thing that Japan surrendered the day it did: when I moved to Japan in 1972 I found the bars of Yotsuya, Marunouchi, Kabuto-cho and elsewhere full of men who had been scheduled to fly their kamikaze mission the very next day.

Due to the minimal training that the Japanese pilots were receiving, their chances of successfully dropping a bomb on a ship were miniscule. On top of that, so few pilots survived a conventional attack that, as someone else here pointed out, the missions were virtually suicidal anyhow. The Kamikaze attack was correctly seen as a higher-percentage option, but with 70-80% losses prior to even reaching their targets, it still wasn't enough.

That "They were wrong." at the end felt really powerful for some reason.

.... it was already ALMOST suicidal to attack a US navy task group at sea by 1942. Kamakaze just increased the chances of death from 90% to 99%. night attacks by wooden trainer planes would be the one that would have given the us most sleepless nights. Almost radar invisible, and carried a similar bomb load.

The choice: Kamakaze: 100% chance not returning Non-Kamakaze: about 70+% chance not returning By 1944-45 huge amounts of AA, Radar, Combat Air Patrols and Coordination meant few pilots would return from any mission.

It's interesting that last point: that the Japanese thought the Kamikaze would intimidate U.S. forces and undermine their willingness to fight. That Japanese pilots, showing such resolve as to deliberately sacrifice their own lives, in order to sink American ships and kill American personnel would shake us out of our resolve. I suppose it's not surprising. These were the same planners who thought they could win a war over a _massively_ bigger, richer, more industrialized country because it's people were "decadent." They _did_ know they couldn't match American wealth and industrial might, and a protracted war would doom them. Their mistake was in thinking that they would never have to, in judging that the American people didn't have the will to fight a protracted war. They thought to replay the Russo-Japanese War. Win a couple or three decisive battles in which they destroyed the U.S. fleet -- just like they had the Russian fleet in 1904-05 -- and those soft, luxury-addicted Americans wouldn't want to spill any more of their own blood over the war Japan was fighting in Asia. So the U.S. would give up and accept the _fait accompli_ of an expanded Japanese Empire in China, southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. They couldn't _possibly_ have miscalculated more disastrously. The sneak attack on Pearl Harbor was perceived as so treacherous and underhanded that it absolutely _enraged_ the American public, and filled the American people with a desire to see Japan in ruins, no matter the cost. Japan's leaders thought the American people were weak, soft, and decadent, and so would never fight a warrior race like the Japanese to the finish. That warrior culture, that fighting spirit of _Bushido,_ they thought, would give them victory against a materially superior foe. They misjudged their enemy's character, and their tactics so angered that enemy that they themselves actually _created_ the resolve they didn't think that enemy capable of having.

One thing that the gentleman did not mention (probably because it would be too cumbersome to describe without a visual representation) was that the Allies expanded their battle formations so that the main concentric circle protecting the fleet carriers were surrounded by smaller versions of concentric defenses around light carriers. Knowing that the kamikaze pilots could not easily differentiate between escort and fleet carriers, the kamikaze would be tricked and waste themselves on these outer defensive circles, and the light carriers were usually able to shoot them all down. If a kamikaze got past the outer radar picket, wasn't distracted by the light carrier decoys, then they'd still have to make it through the layers of destroyers, light carriers, combat air patrols, and the main ships' anti-aircraft guns to even have a shot at sinking a fleet carrier or battleship.

A report I read stated that half of Kamikaze pilots survived due to aircraft malfunctions. A book I read of post war Kamikaze pilots' narratives translated into English contained the revelations that the pilots deeply resented their cynical exploitation by military authorities and that they were also surprisingly grateful for the atomic bombs because their effect was to eliminate the zaibatsu which had an iron grip on the nation which led to better lives with a western style government.

Your content is exceptionally well done. Thank you very much for all your hard work.

Fun fact: the term "Kamikaze" originally referred to the two typhoons which saved Japan from the invading Mongol fleets, Hence "Divine wind"

Weird how none of the Japanese generals "volunteered"......

