Now it will seem funny, but in the 30s of the twentieth century, Japanese design engineers were considered capable only of copying the achievements of colleagues from Europe and America. The fallacy of this view was then well understood by the Americans at Pearl Harbor. But the first Europeans to learn from themselves what Japanese engineers were, were Russians. In 1937, Soviet fighters collided in Chinese skies with the A5M, the world's first carrier-based monoplane fighter developed in Japan.

The Imperial Army set the Mitsubishi Design Bureau the task of creating a carrier-based fighter with a horizontal speed of at least 400 km/h. The normal speed of European biplanes was 350-370 km / h, the A5M monoplane on the first tests gave out 414 km / h, but the receivers did not believe it and demanded a test flight. For the second time, the A5M accelerated to 449 km / h and was put into service.

At first, experienced pilots of the Yokosuka Experimental Squadron preferred the old biplane, much more maneuverable in horizontal turns in the classic “dog dump” that originated over the trenches of the First World War. However, young pilots who tried to fight on vertical turns were delighted with a dive attack on slow targets.

The Second Sino-Japanese War began when a private of the Imperial Army, Shimura Kukujiro, got lost at night after going to the toilet. According to the legend, the Japanese command took advantage of the fact that the Chinese did not allow ordinary Japanese soldiers to be allowed to search, and gave the order for artillery. Kukujiro returned when his commanders had already begun bombarding Beijing. Twenty days later, on July 28, 1937, the capital of China was taken.

The Japanese had about 700 aircraft, the Chinese - 600, both of them mostly biplanes. Just before the start of the war, Chiang Kai-shek bought about a hundred advanced American Curtiss Hawk III biplanes. During the first month of fighting over Beijing and Shanghai, the Chinese shot down about 60 Japanese aircraft.

Soon, the Kaga aircraft carrier with an A5M squadron approached the coast of China. On September 7, over Lake Tan, Captain Igarashi, having a speed advantage of 60 km / h, shot down three Hawks in a row. Within a week, the Japanese had gained air supremacy.

On September 19, Japanese aircraft carried out a raid on Nanjing, which became the new capital of China. A total of 45 aircraft were involved, including 12 A5Ms. They were met by 23 Chinese fighters: American Hawks and Boeings, Italian Fiats, English Gladiators. During the battle, the Chinese shot down four Japanese biplanes, and the A5M shot down seven Chinese.

Chiang Kai-shek turned to the USSR for help, and Stalin announced Operation Z (similar to Operation X in Spain), sending the Soviet I-16 squadron (31 aircraft, 101 people) to a foreign war - the world's first production monoplane fighter with a retractable chassis flight, as well as a squadron of I-15 bis biplane fighters (31 aircraft, 101 people) and a squadron of SB bombers (31 aircraft, 153 people).

Volunteer pilots in China. From right to left: F.P. Polynin, P.V. Rychagov, A.G. Rytov, A.S. Blagoveshchensky

Stalin's falcons became volunteers as follows: in early October 1937, the cadets of the Moscow Zhukovsky Academy were gathered by commanders and announced: “The Motherland decided to send you on a secret special mission to China. Who refuses?

There were none.

The best Soviet pilots at that time were in Spain, and people who had absolutely no combat experience went to China. They planned to use monoplanes in conjunction with biplanes: in the pre-war aviation doctrine of the USSR, the theory dominated that high-speed monoplanes should catch up with the enemy and tie him up in battle, and then destroy him with more maneuverable biplanes.

In addition to inexperienced pilots and outdated views on tactics, there was another problem. It was easy for Stalin to wave his hand over the map: “Deliver planes to China!” But how to do it? The nearest airfield is in Alma-Ata, and it turned out that we had to fly through the Himalayas. Without maps, at extreme altitudes, without intermediate airfields and in open cockpits.

The first plane, which set off to lay the route, flew into a remote gorge, noticed it too late and crashed on impact against a sheer wall. The navigator managed to survive and ten days later, frostbitten and hungry, went out to the locals. Gradually, the route was laid, but the Soviet squadrons still lost every second aircraft during the flight to China.

Fighter I-16 with identification marks of the Air Force of the Republic of China

By the time the Soviet planes and pilots got there, 81 planes remained from the Chinese Air Force, almost all the Hawks were shot down. Japanese aircraft dominated the skies. The Japanese Land Army stormed Nanjing. On November 21, 1937, seven I-16s flew over Nanjing on their first flight (the I-16 was nicknamed "donkey" in the USSR, and "fly" and "rat" in Spain). Led by commander Blagoveshchensky, the pilots entered into battle with 20 Japanese aircraft. The Donkeys shot down one bomber and two A5Ms without loss.

The next day, November 22, six I-16s engaged six A5Ms, shooting down one of them. The Japanese pilot Miyazaka was taken prisoner.

With similar performance characteristics, as Soviet pilots found out, the A5M was seriously inferior to the I-16 in terms of weapon accuracy and the weight of a second salvo. They were equipped with two old English machine guns "Vickers", and on the I-16 - four of the latest Soviet machine guns ShKAS.

The Japanese did not expect the appearance of enemy monoplanes at all. However, they retained the advantage of combat experience.

Georgy Zakharov, a participant in the battles, recalled: “Already later, having fought, gaining experience in battles, we naturally came to understand the tactics of modern air combat by those standards. And at first, the pilots did not even take into account such tactical basics as entering the attack from the side of the sun. Therefore, they often started the battle from a deliberately disadvantageous position.

Soviet pilots quickly retrained: they abandoned the tactics of sharing monoplanes and biplanes and mastered combat in vertical turns.

On November 24, the Mikado pilots took revenge: six A5Ms, escorting eight Bombers, shot down three of the six I-16s that took off to intercept.

On December 1, the Japanese Air Force tried to bomb the Nanjing airfield where the Soviet units were based. In total that day, in five sorties, the Russians shot down about ten Bombers and four A5Ms. Their losses - two I-16s, the pilots jumped out with parachutes. One plane landed on a flooded rice field due to running out of fuel.

The Chinese peasants dragged him out with oxen. The bombers were never able to descend for an aimed strike and dropped their cargo at an altitude of five kilometers without causing damage to the target.

By the end of 1937, the Soviet Air Force had gained air supremacy over Nanjing. The Japanese took their aircraft away from the front line.

On New Year's Eve, nine SB bombers, piloted by Soviet pilots under the command of Machin, took off from Nanjing and raided Japanese air bases near Shanghai. According to our pilots, in total they destroyed 30-35 Japanese aircraft on the ground.

Another group of bombers that day reported the destruction of the Yamato light aircraft carrier, which had not had time to take its planes into the sky. But, according to Japanese data, there has never been any Yamato aircraft carrier in the Japanese fleet. There was another ship with that name, but it was sunk by an American submarine in 1943. Perhaps the Soviet bombers destroyed some large transport.

In January, after the bombing of the bridges across the Yellow River, the SB of squadron commander Captain Polynin was intercepted by an A5M troika and shot down. His son later said that his father's plane planned and landed in a rice field between the infantry positions of the Japanese and Chinese.

For the next ten minutes, Polynin, holding a pistol in his hand, watched with interest the Japanese and Chinese soldiers running towards his bomber from different directions. If the Japanese were the first to run, the captain, in accordance with the order, was obliged to shoot himself in the head. He was lucky: the Chinese ran faster.

On February 23, 1938, 28 SB planes under the command of Commander Polynin made a sensational air raid on a Japanese air base on the island of Taiwan, dropping 2080 bombs and destroying 40 new Italian twin-engine Fiat BR.20 bombers and about fifty of the best Japanese pilots caught in the bombing during lunch.

Polynin's squadron used a trick: it went around Taiwan in a wide arc and went east, from Japan. Later, the Japanese would do the same in the first raid on Pearl Harbor, and also successfully: they would be taken for their own and not pay attention to them.

In the spring of 1938, Soviet and Japanese pilots began to ram each other in the Chinese sky. The first ram was made by the plane of Senior Lieutenant Shuster in an air battle on April 29 over Wuhan: during a frontal attack, he did not turn and collided in the air with the A5M. Both pilots were killed.

In May, a successful ramming on the I-16 was made by an ace pilot (seven air victories), Senior Lieutenant Gubenko. A year later, he received the Gold Star of the Hero for this.

On July 18, the first air ram was carried out by the Japanese. In an air battle over Nanchang, Lieutenant Commodore Nango's A5M collided with a Soviet fighter he had previously fired upon. The Japanese died, but the Soviet pilot, junior lieutenant Sharay, survived, managed to land the damaged I-16, and a year later received the Order of the Red Banner for this battle.

These cases were of interest to Takijiro Onishi, the future developer of the air raid on Pearl Harbor, and at that time the commander of aviation on the aircraft carrier Hose. In 1938, he founded the Society for the Study of Air Power and published the book Combat Ethics of the Imperial Navy, which, in particular, addresses the issue of the readiness of subordinates to complete the task even at the cost of their own lives.

These developments were very useful to him in 1944, when he began to form the first squadron of suicide pilots (remained in history as the "father of the kamikaze"). In October, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, his subordinates conducted the first and most successful operation against the US Navy, sinking one and damaging six aircraft carriers (losing 17 aircraft in the process).

After that, Onishi was instructed to create a suicide air fleet. Japanese aviation has already switched to the next generation of its aircraft - the famous A6M Zero - so the obsolete A5M has become the main aircraft for kamikaze. Propaganda in the country began to work, and soon all the boys of Japan dreamed of dying heroically, according to the custom of samurai warriors, leaving the world to say goodbye to short verses “jisei” (jisei is a song of death, poems that were written before suicide). For example, like this:

We just want to fall
Cherry petals in spring
So clean and radiant!

