There was actually one Kamikaze pilot that managed to sink an American destroyer by actually releasing the bomb and making an accurate direct hit. The guy thought the whole idea was stupid, but was pressured into joining the Kamikaze corp. After he returned to base, his superior were actually pissed at him for coming back alive and not set an example for others. He did this 9 times and each time his superiors puts him in even worse odds so he's less likely to return alive. He ended up surviving every mission and eventually the war and died in 2016 at the age of 92. His name was Sasaki Tomoji.
I believe the warhead had a timer. It would blow no matter what, so the death would always be "quick", as opposed to suffocating at the bottom of the ocean
The saddest thing about the Kaiten is that the pilot, inside it, was truly a well-trained soldier. Imagine training a soldier exhaustively, spending a huge amount of time and resources, just to perform a suicide mission.
To put it in perspective Japan only started doing these kamikaze attacks very late into the war after the entire European front was all but lost and Japan was facing the full force of the US Navy, they had a lot of soldiers and a desperation to prevent total capitualation leading to such extreme measures
*He's not focusing on the truth which is sad* #1: they were expected to complete their mission and their life was worth far less than their attack was worth. #2: MANY Kamikaze pilots were sent on missions where they wouldn't have enough fuel to get back. Meaning their life was worth far less than their mission and forcing them to die either way. #3: if they came home they & their family were completely disgraced regardless of the "reason" #4: *and the worst part* they were basically forced into being Kamikaze pilots with the same social pressures that make 11 to 15-year-olds become suicide bombers in the multiple Jihad's. *The ruling dictators for both them and Muslims decided MASS suicide missions were necessary, AND decided individual lives mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.* The only value any persons life had was how much damage they could inflict on the enemy. Is that not evil? If it isn't, please let me know why.
@@castleanthrax1833 Yeah, and weren’t there rumors that he had a son whom he raised as a Japanese soldier who also resisted the fact that the war was long since over…? Just asking for a friend 😂.
grim fact: both of the original designers of the Kaiten died while piloting one. If I recall correctly, both were not in combat at the time, only training or testing of the Kaiten.
@@castleanthrax1833 Earlier models had an hatch that could be unlocked and opened from the inside, but I think no Kaiten pilot ever tried to use them, so they ditched that feature.
For any one wanting to learn more about the mindset of the kamikaze pilots the book "blossoms in the wind" published about 2005 is a very good read. It written by an American who has lived in and is a professor in Japan since the 80's. He was able to get many former pilots, relatives etc... to open up to him about how it was.
I read about a Kamikaze unit that had more pilots than airplanes for the days' mission and those being left behind begged the "lucky" ones to let them take the planes. The C/O scolded them for being "so selfish," and their turn would come soon enough.
There was a Kamikaze Pilot that came back unsuccessful so many times that he became an Officer...and later practically hijacked a plane to Kamikaze with.
Did the C/O later die on a mission or get executed when the war ended? Or did he survive the War? I think I will ask both of you this about the subjects of your comments.
@@benjaminmorris4962 funnily enough, we are back (in labs) to computers using a living brain cells to do their job, the other one are using advanced physics.
My husband’s grandfather was a reserve 回天(Kaiten) pilot in the 特別攻撃隊. He “was volunteered” and, realizing the futility of the undertaking, managed to get put in reserve and survived the war.
@@archieil I would not discount this detail also, Japan was producing a lot of drugs in the early-mid Shōwa Era, as stimulants were seen as a productivity booster and were sought after in the domestic market. I can't recall if they issued drugs to their armed forces like the Germans did but I would be very surprised if they did not.
@@KPW2137especially since a lot of the aircraft used in kamikaze attacks were older outdated models (the Japanese weren't just going to throw a state of the art Ki-84 at a cargo boat).
I'm not sure how prevalent the 'strong arming'/peer pressure was to people volunteering for these missions, but I doubt many people would go to the effort of learning and becoming Kamikaze pilots, only to ditch at the last second under the guise of a 'mechanical failure'. These people weren't suicidal as it were, they believed they were performing a sacrifice for the greater good.