18 battleships at Okinawa is an incredible amount of firepower, can you imagine how the Japanese defenders felt seeing such a powerful fleet offshore preparing to land enemy forces, they must've been terrified.

Another great presentation IWM!

That last bit, about how the Japanese had overestimated how demoralized the Americans would be after getting attacked by kamikaze is crucial, I think. The big lesson: never plan a strategy around demoralizing the enemy instead of concrete goals. It’s true that morale may be the deciding factor in the end, but morale crucially depends on the effectiveness of the tactics, not on the audacity of the tactics.

It boggles my mind how many times military leaders, throughout history, have had the idea or have come to the conclusion that they can "attack/beat the morale" out of their opponents through atrocities, then only for those atrocities to actually turn out to have a galvanizing or resolve reinforcing effect on the enemy attacked. Imperial Japan made that mistake quite often against the U.S. during WWII, which is even more perplexing, i.e., I.J. kept coming to that same mistaken conclusion. 😕😟😲😞

This was a very well done documentary!! I've heard about the battle of Okinawa countless times, and not to discredit those sources, this was the first I've heard of the Ohka. Thanks for showing this lens of the pacific theater!!

Approximately one out of every four Kamikaze aircraft that reached the pushover point hit their targets. That compares favorably with the record of anti-ship missiles since 1967. Analysis of the Philippines and Okinawa campaigns convinced the U.S. Navy the solution was intercepting the incoming Kamikazes (and, post-war, anti-ship missiles) BEFORE they entered the terminal phase of their attack. This was done by a combination of combat air patrols, and the development of shipboard surface-to-air missiles--specifically, the Tartar, Terrier and Talos systems that armed U.S. ships up to the 1970s, when they were succeeded by the Standard Missile family. Navy doctrine focuses on destroying launch platforms before they reach their release point, a principle called "Shoot the archer, not the arrow".

Thank you IWM. You are one of my goto KZfaq channels.

I'm surprised that _Operation Ten-Go_ was not included in your kamikaze overview. I think it perfectly illustrates the gulf between cultures at that point in history. THOUSANDS died in a doomed effort to spend their lives for the Empire. They pretty much died in vain, though. I always envisioned a tall adult holding off the best aggressive efforts of a short adolescent, such was the disparity of force and capability. I did enjoy the aero-related facts you shared.

My grandfather was serving aboard the USS Borie (Sumner-class Destroyer) during the Battle of Okinawa. During the final hours of the battle, his ship was hit by a Kamikaze (believed to be the last Kamikaze of the war), resulting in over 60 casualties. I feel very fortunate to have heard first-hand accounts of a Kamikaze attack, which sounded absolutely terrifying.

Being on a ship just before a Kamikaze hits has to be a very disturbing feeling since you have no where to go but wait for the hit!

Keep in mind that the Japanese only started using kamikazes once they had run out of skilled pilots. By that point in the war, getting past the American fighter screens (which were actually the main line of defence; AA fire, even after the VT fuse came along, was only ever a secondary weapon in air defence during WWII) was suicidal anyways, so why not take as many of the Americans down with you as you die? It was an immoral strategy that ultimately failed, but one that actually was better than the alternative of continuing to use conventional tactics (which would have failed even harder)

Thanks for shedding light on this military strategy that has baffled me since I was a kid. Now I have a lot better understanding of the kamikaze attacks and the mindset behind them. By covering this concisely but in detail you’ve earned my like and my subscription. Thanks again!

I love the pride of family members detailing their elders experiences in the war knowing the details of vessel and role. You should absolutely be proud of you fore fathers accomplishments!!!

Love your work, IWM 👍

British aircraft carriers had armoured decks, which meant that kamikaze attacks put a heavy strain on the ships' broomsticks.