In 1944-1945, 2525 naval and 1388 army pilots were killed in kamikaze attacks.

On April 29, the birthday of Emperor Hirohito, over the three-city Wuhan, which became the next capital of China after the fall of Nanjing, the largest air battle of the entire war took place.

The Japanese decided to avenge the bombing of Taiwan and stage a bomber raid under the cover of 27 A5M. 45 I-16s flew to intercept them. In a 30-minute battle, 11 Japanese fighters and 10 bombers were shot down, while 12 aircraft piloted by Chinese and Soviet pilots were lost. After that, the Japanese did not raid Wuhan for a month.

And TB-3 arrived in the Soviet units. At the end of the summer, a group of these bombers defiantly flew over the Japanese islands during the day, dropping not bombs, but leaflets.

The Japanese understood the hint correctly and began to probe the ground for peace negotiations with the USSR. In the summer of 1938, the first batch of Soviet pilots returned to the USSR. The commander of the I-16 squadron, Captain Blagoveshchensky, was supposed to overtake the captured A5M for study in Moscow, but the Japanese agents in China worked well, and sugar was poured into his gas tanks. Over the Himalayas, the engine failed and the plane crashed. Blagoveshchensky, with a broken arm, spent several days getting to his own people and was immediately arrested by them.

The ace pilot (14 victories in the skies of China) was transferred to Moscow and spent several unforgettable months at the Lubyanka, while the investigators found out if he had crashed the latest Japanese fighter on purpose. On the eve of Stalin, dissatisfied with the heavy losses on the Himalayan route, ordered the NKVD to look for saboteurs there.

This hassle ended with the fact that one day, during interrogation, the investigator pointed to a paper lying in front of him. “This is an anonymous denunciation that you have long been an enemy of the people and a Japanese spy. And this, - he pointed to a stack of sheets lying next to him, - are the statements of your colleagues who vouch for you as for themselves. You may go, Comrade Captain."

A year later, Alexey Blagoveshchensky received the Gold Star of the Hero for China.

The popularized and highly distorted image of the Japanese kamikaze, formed in the minds of Europeans, has little to do with who they really were. We imagine kamikaze as a fanatical and desperate warrior, with a red bandage around his head, a man with an angry look behind the controls of an old plane, rushing towards the target, shouting "banzai!". Japanese warriors since the time of the samurai considered death literally as part of life.

They got used to the fact of death and were not afraid of its approach.

Educated and experienced pilots flatly refused to go to the kamikaze squads, referring to the fact that they simply had to stay alive in order to train new fighters who were destined to become suicide bombers.

Thus, the more young people who sacrificed themselves, the younger were the recruits who took their places. Many were practically teenagers, not even 17 years old, who had a chance to prove their loyalty to the empire and prove themselves as “real men”.

Kamikaze recruited from poorly educated young guys, the second or third boys in families. This selection was due to the fact that the first (i.e. eldest) boy in the family usually became the heir to the fortune and therefore did not fall into the military sample.

Kamikaze pilots received a form to fill out and took five oath points:

• The soldier is obliged to fulfill his obligations.
• A soldier is obliged to observe the rules of decency in his life.
• The soldier is obliged to highly revere the heroism of the military forces.
• A soldier must be a highly moral person.
• A soldier must live a simple life.

But kamikaze were not only air suicide bombers, they also acted under water.

The idea of ​​creating suicide torpedoes was born in the minds of the Japanese military command after a brutal defeat in the battle of Midway Atoll. While the drama known to the world was unfolding in Europe, a completely different war was going on in the Pacific. In 1942, the Japanese Imperial Navy decided to attack Hawaii from the tiny Midway Atoll, the extreme western group of the Hawaiian archipelago. The atoll was home to a US airbase, which the Japanese army decided to launch its large-scale offensive from, destroying it.

But the Japanese miscalculated. The Battle of Midway was one of the major failures and the most dramatic episode in that part of the globe. During the attack, the imperial fleet lost four large aircraft carriers and many other ships, but accurate data on Japanese casualties have not been preserved. However, the Japanese never really considered their soldiers, but even without that, the loss greatly demoralized the military spirit of the fleet.

This defeat marked the beginning of a series of Japanese failures at sea, and the military command had to invent alternative ways of waging war. Real patriots should have appeared, brainwashed, with a gleam in their eyes and not afraid of death. So there was a special experimental unit of underwater kamikaze. These suicide bombers were not much different from aircraft pilots, their task was identical - sacrificing themselves to destroy the enemy.

Underwater kamikazes used kaiten torpedoes to carry out their mission under water, which means “the will of heaven” in translation. In fact, the kaiten was a symbiosis of a torpedo and a small submarine. He worked on pure oxygen and was able to reach speeds of up to 40 knots, thanks to which he could hit almost any ship of that time. A torpedo from the inside is an engine, a powerful charge and a very compact place for a suicide pilot. At the same time, it was so narrow that even by the standards of small Japanese, there was a catastrophic lack of space. On the other hand, what difference does it make when death is inevitable.

Midway operation

Tower of the main caliber of the battleship MUTSU (Mutsu)

1 Japanese kaiten at Camp Dealy, 1945 3. Kaitens in drydock, Kure, October 19, 1945. 4, 5. A submarine sunk by American aircraft during the Okinawa campaign.

Directly in front of the face of the kamikaze is a periscope, next to it is the speed switch, which essentially regulates the oxygen supply to the engine. At the top of the torpedo there was another lever responsible for the direction of movement. The dashboard was crammed with all sorts of devices - fuel and oxygen consumption, pressure gauge, clock, depth gauge and so on. At the pilot's feet there is a valve for letting seawater into the ballast tank to stabilize the weight of the torpedo. It was not so easy to control a torpedo, besides, the training of pilots left much to be desired - schools appeared spontaneously, but just as spontaneously they were destroyed by American bombers. Initially, kaiten were used to attack enemy ships moored in bays. A carrier submarine with kaitens fixed outside (from four to six pieces) detected enemy ships, built a trajectory (literally turned around relative to the location of the target), and the submarine captain gave the last order to the suicide bombers. Through a narrow pipe, the suicide bombers penetrated into the cabin of the kaiten, battened down the hatches and received orders by radio from the captain of the submarine. The kamikaze pilots were completely blind, they did not see where they were going, because it was possible to use the periscope for no more than three seconds, since this led to the risk of detecting a torpedo by the enemy.

At first, kaitens terrified the American fleet, but then imperfect equipment began to malfunction. Many suicide bombers did not swim to the target and suffocated from lack of oxygen, after which the torpedo simply sank. A little later, the Japanese improved the torpedo by equipping it with a timer, leaving no chance for either the kamikaze or the enemy. But at the very beginning, kaiten claimed humanity. The torpedo was provided with an ejection system, but it did not work in the most efficient way, or rather, did not work at all.

At high speed, no kamikaze could safely eject, so this was abandoned in later designs. Very frequent raids by submarines with kaitens led to the fact that the devices rusted and failed, since the body of the torpedo was made of steel no more than six millimeters thick. And if the torpedo sank too deep to the bottom, then the pressure simply flattened the thin body, and the kamikaze died without due heroism.

It was possible to use kaitens more or less successfully only at the very beginning. Thus, following the results of naval battles, the official propaganda of Japan announced that 32 American ships were sunk, including aircraft carriers, battleships, cargo ships and destroyers. But these figures are considered too exaggerated. By the end of the war, the American Navy had significantly increased its combat power, and it was increasingly difficult for kaiten pilots to hit targets. Large combat units in the bays were reliably guarded, and it was very difficult to approach them imperceptibly even at a depth of six meters, the kaitens also had no opportunity to attack the ships scattered in the open sea - they simply could not withstand long swims.

The defeat at Midway pushed the Japanese to desperate steps in blind revenge on the American fleet. Kaiten torpedoes were a crisis solution that the imperial army had high hopes for, but they did not materialize. Kaitens had to solve the most important task - to destroy enemy ships, and no matter what the cost, however, the farther, the less effective their use in hostilities was seen. A ridiculous attempt to irrationally use the human resource led to the complete failure of the project. War is over

Japanese boat Type A of Second Lieutenant Sakamaki at low tide on a reef off the coast of Oahu, December 1941

Japanese dwarf boats Type C on the American-captured island of Kiska, Aleutian Islands, September 1943

Japanese landing ship Type 101 (S.B. No. 101 Type) in the harbor of Kure after the surrender of Japan. 1945

Aircraft-damaged Yamazuki Mari transport and Type C dwarf submarine abandoned on the shores of Guadalcanal

Midget boat Koryu Type D at the shipyard Yokosuka Naval Base, September 1945

In 1961, the Americans raised the boat (Type A), which sank in December 1941 in the Pearl Harbor canal. The hatches of the boat are open from the inside, a number of publications report that the mechanic of the boat Sasaki Naoharu escaped and was captured

"You fall too fast, but you manage to understand
All these days, all your short life, you got used to dying.
Empire Guardian
At the distant junction of 2 worlds
Empire Guardian
Sentry of invisible posts
Guardian of the empire in darkness and fire
Year after year in the battles of the Holy War" (Aria. "Guardian of the Empire")

It is hard to disagree with this, but the above quote by the greatest Japanese writer Yukio Mishima, the author of such works as The Golden Temple, Patriotism, and others, after all, very accurately fits the image of kamikaze pilots. "Divine wind" - this is how this term is translated from Japanese. Last October marked the 70th anniversary of the first formation of military units of suicide pilots.