My wifes Grandfather was 16. He was sent on a mission, failed to find a target. Was being sent for the second and FINAL try..when he was flagged down on takeoff and told the war was over. Poor guy was a big drinker and gambler all his life after that.
@@matsv201 there's a young man who's name I keep forgetting, who was an experienced dive bomber who actually managed to hit American vessels on more than one occasion, shortly after becoming married he was selected to be a Kamikaze
@@zachradoux2038 wow, didn't know the new one was a period piece. Is that why it's called minus one, like a prequel? I'm curious how they incorporated a real and tragic war into an popcorn movie franchise.
Kamikaze pilots were heavily questioned upon their returns to base and after a set number of returns, if they didn't find a target or found too many excuses to return, they were executed for cowardice
Some Japanese war planes landed on the wrong aircraft carriers and the refueling guys just filled em up and let them go so they could refill ours faster too! 😂😂😂
@@4.0.4 it's true, they couldn't very well hem up the deck with foriegn plane detainment while trying to refuel our own, it's actually logical when you think about it.
@@CriminalonCrime No it's not. In no universe would the crew of a carrier let an enemy plane land, let alone refuel it to "save time" so that the plane could turn around and shoot at them or RTB and report valuable Intel on the carrier. There are no known instances of japanese planes ever successfully landing on US carriers either to defect or to gather intelligence, although there were cases of japanese planes trying to land. The most famous being the damage yokosuka floatplane that tried to land on Yorktown but was turned away by AA fire before bombing Yorktown's deck. Which is what happened to every japanese plane that tried landing on US CVs, since AA wasn't keen on letting enemy planes near
I read a war diary from the book "Leaves from an Autumn of Emergencies", there's one entry from a Kamikaze pilot. It's absolutely true that these guys were HYPED to die for the empire. Like, the dude could BARELY contain his frustration that he couldn't "commit gyokusai" and smash his body "to bits" against the ships of the Americans. Dudes were hardcore. It's true. Look up the book, it's the first of the twelve diaries.
@@notyourordinarygranwell that depends on whether you believe in the Almighty Creator or not. I would assume you don't. However no dying for the Almighty Creator is not the same as dying for an "empire" whether it's the japanese or the american flavour. We shall see who is delusional.
My father served in the Navy during WW2 on the USS Bunker Hill, an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. During one specific battle, they were kamikazeed not once, but two times. Over 1,300 sailors lost their lives that day. Dad never talked about the war, as he got too emotional about it. Got my info from Mom.
True. The aircraft was called "Baka" by the allies, the Japanese word for "fool". And while at it: Did you know that "kamikaze" actually means "special airborne assault force" (no suicides invloved)? The Japanese to this day do not use this word in the meaning the Westerrn Wolrd does.
Trivia: if you’ve seen Godzilla Minus One, the Japanese themselves did not call these pilots “kamikaze”. They called them “Tokkou”, short for tokubetsu kougeki tai (“special attack force”).
Better yet, the "kamikaze" (神風) in the full name is actually read as "shinpu" in this context. The Americans put all their skilled translators in concentration camps and only employed ones who had no real experience with the language outside of books.
The first pilot that it was named after actually missed, didn't die, and made it to the end of the war. When he found out during the war they were praising what he supposedly did he hid the fact he was still alive for many years after the war.
Kamikazi wasn't named after a guy, my dude. The word means "divine wind" and refers to a real historical event where the Mongol empire failed to invade Japan because their ships were destroyed by a cyclone. The Japanese believed they had been protected by the gods through that storm, hence the term. The kamikazi pilots were meant to be the divine wind protecting Japan from foreign invasion once more.
My dad served on the U.S.S. Missouri from '44 to '46. The kamikaze aircraft that impacted the ship in April of '45 essentially disgorged the top half of the poor pilot kid's corpse onto the deck. That wouldn't have happened if he was welded to the cockpit. Really sad for the kid. At least they gave his remains a burial at sea. I still have a part of the "meatball" from the wing of the plane that flew up onto the deck that my dad took as a souvenir.