I hate to criticize a video by the Imperial War Museums, but this has missed a critical part of the equation: number of hits per lost aircraft/pilot. Kamikazes scored more hits per lost aircraft/pilot than conventional attacks, and by that metric they were wildly successful. The US Navy published an Anti-Suicide Action Summary (available on the Naval History and Heritage Command website) to help improve the fleet's air defenses in anticipation of Operation Downfall. As part of the analysis, it includes a table of the effectiveness of these attacks vs. traditional attacks. According to the US Analysis from October 1944 through the end of April 1945, 784 kamikazes made it within anti-aircraft range of the US fleet, scoring 216 hits on ships. In the same period 2,152 traditional attack aircraft came within range of US Navy antiaircraft guns, losing 356 aircraft to score 58 hits. Even when you account for surviving aircraft making multiple attacks over a long period of time, you would lose 6.1 planes per hit in a traditional attack vs only 3.6 in a kamikaze attack. Note traditional bombers typically had two- or three-man crews, so the air crew losses are worse than just the plane losses. We also see this in the US response to the kamikazes. So many ships were being hit and spending weeks or months out of action that we began a mass program to upgrade our already impressive antiaircraft firepower. Throughout the entire war the US Navy had fought against removing torpedo tubes from destroyers to add more antiaircraft guns, but in April the Chief of Naval Operations ordered torpedo tubes be removed as quickly as possible to bulk up the Bofors fit. During the entire war US destroyers were hit by enemy fire (bombs, torpedoes, shells, even severe damage from ramming submarines) 251 times. 40 of these were kamikaze attacks in April 1945 ALONE (including two suicide boat attacks), sinking four ships outright and with four more never repaired (this does not count destroyers modified for other roles, like DM minelayers or APD transports). The standard Essex class carrier group as of 30 August 1944 was 51 fighters and 42 bombers, but as of 30 April 1945 it was 73 fighters and 30 bombers, as fighters were far more effective at killing enemy kamikazes before they got in range of your fleet. Kamikazes were an act of desperation due to poorly trained air crews and an unstoppable Allied juggernaut, but they were a successful act of desperation. Every kamikaze that came within range of US antiaircraft fire was 10 times more likely to hit than a traditional attack. Every kamikaze that hit an Allied ship was 1-2 fewer Japanese airmen lost to get that hit. And while many kamikaze hits only managed to cause light damage, many more ships were now heading home for major repairs/refits, and US shipyards were working overtime to upgrade the ships moving from the Atlantic before they sailed west to war.

Good one!! Thanks for this clear and detailed video on the Kamikaze against the Allies.

Kamikazes had a better hit rateo/losses than conventional attaks. The war was lost anyway and no strategy would have changed that fact.

My late Uncle Jim was a gunners mate on the USS Astoria CL 90 in WW2. The USS Astoria killed 13 Kamakazi and had partial kills on another dozen from January 1945 to Wars end. That sounds as good a reason as any.

Very well made video and very interesting information. Thanks!

The Japanese strategy against the US was primarily that of demoralization. The goal of Yamamoto's campaign throughout the Pacific was to capture significant territory and goad the US into a decisive naval defeat such that, by the time the US had the capability to counter, the price of doing so would be so high as to dissuade the attempt.

I watched one video where the presenter went through the economics of kamikaze attacks verses straight up traditional attacks and found that as material, men and money wise, kamikaze attacks were much better suited to the type of warfare the Japanese were engaged in by comparing both types of attacks to ships damaged, taken out of action or sunk. In fact, if you look at the preparations of Britain to a possible German invasion, they have very eerie similarities. While not overtly claiming to be suicide defenses, the various Stop Lines, and "left behind" commando units weren't much different than what the Japanese were planning. Heck, the Brits were arming their home guard (old men) with P14 bayonets welded onto lengths of pipes as stop gap pikes to thwart German airborne landings. ...that's not much different than arming old Japanese men with bamboo pikes.

Excellent analysis IWM ! Subbed.

Good summary, well presented. Thank you.