By that time, Japan was already hopelessly losing the war. The occupation of the Japanese islands by the Americans was approaching every day, less than a year remained before the Americans dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9), allegedly avenging Pearl Harbor, and today blaming Russia for this; they say that the USSR was the first to test a nuclear weapon in order to use it on the Japanese. There is not a single documentary confirmation of this and never will be; even if they appear, they will be akin to freshly printed green candy wrappers that need to be burned as slander without any hesitation or hesitation. In a similar retaliation, I will gladly rewrite the course of the Battle of Midway in the right revisionist context, which was the turning point of the war in the Pacific theater of operations, or simply portray the Americans as the main aggressor and instigator of World War II; I do not hesitate to call them the aggressors of the war in the Pacific, which is more than fair. For there should never be any justification for the fact that, unlike the Japanese, the Pindos got up, capturing not only the territories controlled by Japan, but also turning the country into their own private springboard for attacking the USSR.

The history of kamikaze began at the end of October 1944. By that time, the Japanese still held the Philippines, but every day the Japanese forces were fading. The Japanese fleet by that time had completely lost its dominance at sea. On July 15, 1944, the US troops took the base of the Japanese army on the island of Saipan. As a result of this, long-range bomber aircraft of the United States had the opportunity to strike directly at the territory of Japan. After the fall of Saipan, the Japanese high command assumed that the next American target would be the capture of the Philippines, due to its strategic location between Japan and its seized oil sources in southeast Asia.

It immediately becomes obvious that one of the reasons for the defeat of Japan in World War II is oil. Even then, the Americans did not hide the fact that complete control over oil resources is the key to success in the struggle for world domination and Japan's resource famine was just an overture to a big cold diplomatic game, as a result of which the USSR would be destroyed, which happened in 1991. Both Japan and Russia, as the legal successor of the Soviet Union, and even Korea became victims of American military and diplomatic aggression. It is this tragedy that today should unite Russia not only with China, with which we are now building good-neighborly partnership relations, but also with Japan and Korea, which have been subjected to American fanaticism. After all, if Japan comes out in support of the peaceful reunification of Korea, then it can later reorient itself towards Beijing and Moscow, and this is the isolation of the United States in the North Pacific and the interception of the strategic initiative by Russia in the Pacific; in other words "pacifization" instead of "balkanization". If Hawaii also declares its independence and secedes from the United States, then this is already a Pacific collapse of America, which they will do their best to prevent.

On October 17, 1944, the American invaders began the battle in Leyte Gulf, attacking the island of Suluan, where the Japanese military base was located. Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi decided on the need to form squads of suicide pilots. At the briefing, he said: “I don’t think there is any other way to accomplish the task before us, except to bring down the Zero armed with a 250-kilogram bomb on an American aircraft carrier. If the pilot, seeing an enemy aircraft or ship, strains all his will and forces, will turn the plane into a part of itself - this is the most perfect weapon. And what greater glory can there be for a warrior than to give his life for the emperor and for the country?

Takijiro Onishi, father of the kamikaze

In addition to the resource, the Japanese also experienced a shortage of personnel. Aircraft losses were no less catastrophic and often irreparable. Japan was significantly inferior to the Americans in the air. One way or another, but the formation of air squadrons of death became, in fact, a gesture of desperation, a hope, if not to stop the advance of the Americans, then at least significantly slow down their progress. Vice Admiral Onishi and Commander of the Joint Fleet, Admiral Toyoda, knowing full well that the war had already been lost, in creating a suicide pilot corps, the calculation was made that the damage from kamikaze attacks inflicted on the American fleet would allow Japan to avoid unconditional surrender and make peace on a relatively acceptable conditions.

German Vice Admiral Helmut Geye once wrote: “It is possible that in our people there are a certain number of people who will not only declare their readiness to voluntarily go to death, but also find enough spiritual strength in themselves to really do it. But I have always believed and still believe that such feats cannot be performed by representatives of the white race. It happens, of course, that thousands of brave people in the heat of battle act without sparing their lives; this, no doubt, has often happened in the armies of all countries of the world. But for this or that person to voluntarily doom himself to certain death in advance, such a form of combat use of people is unlikely to become generally accepted among our peoples. The European simply does not have that religious fanaticism that would justify such exploits, the European is deprived of contempt for death and, consequently, for his own life ... ".

For Japanese warriors, brought up in the spirit of bushido, the main priority was to fulfill the order, even at the cost of their own lives. The only thing that distinguished kamikaze from ordinary Japanese soldiers was the almost complete lack of chances of surviving the mission.

The term "kamikaze" is directly related to the national religion of the Japanese - Shinto (Jap. "the way of the gods"), because the Japanese, as you know, are pagans. This word was called a hurricane, which twice - in 1274 and 1281, defeated the fleet of the Mongol conquerors off the coast of Japan. According to Japanese beliefs, the hurricane was sent by the thunder god Raijin and the wind god Fujin. Actually, thanks to Shintoism, a single Japanese nation was formed, this religion is the basis of Japanese national psychology. In accordance with it, the mikado (emperor) is the descendant of the spirits of the sky, and every Japanese is the descendant of less significant spirits. Therefore, for the Japanese, the emperor, due to his divine origin, is related to the whole people, acts as the head of the nation-family and as the main priest of Shinto. And it was considered important for every Japanese to be devoted above all to the emperor.

The Japanese were especially influenced by such currents as Zen Buddhism and Confucianism. Zen became the main religion of the samurai, who found in the meditation he used a way to fully reveal their inner capabilities; the principles of obedience and unconditional submission to the authority of filial piety, proclaimed by Confucianism, found fertile ground in Japanese society.

Samurai traditions said that life is not eternal, and the warrior had to die with a smile, rushing without fear into the accumulation of enemies, which was embodied in the spirit of kamikaze. The suicide pilots also had their own traditions. They wore the same uniform as regular pilots, the only difference was that each of the 7 buttons had 3 cherry blossoms stamped on them. An integral part was the symbolic headband of the hachimaki (the same was sometimes worn by regular pilots), which depicted either the solar disk of the hinomaru, or some mystical slogan was engraved on it. The most widespread was the slogan: "7 lives for the emperor."

Another tradition has become a sip of sake before takeoff. If you watched Pearl Harbor, you probably noticed that other pilots followed the same principle. Right on the airfield, they set the table with a white tablecloth - according to Japanese (and in general - East Asian) beliefs, this is a symbol of death. They filled cups with drink and offered them to each of the pilots lined up in line, setting off for the flight. Kamikaze accepted the cup with both hands, bowed low and took a sip.

In addition to a farewell sip of sake, the suicide pilot was given boxes of food (bento), with 8 rice balls (makizushi). Such boxes were originally issued to pilots who went on a long flight. But already in the Philippines they began to supply kamikazes. Firstly, because their last flight could become long and it was necessary to maintain forces. Secondly, for the pilot, who knew that he would not return from the flight, the box of food served as psychological support.

All the suicide bombers left in special small unpainted wooden caskets their nails and strands of their hair to send to their relatives, as each of the Japanese soldiers did.

Do you know the name Tome Torihama? She went down in history as "mother" or "aunt kamikaze". She worked at a diner where kamikazes came in a few minutes before departure. Hospitality Torihama-san was so wide that the pilots began to call her mother ( Dokko: but haha) or aunt ( Dokko: both-san). From 1929 until the end of her life, she lived in the village of Tiran (Chiran; not to be confused with the capital of Albania!); currently it is the city of Minamikyushu. When the American occupiers entered Chiran, she was at first shocked by the lack of manners (I will add that it is in the blood of all current and then Americans), but then she changed her anger to mercy and began to treat them in the same way as with kamikaze, and those in turn, the suicide pilots reciprocated.

Tome Torihama surrounded by kamikaze

Later, she will make efforts to preserve the memory of the heroes of the country. In 1955, Tome raised money to make a copy of the statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, which was installed in honor of the dead in a small temple near the Kamikaze Museum in Tirana.

Statue of the goddess Kannon in Wakayama

I will add that a well-known Japanese company Canon, to whom we owe the appearance of printers and printing devices, is named after this goddess. Goddess of Mercy.

On October 25, 1944, the first massive kamikaze attack against enemy aircraft carriers was carried out in Leyte Gulf. Having lost 17 aircraft, the Japanese managed to destroy one and damage six enemy aircraft carriers. It was an undoubted success for Onishi Takijiro's innovative tactics, especially considering that the day before Admiral Fukudome Shigeru's Second Air Fleet had lost 150 aircraft without success at all. The first Zero hit the stern of the USS Senty, killing 16 people in the explosion and starting a fire. A few minutes later, the aircraft carrier "Swany" was also put out of action. The fires that arose from a kamikaze hit on the deck of the escort aircraft carrier Saint Lo soon caused an arsenal detonation, as a result of which the ship was torn apart. 114 crew members were killed. In total, as a result of this attack, the Japanese sank one and disabled six aircraft carriers, losing 17 aircraft.