@@gekigami1791 “meatball” was the term used to describe the roundel markings used for identification on Imperial Japanese Army and Navy aircraft. The red circle 🔴 hence “meatball”. Not meatball as in a ball of human remains😂
@@gonuts4donuts I only knew 'meatball' as the glideslope indication unit, which made no sense in this context so I was really thrown off for a second there too hahah Thanks for clearing it out 🤣
Memiors of a Kamikaze by Kazuo Odachi is an excellent autobiography that puts you in the shoes of those pilots. An incredibly powerful work that grants Western readers a perspective not found elsewhere. Highly recommend.
Is there really any insight to reading about people being manipulated for a "Grander cause" that any of the other similar stories can't show you? It's the same old story of the fragility of the mind of young people told over and over again. The only difference is Japanese men in planes...
Many were **not** willing volunteers. Extant letters home from some of these pilots questioned what they were doing and why they were picked for these missions. Toward the end of the war, most kamikaze pilots were not volunteers, though the peer pressure kept them from bowing out and heading for the infantry.
@@aidanhart6419neither sound great, but I'd rather a high likelihood of immediate death from a .50 cal or 20mm anti-aircraft cannon or severe blunt force trauma than bleeding out in the battlefield hours after disemboweled. Sounds like there is a higher likelihood of a quick and less painful death, and hey maybe you get a parachute and it has a "mechanical failure" somewhere half a kilometre from an allied warship. I dunno how well either side would have treated POWs, but I'd rather be an allied POW than be executed for cowardice. Don't even get me started on that manned torpedo, fuck that is evil, having such little value for human life. What a horrible way to go, how anyone managed to make it back from that war is a mystery to me.
@@sor3999 I am not talking about desertion. They could bow out of kamikaze training and be sent to the enlisted ranks of the IJA infantry, complete with loss of face and family dishonor.
@@izak5356 just wondering why seemingly nobody thought of killing their commander while they sleep, literally my first idea Your own people kill you one way or the other, nothing is stopping you from actually taking out the trash before being killed or killing yourself quickly to avoid torture
This is hands town the best channel on TH-cam for WW2 information and history. The only thing that would send you guys over the top, would be to interview surviving veterans or civilians who were present. You would outdo every mainstream media outlets' work in terms of production value and just plain information (you already put 'discovery's and 'the history channel's to shame)
@@dustinandtarynwolfe5540 Tig welding was invented in the US in 1941. It wasn't EVER used on One single Japanese fighter fuselage during WW2 because the Japanese didn't have Tig welding until after WW2. Even if they had Tig welding in Japan, the Zero fighter was light because the rolled aluminium sheet used was around a third the thickness gauge of the allied fighter planes. This alone would have taken a highly skilled Tig welder. Sheet so thin its like trying to weld cigarette papers together. Rivets were the main stay of WW2 fighter production for all countries. They could have just drilled and riveted the canopy shut.
Kamakazies were a last ditch effort by a nation that knew defeat was coming. The proof is that there were zero suicidal pilots at the beginning of the war and didn’t begin until the war was decisively in favor of the allies.
I recently watched a documentary about a kamikaze pilot who returned to base after having mechanical failure but then later that night a dinosaur looking creature killed his fellow soldiers and destroyed his plane.
One of my Professors walked by a catering hall in Tokyo stating that it was hosting a Kamikaze Reunion. He kinded wanted to go up an visit it but could not.
A episode of black Sheep Squadron had a Kamikaze pilot land on their island and he tried to Grenade himself but Boyington captured him. I don't remember if they found a way he could die honorably.
I think this was due to the fact that many in the military like rumors and rumors spread really fast in the military. I once read that US Marines on Saipan were claiming that Japanese soldiers were chained to their tanks so they couldn’t escape.
Channels like this focusing on very specific facts of time in recent and distant history is so important because myths and false narratives often take over the nuance and truth of situations which were far more complex while they were happening. But it is easier for many to take one or two quick notes away from history as opposed to taking in all of the perspectives and reasons for it.
Its crazy to think that the Kaitan probably required dozens of tests before ever being deployed in combat. Thats got to be a hard sell to a "voluntary" test subject.