You've got the voice young lady. Some women don't have the voice for narration but YOU'VE GOT IT. Good luck with your channel you've got the voice

One reason the Kamikaze failed was psychological warfare. Calling them "Baka and making everyone know it means foolish was, I suspect, as very effective way of removing the "Divine wind" metaphor. The original Kamikaze was a typhoon(the hurricane, not the airplane) that sunk a large mongolian fleet in 1281.

The ship my late grandfather was on (USS Stanley DD-478) was on radar picket duty off Okinawa in April '45 and was attacked by two rocket kamikaze (Ohka or Baka bomb). One was a direct hit but did not explode and punch clean through the ship. The second barely missed. The speculation being either a control surface was hit or the pilot. That said, it was close enough that its wing reportedly ripped the ensign (US flag) off the mast.

My old duty station from '78-'80, a museum now in San Diego, was home based in Yokosuka... Thanks for this video, it brings back many memories..!

If the Emperor and the generals weren't prepared to hop into the seat of a suicide plane - I sure as hell wouldn't have either.

The main reason is called PROXIMITY FUSES. This invention practically increased effectiveness of anti-air by a factor of 10 and combined with automatic radar fire control suddenly won the "plane vs anti-air" race. Of course Japanese had limited pilot reserves (USA had very popular civil pilot training program since 1920's which gave tens of thousands of pilots, and Japan being a small mountain island country could not compete with that), and also even before the war Japanese economy was about 10x smaller than economy of the USA.

By the last year of the war, the United States Pacific fleet was larger than the fleets of every other country in the world combined. That is a simple explanation why the Kamikaze attacks did not have a serious impact. Although these suicide attacks damaged many ships, they could never have an effect on the outcome of the conflict.

The biggest problem with kamikaze-plane development was lack of testpilot feedback.

Another great presentation IWM!. Another great presentation IWM!.

One reason why so many kamikaze were shot down is the then top secret fuse on five inch AAA shells. It used a fuse that only detonated when it was within lethal range of the offending aircraft. Called a proximity fuse. You may see a video here at the You Tube. Amazing how American engineers were able to overcome the 20K ‘g’ forces of a gun fired shell to enable the fuse to work.

At 3:10 of this video is a young man looking into the cockpit. I sure it's my dad Norman Robarr. My sister felt the same. As a young lad my dad told about this aircraft and the fact get got in to see it right at the end of the war in Japan. One thing that always upset him was the fact they didn't lock in the pilots but the media said it was so. He said he had looked at a bunch of the aircraft and could not find any type of locks.

Germans: “We now have the V2 rocket” Japanese: “hold my sake”

I think the proximity fuses probably had the biggest impact.

It's also VERY difficult in practice to dive a speeding aircraft onto a specific point on the surface of the planet. Particularly when that specific point is traveling at a rate of knots across a relatively-featureless surface.

Great overview! Thank you!

I spent some years as a US military brat in Japan. My dad had interactions with the Japanese military, aka Self-Defense forces. He struck up a strong friendship with a Japanese colonel who told this story - In WWII he was a young midshipman at Enoshima, the Japanese Naval Academy. One day his class was assembled and told that they were to be Kamikaze pilots, but the planes never showed up. Then they were told they were to drive explosive-laden motorboats into US Navy ships, but the boats never showed up. They they were told that were going to plant explosives by hand onto US tanks. Then they heard the infamous recording of the Emperor announcing the surrender of Japan. The members of his class climbed a nearby mountain where most of them committed suicide, some by disembowelment. The gentleman felt great guilt for the rest of his life over this for not committing suicide with classmates despite raising a family and having a good career later. Having seen the mountains and towns of Japan and spending some time there, I have no doubt most Japanese would have fought to the death and invading Japan would have killed millions on both sides. My own great-uncle, a navy man who was at Pearl Harbor, got the Purple Heart when the combat tug he was on at Okinawa (designed to move large navy ships that lost power), suddenly went into evasive moves upon sighting a kamikaze aircraft, pitching my Uncle into an open cargo hatch where he fell and broke his back, thus ending his navy career.