However, not all Japanese pilots shared this tactic, and there were exceptions. On November 11, one of the American destroyers rescued a Japanese kamikaze pilot. The pilot was part of the Second Air Fleet of Admiral Fukudome, deployed from Formosa on October 22 to participate in Operation Se-Go. He explained that upon arrival in the Philippines, there was no talk of suicide attacks. But on October 25, kamikaze groups began to hastily be created in the Second Air Fleet. Already on October 27, the commander of the squadron in which the pilot served announced to his subordinates that their unit was intended to carry out suicide attacks. The pilot himself thought the very idea of ​​such strikes was stupid. He had no intention of dying, and the pilot confessed in all sincerity that he had never felt the urge to commit suicide.

In the face of growing losses of bomber aircraft, the idea was born to attack American ships with fighters alone. The light Zero was not capable of lifting a heavy powerful bomb or torpedo, but could carry a 250-kilogram bomb. Of course, you cannot sink an aircraft carrier with one such bomb, but it was quite realistic to put it out of action for a long period. Enough to damage the flight deck.

Admiral Onishi came to the conclusion that 3 kamikaze aircraft and 2 escort fighters were a small group, and therefore quite mobile and optimal in composition. Escort fighters played an extremely important role. They had to repel the attacks of enemy interceptors until the kamikaze planes rushed to the target.

Due to the danger of being detected by radar or fighter aircraft from aircraft carriers, kamikaze pilots used 2 methods of reaching the target - flying at an extremely low altitude of 10-15 meters and at an extremely high altitude of 6-7 kilometers. Both methods required the proper qualification of pilots and reliable equipment.

However, in the future it was necessary to use any aircraft, including obsolete and training ones, and young and inexperienced replenishment went into the kamikaze pilots, who simply did not have time to train enough.

Initial success led to an immediate expansion of the program. Over the next few months, more than 2,000 aircraft made suicide attacks. New types of weapons were also developed, including Yokosuka MXY7 Oka manned cruise bombs, Kaiten manned torpedoes, and small explosive speedboats.

On October 29, kamikaze aircraft damaged the aircraft carriers Franklin (33 aircraft were destroyed on board the ship, 56 sailors died) and Bello Wood (92 killed, 44 wounded). On November 1, the destroyer Abner Reed was sunk, and 2 more destroyers were put out of action. On November 5, the aircraft carrier Lexington was damaged (41 people were killed, 126 were injured). On November 25, 4 more aircraft carriers were damaged.

On November 26, kamikazes attacked transports and cover ships in Leyte Gulf. The destroyer Cooper was sunk, the battleships Colorado, Maryland, the cruiser St. Louis and 4 more destroyers were damaged. In December, the destroyers Mahan, Ward, Lamson and 6 transports were sunk, several dozen ships were damaged. On January 3, 1945, a kamikaze hit on the aircraft carrier Ommani Bay caused a fire; soon, as a result of the detonation of ammunition, the ship exploded and sank, taking 95 sailors with it. On January 6, the battleships New Mexico and the resurrected California after Pearl Harbor were damaged.

In total, as a result of kamikaze actions in the battle for the Philippines, the Americans lost 2 aircraft carriers, 6 destroyers and 11 transports, 22 aircraft carriers, 5 battleships, 10 cruisers and 23 destroyers were damaged.

On March 21, 1945, an unsuccessful attempt was made to use the Yokosuka MXY7 Oka manned projectile by the Thunder Gods detachment for the first time. This aircraft was a rocket-powered craft designed specifically for kamikaze attacks and was equipped with a 1,200-kilogram bomb. During the attack, the Oka projectile was lifted into the air by a Mitsubishi G4M aircraft until it was within the radius of destruction. After undocking, the pilot in hover mode had to bring the plane as close as possible to the target, turn on the rocket engines and then ram the intended ship at great speed. Allied troops quickly learned to attack the Oka carrier before it could launch a projectile. The first successful use of Oka aircraft occurred on April 12, when a projectile piloted by 22-year-old Lieutenant Dohi Saburo sank the destroyer of the Mannert L. Abele radar patrol.

Yokosuka MXY7 Oka

But the greatest damage was caused by kamikaze in the battles for Okinawa. Of the 28 ships sunk by aircraft, kamikazes were sent to the bottom of 26. Of the 225 damaged ships, kamikazes damaged 164, including 27 aircraft carriers and several battleships and cruisers. 4 British aircraft carriers received 5 hits from kamikaze aircraft. In total, 1465 aircraft participated in the attacks.
On April 3, the USS Wake Island was put out of action. On April 6, along with the entire crew (94 people), the destroyer Bush was destroyed, into which 4 aircraft crashed. The destroyer Calhoun was also sunk. On April 7, the aircraft carrier Hancock was damaged, 20 aircraft were destroyed, 72 were killed and 82 people were injured.

USS Hancock after a kamikaze attack

Until April 16, another destroyer was sunk, 3 aircraft carriers, a battleship and 9 destroyers were put out of action. On May 4, the Sangamon aircraft carrier with 21 aircraft on board burned down completely. On May 11, hit by two kamikazes caused a fire on the aircraft carrier Bunker Hill, in which 80 aircraft were destroyed, 391 people were killed and 264 were injured.

Fire on USS Bunker Hill

Kiyoshi Ogawa, the kamikaze who rammed the Bunker Hill

By the end of the battle for Okinawa, the American fleet had lost 26 ships, 225 were damaged, including 27 aircraft carriers.

The Thunder Gods Corps suffered heavy losses. Of the 185 Oka planes used for the attacks, 118 were destroyed by the enemy, 438 pilots were killed, including 56 "gods of thunder" and 372 crew members of carrier aircraft. The last ship lost by the United States in the Pacific War was the destroyer Callaghan. In the Okinawa area on July 29, 1945, using the darkness of the night, the old low-speed Aichi D2A training biplane with a 60-kilogram bomb at 0-41 managed to break through to the Callaghan and ram it. The blow fell on the captain's bridge. A fire broke out, which led to the explosion of ammunition in the cellar. The crew left the sinking ship. 47 sailors were killed, 73 people were injured.

By the end of World War II, 2,525 kamikaze pilots were trained by Japanese naval aviation, and the army provided another 1,387. According to Japanese statements, 81 ships were sunk and 195 damaged as a result of kamikaze attacks. According to American data, the losses amounted to 34 sunk and 288 damaged ships. In addition, the psychological effect on American sailors was also of great importance.

Japanese aviation never had a problem with a shortage of kamikaze pilots, on the contrary, there were three times more volunteers than aircraft. The bulk of the suicide bombers were twenty-year-old university students, the reasons for joining the suicide squads ranged from patriotism to the desire to glorify their family. And yet, the underlying causes of this phenomenon lie in the very culture of Japan, in the traditions of bushido and medieval samurai. A huge role in this phenomenon is also played by the special attitude of the Japanese towards death. To die with honor for their country and for the Emperor was the highest goal for many young Japanese of that time. Kamikazes were extolled as heroes, they were prayed for in temples as saints, their relatives immediately became the most respected people in their city.

Known kamikaze

Matome Ugaki - Vice Admiral, Commander of the 5th Air Fleet of the Japanese Navy. He made a sortie to the Okinawa region with a kamikaze mission on August 15, 1945 as part of a group of 7 aircraft belonging to the 701st air group. Died.

Ugaki Matome

Seki, Yukio - lieutenant, graduate of the Naval Academy. Not sharing the views of the command on the tactics of "kamikaze" obeyed the order and led the first special shock detachment. He made a sortie from the Mabalacat airbase to Leyte Gulf with a "kamikaze" mission on October 25, 1944, leading a group of 5 aircraft belonging to the 201st Air Corps. The aircraft carrier "Saint-Lo" was destroyed by a ram. Died. Other members of the group disabled the Kalinin Bey aircraft carrier, and 2 more were damaged. The first successful kamikaze attack.

Yukio Seki

Interestingly, the kamikaze sang the famous song "Umi Yukaba" before the flight.

Original:

海行かば (Umi yukaba)
水漬く屍 (Mizuku kabane)
山行かば (Yama yukaba)
草生す屍 (Kusa musu kabane)
大君の (O: kimi no)
辺にこそ死なめ (He ni koso siname)
かへり見はせじ (Kaerimi wa sedzi)

or option:

長閑には死なじ (Nodo ni wa sinadzi)

Translation:

If we go by sea
Let the sea swallow us
If we leave the mountain,
May the grass cover us.
O great sovereign,
We will die at your feet
Let's not look back.

The shock of the Anglo-Saxons was so serious that the commander of the US Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester Nimitz, suggested that information about kamikaze attacks be kept secret. American military censorship placed severe restrictions on the dissemination of reports of suicide pilot attacks. The British allies also did not spread the word about the kamikaze until the end of the war.

It should be noted that in hopeless situations, in the heat of battle, fire rams were made by pilots from many countries. But no one, except the Japanese, did not rely on suicidal attacks.

Kantaro Suzuki, Prime Minister of Japan during the war. Replaced Hiroshi Oshima at this post

The former Prime Minister of Japan, Admiral Kantaro Suzuki himself, who more than once looked death in the eye, assessed the kamikaze and their tactics as follows: “The spirit and exploits of the kamikaze pilots, of course, cause deep admiration. But this tactic, viewed from the point of view of strategy, is defeatist. A responsible commander would never resort to such emergency measures. Kamikaze attacks are clear evidence of our fear of inevitable defeat when there were no other options to change the course of the war. The air operations that we began to conduct in the Philippines did not leave any opportunity to survive. After the death of experienced pilots, less experienced and, in the end, those who had no training at all, had to be thrown into suicidal attacks.

