Kamikazes

Japanese Kamikazes  One of the various forms of suicide is Japan is suicide as a Kamikaze. Kamikaze means "Divine Wind" in Japanese. Kamikazes as suicide bombers began during WWII. Pilots would delibratly crash their planes into something important if their plane was damaged to the point where the plane was totally useless. These crashes were considered accidental. In 1943-44, U.S. troops were moving toward Japan. Japan had lost many fighter planes, most of which had already been outclassed by U.S. planes. During the Battle of the Phillipine Sea, hundreds of Japanese planes had been shot down and hundreds of pilots were killed. This, along with disease, loss of and a lack of plane fuel and spare parts (for repairs), made battles bombings and other operations harder for the Japanese air force ([|IJNAS]). The fall of the Japanese military base of Saipan was a strategic gain for the U.S, as it allow the [|B-29 Superfortress] to directly attack the Japanese islands. The Japanese High Command predicted that the U.S would try to capture the Phillipines, as it was located near the oil field in the China Sea.

It was around this time the Japanese thought of Kamikazes. Germany and the U.S. had guided missiles. Guided missiles were much more accurate and deadly than an unguided missile. Japan didn't have guided missiles. They really needed to solve that problem. Admiral Onishi suggested that they have bombs attached to planes. (flown by people) and the plane would simply crash into the target, doing massive damage, but it would desroy the pane and kill the pilot. Surprisingly enough, there were twice as many pilots as there were aircraft. The Kamikaze tactic was used throughout WW2. Of course, the Japanese lost. This goes to show (Quote from 4th link) " that those who turned to systematic use of suicide warfare, ** lost their war." ** If you found this super-boring, you can read about Karoshi here. If you want to get nautious, you can read about Seppuku here. If you wish to take a quiz on this stuff, you can take it here. To learn more about the B-29 Superfortress and the IJNAS, click where you see the word, it is a link. This is where I got all this:
 * [|wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/index.htm]
 * [|en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze]
 * [|www.airgroup4.com/kamikaze.htm]
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