12:20 - Statistically the Kamikaze were actually decently successful. Strategically it was a terrible idea as Japan lacked trained pilots, planes and fuel. It was a desperate strategy and I don't believe many thought it would do anything more than delay the inevitable. Admiral Yamamoto famously believed that Japan could never win a war of attrition against the US and this proved to be so true. Now a truly terrible tactic was the Banzai charge.

"The fleeting nature of human life...", a powerful and beautiful summation.

My favorite song is "I Was a Kamikaze Pilot" by the Australian group Hoodoo Gurus. It's a catchy tune and actually sums up the Kamikaze quite nicely. Anyway, another good video!

I think the success of kamikaze attacks is best illustrated by that one image you can find online of where a early war zero hit the armored belt of a american cruiser, and just left a black smudge along with a slight dent where the engine hit.

Easy to crash Hard to crash at speed into a target Barely trained to fly

The ground launched Ohka 43 was used operationally as well In attempts to intercept B-29 bombers. The two seat variants shown in this documentary were modified versions of the Type 43 Ohka with the armament removed (the operational Ohka 43 was equipped with twin 20 mm cannon). Two interception attempts were recorded by B-29 crews but the B-29’s outran the Ohka’s.

As a kid in the 1960s and 1970s I had a scout master who had been in the US navy in the Pacific in WW2. He told us that at first the kamikaze attacks were somewhat effective, but 2 things changed all that. The first was that the Japanese were running low on qualified pilots so they were sending, essentially unexperienced teenagers to die on these suicidal flights. The second was that the US navy personnel, who were tasked with bringing down the Japanese planes, hadn't been firing until they got into range. When the personnel started shooting well before they got into range the Japanese began evasive maneuvers much sooner than before. Doing so slowed them down and made them easier targets. These 2 things made a huge difference.

I seen in another clip about the german raids over Britain that the way anti aircraft was pretty much shoot as much as possible and hope for the best as aiming was more or less a lottery. The shells were primed on the ground based on position, speed, altitude of the advancing enemy officers on the ground would need predict a solution to set their aiming. But also it was standard for the enemy to change altitude and such in order to make it more difficult to get hit. And at that time the US it said had a developed a new type of ammo that they kept secret, ammo that would explode only nearing enemy aircraft with good fragmentation in mind so it was way easier to hit planes. But they use it only above water so no unexploded shells be recovered and maintain that advantage over the enemy. First time they used it over land was at the Normandy push. So the reason the japanese air force got wrecked was mainly because of this new type of ammo. And kamikaze approach appeared because they were in very low supply of trained pilots and started to use newbies with no experience and proper training to do the simplest thing, launch and point to the enemy, becoming literally the first guided missiles. But had little success also because of how much that new ammo changed the power balance and really the whole course of the war. And like it said and i tend to agree, the lest known weapon that changed the course of the war. It was not the atom bomb the weapon that got the win but the AA smart ammo that was the equalizer against air supremacy which was so without counter in the beginning of the war.

My late father was enlisted and served aboard the Escort Carrier U.S.S. Lunga Point and was at Okinawa and Iwo Jima as well at other major battles. I remember when I was in High School and Dad and I were watching a documentary about Okinawa & Iwo and the Kamikaze attacks. The scene showed a Kamikaze coming from the bow direction and barely missing the stern and crashing right behind the Carrier. Dad got excited and said that scene was of the Lunga Point and he remembered it well. Dad was a Gunners Mate on one of the AA gun batteries. This video also shows the same kind of bow to stern attack and I cannot help but wonder if the Carrier was the Lunga Point. I assume that Kamikazes did this approach on other carriers as well, so I cannot say for certain that this scene in this film was actually the Lunga Point...but it could have been. The Lunga Point earned the distinction of being the only Carrier to have as many direct hits by Kamikazes as it did and still make it back to a safe port under its own power. After Japan surrendered, the Lunga Point and other carriers went to Tokyo and Nagasaki and picked up Allied P.O.W.'s and also many sick and injured Japanese.