Memory

In the "civilized" Western world, primarily in the United States and Britain, kamikazes are slinged in every possible way with mud. The Americans wrote them down on a par with the perpetrators of the September 11 terrorists, and this has long been no secret to anyone. This is another proof that the United States is a soulless and sick society, as Yevgeny Viktorovich Novikov rightly noted, in every possible way denigrating the memory of those who yesterday contributed to the liberation of the planet from American capitalist globalism. In Japan, thanks to the efforts of the same "mother kamikaze" Tome Torihama, a museum was opened, which this year celebrates its 40th anniversary.

Tirana Kamikaze Museum, Minamikyushu. Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan

The museum displays photographs, personal effects and the last letters of 1036 army pilots, including an old school piano on which two pilots played "Moonlight Sonata" the day before departure, as well as 4 aircraft models of which were used in kamikaze attacks: Nakajima Ki-43 " Hayabusa", Kawasaki Ki-61 "Hien", Nakajima Ki-84 "Hayate" and a badly damaged and rusted Mitsubishi A6M "Zero", raised from the bottom of the sea in 1980. In addition, the museum displays several short videos made from wartime photos and videos, as well as a 30-minute film dedicated to the last letters of the pilots.

Next to the museum is a Buddhist temple dedicated to the goddess of mercy Kannon. There is a small replica of the Yumechigai Kannon (Dream-Changing Kannon) statue at Horyu-ji Temple in Nara. Donations for its installation were collected by the "mother kamikaze" Tome Torihama, the owner of a diner in Tirana that served military pilots. Inside the replica is a scroll with the names of the dead pilots. Along the road leading to the museum, there are stone toro lanterns with stylized images of kamikaze carved on them.

The materials exhibited in the museum present the dead pilots in a very positive light, portraying them as young brave men who voluntarily sacrificed themselves out of love for their homeland, but this only applies to army pilots: there are very few references to naval aviation pilots, who were more among the kamikazes. In addition, the museum only counts those who died in battles near Okinawa, while several hundred army kamikazes died in the Philippines and other places.

Interestingly, the “failed kamikaze” Tadamasa Itatsu became the 1st director, who survived due to the fact that all sorties in which he took or should have taken part ended unsuccessfully.

At the end of my story, I want to ask one question: so, are kamikazes the same war criminals who need to be mixed with mud and judged? Nothing like this: kamikaze is an example of the heroism of the emperor's warriors, Yamato warriors, warriors of their country. By their mortal exploits, they proved that their conscience and soul are pure and blameless, unlike those who bombed them at the beginning of August 45th.

Glory to you, Heroes of Yamato! Death to the invaders!

Mini gallery

Attack on USS Columbia

A military secret. When will the collapse of the American Empire begin?(the beginning of the story about kamikaze from the 47th minute):

Aria. Empire Guardian:

The end of World War II was approaching, the American navy was approaching the Japanese coast, and Japan simply needed to take some drastic measures to prevent an undesirable outcome. So it was decided to create a unique detachment called "Special Strike Force". But this unit was better known as the kamikaze squad, which translates as "divine wind." The division consisted of volunteers who were supposed to deliberately crash their planes into American ships.

10. Battle of the Philippine Sea

One of the key naval battles during World War II was the battle in the Philippine Sea, which took place on June 19 and 20, 1944. The American army emerged victorious, seriously damaging the Japanese fleet with minimal personal losses.

The reason for this vulnerability of Japan turned out to be that its army flew Mitsubishi A6M Zero aircraft (Zeke for short), which were completely ineffective in the fight against powerful US military equipment. By and large, Japanese aircraft exploded on approach from simple machine-gun bursts, not having time to harm the enemy. During this battle, the Japanese lost 480 combat vehicles, which accounted for 75% of their air fleet.

As American forces approached the coast of the Philippines, then occupied by Japan, the Japanese military commanders increasingly thought that they needed to take drastic measures. At a meeting of the highest ranks, naval captain Motoharu Okamura said that only the Suicide Squad would save the situation. Okamura was sure that enough volunteers would be called to save his homeland from disgrace, and about 300 aircraft would need to be allocated for them. The captain was sure that this would change the course of the war and turn the situation in favor of Japan.

Everyone present at the meeting agreed with Okamura, and the necessary resources were allocated to him. For this mission, the planes were specially lightened, machine guns were dismantled, armor was removed and even the radio was removed. But the fuel tank was enlarged, and 250 kg of explosives were loaded on board the aircraft. Now all Okamura needed was to find pilots for this desperate mission.

9Japanese pilots agreed to commit suicide for fear of embarrassment

But how did you manage to recruit pilots for such a terrible task? In fact, the authorities simply asked people to volunteer.

And as for how anyone can agree to such a death, it’s already worth turning to the culture of Japan. Shame is a very hot topic in this country. If the authorities asked the pilot to sacrifice himself, and he would have answered: “No, I do not want to die for my country”, this would not only dishonor him, but also dishonor his entire family. In addition, dead suicide pilots were promoted by two ranks.

So in fact, the volunteer detachment was not so free to choose. They could stay alive, embarrass themselves throughout the country, and tarnish the reputation of their family in a society extremely strongly oriented towards honor and pride. Or volunteers could die and be extolled as heroes who died for their homeland.

8. The best pilots of aviation died in the first raid

When the Japanese authorities decided to form a kamikaze squadron, the first pilot they chose to be their fighter pilot was their best lieutenant, a young boy of 23, Yukio Seki. It could be assumed that when the guy was told that he was needed for such a responsible task, he replied that he would gladly serve the country. But there are rumors that Seki shared his doubts with the journalist that this would be the best use of his talents.

In October 1944, Seki and 23 other airmen began training for the mission. On October 20, Admiral Takihiro Onishi said: “In mortal danger. The salvation of our country is now not at all in the hands of chiefs and ministers like me. It can only come from brave young people like you. Therefore, on behalf of our entire country, I ask you for this sacrifice and pray for your success.

You are already gods, liberated from earthly desires. But the only thing that still makes sense to you is the knowledge that your sacrifice will not be in vain. Unfortunately, we can no longer tell you this. But I will keep an eye on your efforts and report your deeds to the emperor himself. You can be sure of this.

And I ask you to do the best you can."

After this speech, 24 pilots got behind the wheel of their planes and took off to certain death. However, during the first five days of flights, they did not manage to make a single collision with American ships until they met with a rival in the Philippines.

The Americans were surprised by the Japanese suicide attack. The kamikaze pilot managed to sink one of the most important ships of the US Navy, an entire aircraft carrier. The collision of the Japanese plane with the ship caused multiple explosions inside the ship, and she sank. There were 889 people on board at the time, and 143 of them were killed or are considered missing.

In addition to sinking the aircraft carrier, the kamikaze group managed to damage three other ships. The Japanese took this as a good sign and expanded the composition of the suicide squad.

7. The Japanese designed the plane specifically for the kamikaze mission.

As mentioned above, the Japanese Ziki were quite ineffective against American aircraft. With flying bombs, things were no better. Another problem was that the pilots had to be trained urgently in a very difficult task. And in order to even get close to US warships, you had to be a very good pilot. Instead of simply canceling the operation, the Japanese decided to simplify the aircraft itself, making it more suitable for the purposes and specifics of the kamikaze mission. The new machine was named the Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka, or simply Cherry Blossom.

The aircraft actually became a guided missile 6 m long with short wings. A significant drawback of the projectile was that it could only fly 32 km. So the Japanese had to use another plane that would deliver the Cherry Blossom to the target. They became the Mitsubishi G4M bomber. As soon as the kamikaze pilot got close to his target, he launched rocket boosters, which allowed him to bypass the enemy's defensive fire and hit the armor of the enemy ship.

In addition to being lighter, these new aircraft were also easier to fly than the Zikis. The pilots did not have to learn how to take off and land, they just had to keep the right direction and start the boosters so that they did not have to maneuver and dodge the American defensive fire.

The cockpit of the Cherries was also special. Behind the head of the pilot's seat was a special compartment for a samurai sword in case the suicide bomber survived the collision.

6. It was supposed to be psychological warfare

Of course, the main task of the kamikaze was to sink as many ships as possible. However, the Japanese believed that on the battlefield, new tactics would certainly help them gain a psychological advantage over the enemy. The Japanese wanted to be seen as fierce warriors without a sense of proportion, who would rather die than lose and surrender.

Unfortunately, this did not have the expected effect. Not only did the Americans easily repel the attacks of the Japanese, they also nicknamed the kamikaze planes "Baka", which in Japanese means "fool" or "idiot".

5. Kamikaze pilots who controlled torpedoes

In addition to lightweight aircraft, the Japanese created guided torpedoes for kamikaze, which they later called kaitens.

The procedure was as follows: first, the pilot had to look out for a ship through the periscope, then, using a stopwatch and a compass, he had to almost blindly ram the enemy ship. As you might have guessed, it wasn't easy, and it took months to train the pilots.

Another difficulty was the size of the torpedoes. They were large, and this did not allow them to be sent over too long distances. Torpedoes had to be delivered first on large submarines. The "mother" ship transported from 6 to 8 kaitens to its destination.

On November 20, 1944, 5 kaitens were fired into the American tanker USS Mississinewa. One of them hit the target, and the explosion was huge, as you can see in the video above. The Japanese thought that they sank as many as 5 ships due to the fact that the explosion was incredibly strong. As a result, management found the torpedo idea so successful that kaiten production was increased.