Excellent site. Thank you. NZ

This is some amazing commentary, love it❤😊

Yep. The first kamikazes worked because they had skilled pilots and the US was not expecting planes to be flown directly into our ships. But within a short period of time there were no experienced pilots left and the US was prepared for kamikaze planes

Wow. You may have inadvertently found a rare bit of an entirely different bit of WW2 history. The A6M Zero footage at 1:26. Watch carefully as it rolls over. It has US Roundels on its topside wings. I believe there was only ever 1 Zero so marked. Is that US flight test footage of the Akutan Zero from late ‘42?

My father was a Chief Machinest's Mate on the USS Aaron Ward DM-34, a destroyer on picket duty during the Battle of Okinawa in Spring 1945. It suffered 6 direct kamikaze strikes yet did not sink. The casualties, however, were horrendous.

Very well made video! Good job.

From all I've seen and read about kamikaze tactics what's stuck out the most, and why it was such a massive failure, is because they went one at a time. Imagine if a swarm of them were coming at your ship and not just one at a time. Six or seven from all directions. That'd be insanity.

The name Kamikaze comes from the storms that destroyed Kublai Khans invasion fleet. The Germans also rammed fighters into American bombers for a short time (Sonderkommando 'Elbe') until the practice was stopped as being wasteful of men and aircraft.

I remember very vividly of seeing that destroyed A6m when I visited IWM in 2016!!

good to put many numbers to the stories . learned many things .

The Oka was by now means "crazy." The delivery system was flawed because the Betty was so vulnerable to fighters - their own crew called them flying cigarette lighters. The US Navy can count itself lucky that Oka wasn't developed sooner. It had a huge advantage over normal Kamikaze aircraft. If you put a 500 lb bomb under a Zero and crashed it into a ship, the bomb went off at contact - on the deck. You could still get serious damage to carriers or destroyers, and this damage knocked ships out an killed crew. The Oka however had its warhead built into the fuselage and had a fuse - the warhead was also much larger. That meant it went off after penetrating the vessel - the way a properly configured bomb would do. (See the USS Franklin which was bombed, not hit by Kamikaze and effectively sunk.) Anyway, the one Oka that hit a target put it on the bottom fast. Had the US invaded Kyushu in late 1945 Kamikazes would have had short hops to the landing ships (their new main target) and would have been very hard to shoot down. The improved Oka, as I recall, could take off from the ground if it didn't have to fly very far. As it was Okinawa saw the death of nearly 4,000 US sailors - more than IJ Kamikaze pilots. So the idea was sound - if not the precedent.

Apparently they also had other forms of kamikaze attacks during the tail end of the war that I had never heard about. I found some writing my grandpa had recalling his time in the pacific. "From Iwo Jima, we assembled for the invasion of Okinawa. This was a much larger and higher island and the airfield was on a high cliff. As we approached for the first landing, the navy and air force had done such a complete destruction that the side of the cliff was littered with vehicles and airplanes that had been blown off the field. At that point, the Japanese forces were pretty much limited to men and smaller guns so we were not subjected to the type of resistance that we faced of the other islands. However, there was one final unusual thing we faced that surprised us and that was that since the Japanese fleet was very small, as we made our way into the beaches we were surprised by Japanese popping up suddenly riding torpedoes. They had white rags around their heads and bottoms and were waving a small Japanese flag, steering the torpedoes with their feet. Later we found out that this was considered a very heroic act. Fortunately for us, they were easy marks for the machine guns."

Q: Why did kamikaze pilots wear helmets? A: In case they missed. 😆

Something else about the MXY-7 was that the pilot could either activate all 3 rockets or individually, and each one also had loops in the cockpit to hand their sword.

Worth remembering there were Royal Navy carriers at Okinawa as well as American. The British carriers fared better because, unlike the US carriers, the British carriers had armoured steel decks.