4 Nazi Suicide Squad

The Japanese were not the only ones in the coalition of aggressors who, at the end of the war, were so desperate that they launched bombers under the control of suicide pilots. Germany also formed its own special forces detachment, nicknamed the "Leonidas Squadron". The creation of the detachment was proposed by Hannah Reitsch, a German test pilot. Reitsch was twice awarded the Iron Cross and became the German woman who got closer than any other of the fair sex to direct hostilities.

In 1944, when Reitsch received her second Cross, she spoke about her idea to Adolf Hitler himself, who participated in the presentation of the award. She suggested putting the pilots in modified V-1 rockets loaded with explosives and using them as weapons. At first, Hitler did not like this idea, but later he changed his mind. The chancellor liked Hannah's commitment to this venture, and he agreed to the creation of aircraft for suicide missions. The aircraft assigned to this project was a Fieseler Fi 103R, codenamed Reichenberg. Suicide rockets were equipped with bombs weighing 900 kg.

Reitsch was the first to be transferred to the Leonidas Squadron and was the first to take an oath in which she confirmed that she was voluntarily taking part in the mission and understood that death awaited her.

In total, there were 70 volunteers in the new detachment, but the program was curtailed even before anyone had time to use the Reichenbergs.

Reitsch survived the war and subsequently published her autobiography. In addition, Hanna even became the manager of the national gliding school in Ghana in the post-war years. The pilot died at the age of 65 from a heart attack. It happened in 1979.

3 The Pilots May Have Taken Meth

In fact, methamphetamine was invented in Japan as early as 1893. But it didn't become widespread until the drug was brought to the attention of World War II. The German army used a type of methamphetamine called Pervitin, while the Japanese used the drug Philopon.

During the war, the Japanese gave drugs to their soldiers when they were too hungry or tired. Philopon also proved to be useful for kamikaze pilots. In the face of certain death, they had to be resolute and collected. Therefore, before landing in their flying bombs and several hour-long flights to their deaths, the pilots were given high doses of methamphetamine. This helped the suicides stay focused until the very end. Another benefit for the soldiers was that the meth increased the level of aggression.

And although such a side effect for drug addicts is a rather unpleasant manifestation in ordinary life, for the Japanese kamikaze, he served faithful service, helping suicides stick to the plan while flying through machine gun fire.

2. The last kamikaze pilot

In 1945, Admiral Matome Ugaki was appointed commander of the kamikaze units. A month later, on August 15, when the emperor of Japan announced his surrender over the radio, Ugaki decided that the most worthy end for him would be the same death that his subordinates faced daily. Before his last flight, he even took a picture (photo above). True, Ugaki did not have piloting skills, and for this purpose, another voluntary suicide bomber had to be put on the plane.

On the way to his death, Ugaki radioed the following message:
“We have only me to blame for our failure. The valiant efforts of all the officers and soldiers under my command over the past 6 months have been greatly appreciated.

I'm going to strike at Okinawa, where my people died like cherry blossoms. There I will fall upon the conceited enemy in the true spirit of Bushido (samurai code) with firm conviction and faith in the immortality of the Japanese Empire.

I am sure that all units under my command will understand my motives, overcome all difficulties in the future and make every effort to revive our great Motherland.

Long live His Imperial Majesty!”

Unfortunately for Ugaki, the mission failed and his plane was likely intercepted before he could reach his destination.

1. The operation was a failure

The Japanese were naive in their hopes for the success of the kamikaze pilots. Suicide attacks proved to be rather ineffective against the strongest navy of World War II.

As a result, the suicide pilots managed to sink only 51 ships, and only one of them was a large ironclad (USS St. Lo). About 3,000 American and British soldiers died due to the fault of the kamikaze.

But if you compare these figures with the losses on the part of the Japanese, it is hard to believe that they were trying to wage offensive battles. Some 1,321 Japanese aircraft and submarines crashed into American ships, and about 5,000 pilots died in these attempts to cripple the army of the combined forces.

By and large, the American navy defeated the Japanese army due to the fact that he had more people and military equipment. To date, the kamikaze project is considered one of the greatest blunders in the history of World War II.

The word kamikaze has firmly entered our vocabulary. We, most often, call them “reckless” people who do not value their lives, who unreasonably risk death, in other words, suicides. Thus, we distort its true meaning. At the same time, many people know that this was the name given to Japanese suicide pilots who attacked enemy ships. Few initiates even know the history of this movement among Japanese pilots. But few people, even from the historians of the Second World War, realize that in Japan there were much more suicide bombers like kamikazes. And they acted not only in the air, but also on land, on water, and under water. And they were not called kamikaze at all. This is what our story will be about.

Already in 1939, a movement of volunteers was organized in Japan, first to serve in the army, then to work in enterprises, in agriculture, and in hospitals. Volunteers formed detachments, which were called teixintai. In the army, among such detachments, the medieval philosophical code of the samurai, Bushido, was widespread, which literally meant a way to die.

The combination of the militaristic postulates of Bushido with nationalism demanded from the warriors complete devotion to the god-emperor Hirohito, and during the war, death for the Emperor and the country. By virtue of this belief system, the sacrifice of life for a noble cause was seen as the purest and highest form of achieving the meaning of life. "Death is as light as a pen" is a phrase that was a hit among the ranks of the Japanese military. However, the ruling elite of Japan was well aware that such high ideals were beyond the strength of the spirit of all warriors. Therefore, purely material incentives were added to the ideology. In addition, the dead suicide bombers were ranked among the patron saints of Japan, became national heroes, their relatives turned into very respected people who enjoyed certain state benefits. And although there was no shortage of those wishing to get into teixintai, the selection into the detachments was carried out with fairly stringent requirements, not without common sense. After 1943, the teixintai army units became suicide strike units. Their general rule is self-sacrifice in order to destroy superior enemy forces.

There are five categories of teixintai. The first - kamikaze - suicide pilots in naval and combined arms aviation, and the first were intended to destroy ships, and the second - heavy bombers, columns of tanks or trucks, railways, bridges and other important objects. The second - Teixintai paratroopers - were used to destroy aircraft, ammunition and fuel at enemy airfields using bombs and flamethrowers. The third - underwater teishintai - using mini-submarines and man-torpedoes, were used to destroy enemy ships. They also included demolition divers (fukuryu, "dragons of luck"). The fourth - surface teishintai - operating on high-speed exploding boats to destroy enemy ships. And the fifth, most common and numerous category - ground teixintai - suicide infantrymen who, with anti-tank mines on poles or special devices, or simply with explosives in backpacks and the like, attacked enemy tanks and armored vehicles. Each of these categories is detailed below.

Kamikaze - teishintai in the air

After losing the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942, Japan began to lose the initiative in the Pacific War. During 1943-1944, the allied forces, reinforced by the industrial might of the United States, moved step by step towards the Japanese islands. By this time, Japanese aircraft, especially fighters, were seriously inferior in technical parameters to the new American models. Due to heavy combat losses, there was a shortage of experienced pilots in Japan. In addition, the shortage of spare parts and fuel made any major aviation operation a problem for Japan. After the US captured the island of Saipan in July 1944, the allies had the opportunity to bomb the territory of Japan. Their further advance to the Philippines threatened to leave Japan without sources of oil in Southeast Asia. To counter this, the commander of the 1st Air Fleet, Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi, decided to form a special strike squad of suicide pilots. At a briefing on October 19, Onishi stated: "I don't think there is any other way to accomplish the task before us, except to bring down a Zero armed with a 250-kilogram bomb on an American aircraft carrier." So Onishi became known as the "father of the kamikaze".

The name kamikaze comes from the "divine wind", which was called the typhoon, which twice, in 1274 and 1281, saved Japan from the invasion of the Mongol fleet of Khan Kublai. In response to the prayers of the Japanese, the typhoon destroyed enemy ships off the coast of Japan. By analogy, kamikaze pilots were supposed to save the country from defeat.

Kamikaze were part of the teishintai movement in aviation. And although they were officially called the "special assault squad of the divine wind", with the light hand of American translators they began to be called simply kamikaze, in fact, like all other categories of Japanese suicide bombers. After the war, the Japanese allowed the reading of hieroglyphs in the interpretation of "suicide pilot".

The first detachments of kamikaze pilots were formed on October 20, 1944 on the basis of naval aviation units, in which the pilots were ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of their country. Naval aviation initially trained 2,525 kamikaze pilots, and another 1,387 were recruited in the army. The bulk of the kamikaze were young non-commissioned officers or junior officers, that is, graduates of naval and military flight schools. Although there were twenty-year-old university students who joined the detachments, both on the impulses of patriotism and the desire to glorify their family. An important motivation for enlisting youth volunteers was the desire to protect their families from possible "atrocities" of the allies after the occupation, which were widely "trumpeted" by Japanese propaganda. They considered themselves the last defense. All who entered the kamikaze detachments received an officer's rank, and those who already had it received an extraordinary rank. Distinctive features in the form of kamikaze pilots were a white scarf and a red sun flag. And the chrysanthemum flower was the symbol of the kamikaze. Usually it was minted on the brass buttons of the uniform, which were then a valuable trophy for American sailors.

Over time, a ritual of honoring the kamikaze developed while they were alive. On the eve of departure on a mission, they were treated to a festive dinner, and just before the departure, the commander poured a ceremonial glass of sake. They were given a headband - hachimaki - with the symbols of the flag of Japan or a white headband with inspiring hieroglyphs written. Hachimaki symbolized the inflexibility of intentions and supported the fighting spirit. It also has a direct function - to protect the face from sweat. Usually hachimaki had a size of 50 mm wide and 1200 mm long.

Often the kamikaze was given a senninbari, a "belt of a thousand stitches" or "a thousand needles" sewn by a thousand women, each of whom made one stitch or knot. It was worn either at the waist or tied around the head and was considered the strongest amulet, as well as allowing the soul to be reborn after death. Sometimes civilians were present at the farewells on the last flight, in addition to colleagues. For example, high school girls from schools or girls from teixintai squads. The farewell was solemn, something in the form of a rally. Thanksgiving or glorifying verses were read to them.

The basis of the training of novice pilots who entered the kamikaze detachments was preparation for readiness to die. For this, a variety of methods were used, from brainwashing with patriotism and the postulates of religion, to physical torture in training. Training in flight skills was reduced to simple elementary skills: takeoff and landing, flying in formation, imitation of an attack. The kamikaze pilot's manual detailed how the pilot should attack. It was pointed out that when attacking from a height, the best aiming point was the place between the bridge and the chimneys. On aircraft carriers, one should look for aircraft lift elevators or an “island” (ship control superstructure above the deck). For horizontal attacks, the pilot had to "aim at the middle of the ship, slightly higher than the waterline", or "aim at the entrance to the aircraft hangar". There was also a rule in the manual that allowed him to return from a mission if the target was not detected. It was believed that life should not be wasted lightly. However, there are cases that after repeated returns, pilots were shot for cowardice.

It should be noted that groups of kamikaze pilots were led to their destination by experienced pilots, whose task was not only to bring poorly trained pilots to the target, but also to record the results of the attack. But even under these conditions, attempts to bring the detachment to the goal were not always successful.

Despite the fact that, according to the Japanese, there was no shortage of kamikaze volunteers, after their first military operations, a mass campaign was launched in the country to glorify suicide bombers, and agitation was recorded by volunteers. The authorities appealed to the population with a request to support volunteers, help in recruiting them into the detachments. In addition to materials in the media, brochures, leaflets, posters, even children's tales about the bravery of kamikaze were produced. Since this hysteria lasted until the very end of the war, there were probably problems with the mass enrollment in volunteers. There are known cases of forced transfer of army formations to kamikaze detachments. And as the pinnacle of the idea of ​​"voluntariness", it should be noted that the literature describes the case when a kamikaze rammed his own command post.

Causes doubt and enthusiasm even those kamikazes that agreed to carry out suicidal attacks. So, on November 11, 1944, one of the American destroyers pulled a pilot out of the water, who could not hit the aircraft carrier, and crashed into the sea. During interrogation, he willingly shared any information, and stated that on October 27 his unit was completely transferred to kamikaze tactics. From the very beginning, the pilot found this idea as stupid and ineffective as possible, but did not dare to tell his comrades about it. The fact that he survived hitting the water suggests a life-safe diving angle, which in turn raises the question of whether his miss was accidental. It is also interesting that already in the post-war period, the authorities severely persecuted the Japanese who publicized doubts about the voluntariness of the formation of kamikaze detachments, in their training system.

The first kamikaze attack was carried out on October 21, 1944 against the flagship of the Australian Navy, the heavy cruiser Australia. Armed with a 200-kilogram bomb, the pilot of which remained unknown, crashed into the superstructures of the "Australia", scattering debris and fuel over a large area, but the cruiser was lucky and the bomb did not explode. However, 30 people died, including the commander of the ship. On October 25, "Australia" received another hit, after which the ship had to be sent for repairs (the cruiser returned to service in January 1945, and in total, by the end of the war, "Australia" survived 6 hits by kamikaze aircraft).

On October 25, 1944, a kamikaze detachment led by Yukio Seki attacked an American carrier formation in the east of Leyte Gulf. The first Zero hit the stern of the USS Senty, killing 16 people in the explosion and starting a fire. A few minutes later, the aircraft carrier "Swany" was also put out of action. The fires that arose from a kamikaze hit on the deck of the escort aircraft carrier Saint Lo soon caused an arsenal detonation, as a result of which the ship was torn apart. 114 crew members were killed. In total, as a result of this attack, the Japanese sank one and disabled six aircraft carriers, losing 17 aircraft. On October 29, kamikaze aircraft damaged the aircraft carriers Franklin (33 aircraft were destroyed on board the ship, 56 sailors died) and Bello Wood (92 killed, 44 wounded). On November 1, the destroyer Abner Reed was sunk, and 2 more destroyers were put out of action. On November 5, the aircraft carrier Lexington was damaged (41 people were killed, 126 were injured). On November 25, 4 more aircraft carriers were damaged. On November 26, kamikazes attacked transports and cover ships in Leyte Gulf. The destroyer Cooper was sunk, the battleships Colorado, Maryland, the cruiser St. Louis and 4 more destroyers were damaged. In December, the destroyers Mahan, Ward, Lamson and 6 transports were sunk, several dozen ships were damaged. On January 3, 1945, a kamikaze hit on the aircraft carrier Ommani Bay caused a fire; soon, as a result of the detonation of ammunition, the ship exploded and sank, taking 95 sailors with it. On January 6, the battleships New Mexico and the resurrected California after Pearl Harbor were damaged. In total, as a result of kamikaze actions in the battle for the Philippines, the Americans lost 2 aircraft carriers, 6 destroyers and 11 transports, 22 aircraft carriers, 5 battleships, 10 cruisers and 23 destroyers were damaged.

Further actions on the massive use of kamikaze unfolded during the battle for Iwo Jima. On February 21, as a result of fires caused by a kamikaze hit, the Bismarck Sea aircraft carrier burned down and sank (318 people died), the Ticonderoga aircraft carrier was also damaged, its losses amounted to 140 people. Particularly vulnerable to kamikaze were American strike aircraft carriers, which, unlike their British counterparts, did not have flight deck armor, as well as Casablanca-class escort aircraft carriers.

The maximum intensity of the kamikaze attack was reached during the Battle of Okinawa - in total, 1,465 aircraft participated in the attacks. On April 3, the USS Wake Island was put out of action. On April 6, along with the entire crew (94 people), the destroyer Bush was destroyed, into which 4 aircraft crashed. The destroyer Calhoun was also sunk. On April 7, the aircraft carrier Hancock was damaged, 20 aircraft were destroyed, 72 were killed and 82 people were injured. Until April 16, another destroyer was sunk, 3 aircraft carriers, a battleship and 9 destroyers were put out of action. On May 4, the Sangamon aircraft carrier with 21 aircraft on board burned down completely. On May 11, hit by two kamikazes caused a fire on the aircraft carrier Bunker Hill, in which 80 aircraft were destroyed, 391 people were killed and 264 were injured. By the end of the battle for Okinawa, the American fleet had lost 26 ships, 225 were damaged, including 27 aircraft carriers. Nevertheless, the measures taken by the Americans to protect against kamikazes gave a result - 90% of Japanese aircraft were shot down in the air.

The strengthened anti-aircraft defense of the Allies by the spring made daytime kamikaze raids almost useless, and the Japanese command attempted night attacks. However, after several sorties by kamikaze detachments, they were forced to abandon this practice, since not a single plane could find a target and almost all of them died astray.

According to Japanese statements, 81 ships were sunk and 195 damaged as a result of kamikaze attacks. According to American data, the losses amounted to 34 sunk and 288 damaged ships. There are other numbers as well. Obviously, we will not know the exact data, because everyone thought differently. For example, the same cruiser "Australia" was damaged 6 times. Count it as one or six units? During the operation of the kamikaze detachments, according to the Japanese, 2,800 aircraft were lost, in which 3,862 suicide pilots died, of which about 12-15% were professional military personnel. The greater number of pilots killed is explained by the death of bombers and carriers of MXY7 projectiles, where there were numerous crews. Whether the planes bombed at the airfields and the dead pilots are among the losses is not known, although their number is rather large. It is also unknown whether there are suicides in the statistics of losses of pilots who were not members of kamikaze detachments, but who rammed or attacked ships on their own initiative or out of desperation. According to experts, there were at least 200-300 such cases.

From 3 to 7 thousand Allied sailors died from kamikaze attacks, and from 5 to 6 thousand were injured, which accounted for 68% of combat injuries in the fleet. The debate about these figures is also still ongoing. Some consider only losses at sea, others include airfields, others add non-surviving wounded. In addition, the initial psychological effect on American sailors also mattered. And although the Americans downplay it, and the Japanese exaggerate it, several thousand sailors were nevertheless written off to the shore. Over time, the fear on the ships passed.

It should be noted that out of the 30% planned by the Japanese command, only 9% of the kamikaze aircraft reached their goals. At the same time, the accuracy of hitting the target was only 19%. Actually, these two figures most fully characterize the effectiveness of the use of kamikaze.

Initially, conventional aircraft, which were in service with the army and navy, were used for kamikaze attacks, which were minimally altered, and often not, to carry out a productive collision with an enemy ship. These planes were stuffed with any explosives that were at hand: explosives, bombs, torpedoes, containers with combustible mixtures.

Soon, due to the decrease in the number of aircraft among the Japanese, a special type of aircraft for kamikaze was developed - Yokosuka MXY-7 called "Ohka", which means cherry or sakura flower. Seeing this aircraft, both in action and captured on the ground, the Americans, not knowing its name, nicknamed the apparatus "Baka" (idiot, fool). According to another version, the name "Baka" was introduced by American propaganda to instill confidence in American servicemen and sailors, since, in accordance with the postulate of psychological impact: "a ridiculed enemy is not terrible." In any case, in American manuals, these projectiles were called only "Baka".