Failed because of our 'Proximity Fuses' in A/A rounds; devastated planes.

Using two narrators is good at keeping up the momentum of the video. Great video.

"Sir! I can't fight the enemy, I'm out of ammo!" General: "but not out of options.."

Career prospects were limited.

My understanding is that the pilots were not trained airforce pilots or pilots at all. They were the nerds and intellectuals who had so far avoided the military and, in the final hour, were doing their bit to defend their homeland. I heard that the actual Japanese airforce despised these guys.

I think a lot of people forget that just being a pilot in ww1 or ww2 period was tantamount to suicide, my great grandpa survived both wars as a pilot which is a miracle considering your life expectancy as a fighter pilot during the war was something like 3-6 weeks

Because the pilot is the most valuable asset.

The helicopter pilot in You Only Live Twice was a former Kamikaze pilot.

I think it is incorrect to say that the kamikaze was a “failure”. As was pointed out in the book “Hell to Play”, the Japanese military was working out strategies for the Allied Forces invasion of Japan. The Japanese military, as post war examination their military intelligence showed had learned lessons from these early attacks to make kamikaze attacks more effective when allied troop ships would be concentrated around the only two small beaches the allied forces could use to invade the mainland islands of Japan. The book presents a sobering assessment of the costs of invading Japan and the real possibility that Japan could have outlasted the allies. As these intelligence reports show, the Japanese rulers were planning for the war to last until 1948. The atomic bomb foiled that strategy of the Japanese military.

More about war in paific please. its verry interesting, but there are not so many videos abot that.

It was my impression that Kamikazes went after sexy targets like battleships and aircraft carriers but if they really wanted to stop an invasion like at Okinawa they should have been targeting troop transports and ships loaded with ammo etc.

1 bullet = 2-3 minutes 1 soldier = 18 > years Yeah, the conversion is a little steep there.

Even aside from cultural attitudes which may or may not be more accepting of suicide, the sheer economics make sense. Send out 100 normal attackers out, 10 come back, and none make a hit. Or send out 50, none come back, 1 makes a hit. Which is more cost-effective? Which costs fewer lives per hit?

3:10 if I'm not mistaken, they have one of those in the USAF museum near Wright-Patterson AFB. It's a wonky little plane.

Suicide aircrafts and attacks were not alien concept in west. In Poland during September '39 there were 10 thousand volunteers to become "living torpedo". Germans were also experimenting with the concept at the end of WW2.

By the time that started, Japan’s fate was sealed. It was a desperation move that could not have succeeded.

I haven't watched the video yet so I'm going to guess can someone tell me if I got it right or not The Americans produced so many ships that any ship the Japanese sank could be quickly replaced while Japan could replace the lives and planes lost so quickly Edit: watched the video the reason they failed basically was because they rarely made it to their targets

The successful invention, testing and deployment of the Proximity Fuse was arguably the single greatest factor in defeating the kamikaze. It was very, very difficult to down an airplane with small caliber shells. .30 cal, .50 cal, 20mm, 1.1 inch and even 40mm were not up to the task of consistently shooting down an airplane. They had to score a lucky hit and injure or kill the pilot, damage the engine or damage/destroy key control systems or perhaps a fuel tank. Even the vaunted German 88mm cannon, widely regarded as the finest multi-purpose artillery piece of WW2, had to expend tens of thousands of rounds to down an Allied bomber.5" shells were a much better bet, but they had to either score a direct hit (unlikely) or be fused exactly right so as to explode at the right altitude close enough to damage the target (also unlikely). The Proximity Fuse (or VT fuse) was a true game-changer.

They missed a perfect opportunity to name the Orca the Flying Thunder God (Flying Raijin)

It is true that the Japanese made a lot of overestimation regarding the capabilities of the Kamikaze, but in a way using planes to hit enemy battleships was a prelude to guided missiles.

It didn't fail, the idea was to take down something else as you went down, if you've ever played survival PVP games and were actually good at it, the most important thing is to not let your loss be another ones gain