The aircraft was a rocket-powered manned bomb carried to the attack site by Mitsubishi G4M, Yokosuka P1Y or Heavy Nakajima G8N aircraft. In the area where the target was located - in direct line of sight of the enemy ship - "Ohka" was disconnected from the carrier and planned until the pilot stabilized it and aimed at the target, and after turning on the rocket boosters, which worked for 8-10 seconds, approached it until a collision that caused the detonation of the charge . The aircraft had a length of 6-6.8 m, height - 1.6 m, wingspan - 4.2-5.1 m, wing area - 4-6 m², curb weight - 1.4-2.1 tons; charge mass - 600-1200 kg, maximum speed - 570-650 km / h, dive speed - 800 km / h, flight range - 40 km, crew - 1 person.

The aircraft began to be developed in August 1944 with a simplified design to enable its production at enterprises that do not have qualified personnel. The aircraft consisted of a wooden glider with an explosive charge in the nose, a single-seat cockpit in the middle and a rocket engine in the rear of the hull. It did not have takeoff engines and landing gear. As an engine, an assembly of three solid-propellant rocket boosters placed in the tail section of the aircraft was used. In total, 854 vehicles of six modifications were produced, differing in engines, wing shape, mass of explosives and the ability to launch from caves or submarines.

Reset "Ohka" from the aircraft carrier.

The Ohka aircraft were ready for combat operations as early as October 1944. But fate itself did not let them on the battlefield. Either an aircraft carrier carrying 50 aircraft was sunk, then the enemy bombed the base airfield, then all the carriers were destroyed, still on the distant approach to the combat area. And only on April 1, 1945, six projectiles attacked US ships near Okinawa. The battleship West Virginia was damaged, although it is still not known for certain whether it was the Ohka or two conventional kamikaze aircraft. On April 12, an attack from 9 "Ohka" took place - the destroyer "Mannert L. Abele" sank, the destroyer "Stanly" was damaged. On April 14, the fleet was attacked by 7 Ohka aircraft, on April 16 - six, on April 18 - four. None hit the target.

The general measures taken against kamikaze aircraft had a positive effect against projectile aircraft as well. Further, the losses of the American fleet, despite the increase in the intensity of kamikaze raids, became less and less. So, on May 4, out of seven Ohkas, one hit the navigation bridge of the minesweeper Shea, and on May 11, out of four aircraft, one destroyed the destroyer Hugh W. Hadley, which was decommissioned without repair. On May 25, eleven Ohkas, and on June 22, six, failed to hit the target.

Thus, the effectiveness of the use of a special projectile aircraft turned out to be significantly lower than conventional aircraft with kamikaze pilots on board. And of the entire production of Ohka aircraft, about two dozen remained intact, which are now scattered around the museums of the world.

For kamikaze actions, another type of special aircraft was developed - Nakajima Ki-115 called "Tsurugi", which means sword. This machine was developed as a one-time single bomber. The bomber had a length and wingspan of 8.6 m, height - 3.3 m, weight - 1.7 tons, engine power - 1,150 hp, maximum speed - 550 km / h, flight range - 1200 km, armament - a bomb of 500 or 800 kg, crew - 1 person. After takeoff, the landing gear was dropped and was unsuitable for further use, and the plane, if it was lucky to return, landed on its "belly".

The prototype aircraft was made in January 1945, and its production began in March. The manufacturing technology of the aircraft was designed for the possibility of its production even at small factories by unskilled workers. Of the materials used only steel and wood. The aircraft used obsolete engines from the 1920s-1930s. The plane had so many design defects that it was extremely dangerous to fly it. So the plane had a very rigid chassis suspension, which, moreover, also poorly obeyed the rudder, which often led to a rollover during takeoff. Incorrect calculations of the load on the wing and tail caused the aircraft to stall during descent and turns. According to the testers, the aircraft was unsuitable for flights.

The military command considered it possible to use the aircraft as a bomber, in which only the engine and crew were reusable. Everything else was proposed to be installed new, after the plane landed. By the end of the war, 105 vehicles were produced, but the facts of its use in hostilities have not been established.

In addition to these two special aircraft for kamikaze, the Japanese industry developed two more types of aircraft, but they did not have time to put them into mass production.

The first Allied defensive tactics against kamikazes did not appear until early 1945. She assumed patrols in the air within a radius of 80 km from the bases of the fleet or the main location of the ships. This ensured the early interception of enemy aircraft detected by radar stations on long-range approaches. Such a distance also made it possible to destroy enemy aircraft that broke through the patrolled zone, preventing them from reaching their ships. In addition, strategic bombers regularly attacked nearby Japanese airfields, including bombs with a delayed explosion time, in order to actively interfere with the restoration work on the runways. At the same time, large-caliber anti-aircraft artillery of ships began to use radio-fuzed shells against kamikaze, which were on average seven times more effective than conventional ones. On aircraft carriers, to the detriment of bombers, the number of fighters was increased. All ships were additionally equipped with small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, which did not allow kamikaze aircraft to approach at ultra-low altitudes. In addition, anti-aircraft searchlights began to be used on ships even during the day, which blinded pilots at close range. On aircraft carriers, where the boundaries of the aircraft lifts, which were so fond of aiming kamikazes, were painted with white paint, they had to draw false ones, and wash off the paint from the real ones. As a result, the kamikaze plane simply crashed on the armored deck, causing little or no harm to the ship. The measures taken by the allies gave their positive results. And although at the end of the war the kamikaze significantly increased the intensity of their attacks, their effectiveness was significantly lower than those carried out at the end of 1944.

Assessing the actions of kamikaze, it should be noted that their appearance, although served by Japanese propaganda, is an impulse of the soul of the Japanese, the highest manifestation of patriotism, etc. etc., in fact, was a cover for the militaristic policy of power, an attempt to shift all the hardships and responsibility for the war unleashed by them onto the people. When organizing kamikaze detachments, the Japanese command was well aware that they would not be able to stop the allies or turn the tide of the war even with the help of a real “divine wind”, and not that with the help of poorly trained pilots and students Did the kamikaze themselves understand this? Judging by the memories of the survivors - very few. And even today they do not understand how much they were poisoned by propaganda. Was the damage inflicted by the kamikaze on the allies sensitive, significant? By no means! The number of all lost ships was made up by US industry in less than three months. Personnel losses were within the statistical error of total war casualties. As a result - myths and legends to the world, and to the Japanese themselves a couple of dozen museums.

Teixintai skydivers

In 1944-1945, the United States achieved absolute air superiority in the Pacific theater of operations. Regular bombing of Japan began. In order to reduce their intensity, the Japanese command decided to create special sabotage groups from army paratroopers to attack American airfields. Since such operations did not provide for the evacuation of units after the task was completed, and the possibility of surviving the paratroopers was only hypothetical, they were rightly classified as suicide bombers.

The formation of such groups began at the end of 1944 under the overall command of Lieutenant General Kyoji Tominaga. The special forces unit of the paratroopers was named "Giretsu kuteitai" (heroic paratroopers). Combat operations of the Giretsu unit were to be carried out at night, after a bomber raid. The suicide bombers either parachuted or landed on their planes at an enemy airfield with the task of blowing up fuel and ammunition depots and destroying as many enemy planes as possible. To do this, each of the paratroopers had a supply of explosives and grenades. In addition, they had light small arms: Type-100 assault rifles, Type-99 rifles, Type-99 light machine guns, Type-30 bayonets, Type-89 grenade launchers, and Type-94 pistols.

The first operation "Giretsu" on the night of December 6-7, 1944 was carried out by 750 paratroopers from the 1st raid group. The transfer to the targets was carried out by Ki-57 transport aircraft, which were towed by gliders (13 people each). Landings were made on enemy airfields in the Philippines, including two at Dulag and two at Tacloban on the island of Leyte. The mission was initially suicidal: according to the order, the paratroopers were to destroy all the enemy aircraft that they could, and then defend their positions to the last soldier. As a result, approximately 300 saboteurs were landed on one of the intended targets - all other Japanese aircraft were shot down. After several hours of fighting, all the paratroopers capable of resisting were killed, but they could not cause any harm to American aircraft and the airfield.

Another operation of the Giretsu units was carried out on the night of May 24-25, 1945, when nine Mitsubishi Ki-21 bombers (each with 14 saboteurs on board) raided the Yontan airfield in Okinawa. Four planes returned due to engine problems, three were shot down, but the remaining five were able to land. During this operation, paratroopers, armed with submachine guns, phosphorus grenades and explosive charges, blew up 70,000 gallons of aviation fuel, destroyed nine American aircraft and damaged 26 more. The airfield was put out of action for a whole day. According to the Japanese, only one paratrooper survived the operation and reached his own almost a month later. However, the name of this hero is unknown, from where it follows either he died, or he did not exist at all. Otherwise, Japanese propaganda would not miss such a chance to popularize heroism.

On August 9, 1945, the Japanese planned a massive Giretsu attack against B-29 bomber bases on Saipan, Tinian, and Guam. During this attack, 200 transports were supposed to deliver 2,000 saboteurs to the targets. But this operation was never carried out, since the Japanese planes were destroyed while still on the ground. The next operation was planned for August 19-23, but since Japan capitulated, it was not destined to happen.

This is where the list of military operations of the Giretsu paratroopers ends. But, despite this, the "heroic paratroopers" in Japan are still remembered. A memorial was even erected in their honor.