They probably loaded those ones with dummy charges, and maybe gave the test pilots salvage axes, or something else to breach out with. If you are a good swimmer, you might be able to pilot a second one!
and the whole point of kamikaze tactics was to increase the effectiveness of pilots so imagine just losing these precious pilots simply because they got lost whatever
@@dubious_potat4587yeah, the idea and likely truth was they’d die anyway, so why not try and stop what they viewed as the end to Japan as a race and culture? (Completely brainwashed ofc, and that’s not excusing the worst abuses imaginable, but there were some calls for genocide after the war)
My Das’s ship was hit by a kamikaze at Okinawa. The wing went between the barrels of the aft 5-inch mount and pirouetted into the sea without exploding. They pulled the pilot out of the sea. They couldn’t have done that if he was welded in.
My late father had a piece of a Japanese Zero. His ship was covered with gas, water, oil and aluminum shreds, from bow to stern. Someone found a piece of the pilot on the fantail of the ship, but you couldn't keep that.
@@tylersmith1468 Yeah, old school riveting is pretty situational. Used in boat building, a lot still. Just a copper/bronze rod you hammer a head over on one side, then brace the head, and round over the other side after clamping the 2 pieces together.
So refreshing to see professional quality shorts, that have something interesting to say and something to teach us. One of the best channels out there.
Also, the picture where people holding flower branches towards the airplane... That' depicting a departing ritual where sake (or osake) were given to the pilots. Little known fact that the sake was drugged with Philopon which is the Japanese equivalent of Pervitin, the methamphetamine-based medicine and improver. This helped the already indoctrinated ones to become more brave and do the bidding without a question and lessen the chances of chickening out at the final moment.
It is a very good point about how the Japanese military government regarded the Japanese People as tools to do their bidding. And, the fact that the Japanese people _clamored_ to go get themselves killed fighting for The Emperor shows something else. If we had used a nuclear bomb on Tokyo, and destroyed the Rulers of Japan, that would not have ended the war. Any land invasion would have been met with the civilian population charging the ground troops, everywhere and anywhere they went in all of Japan proper! If the Emperor had not ordered the Japanese to surrender, they would have gone on fighting, without end... (And by "they" I don't just mean the military or solders, I mean *all* Japanese everywhere in Japan!) .... Say, I know the top military rulers of Japan killed themselves when they definitively lost the war, But what about the Emperor? He had been the supreme authority at that time, with everyone under him. I don't think _he_ killed himself. Was he sentenced to Life in Prison, or permanently put under house arrest? Much like Slobadan Milosovich, did he just kind of put on civilian clothing, slip out the back door and start a new life under a different name? What happened to him? 🤔
@@tankman5783 They were permitted to return for a few reasons, bad weather, mechanical malfunctions... if something beyond their control/ not their fault occurred, they would not be punished, just told better luck next time.
What's the difference between Arnold Schwarzenegger and a kamikaze pilots, when Arnie goes off to fight he says "I'll Be Back" where as the kamikaze pilots say "I Won't Be Back"
"SAMURAI" tells of how the first time they were ordered to kamikaze into the ships, noone did, they all returned. And were not admonished for it. The damned proximity charge... if not for that K tactics would have worked pretty well.
That's a myth they already debunked, with sources from survivors of the Imperial Japanese army. There would be kamikaze missions where some would return, with the excuse of "not finding any targets". They will not kill these men because trained pilots were getting rarer and rarer. Stop mythologizing war criminals. They're already monstrous as they were.
I think the issue here has a lot to do with the Western inability to wrap their heads around the whole Kamikaze tactic. I will admit I inherited that from my parents, Dad served in the Navy. I believe it is Military History Visualized has a great video explaining the very rational reasons for the Japanese to embrace this tactic.
@@bigchungus4336 Desperation certainly played a part, but it was, nonetheless, very rational. If you send 20 dive, or torpedo bombers at a US carrier, how many get through? Not very many, and even fewer will land hits. If you send out those same 20 aircraft on a kamikaze run, your odds are far greater that the planes will get through, and a significantly higher number of them will cause damage. In a situation where there are a rapidly diminishing number of aircraft, it is a very rational use of those resources.
@@scottjuhnke6825the thing that makes it irrational is that Japan had already lost the war. It would have been far more logical for the Japanese government to simply surrender to the Allies instead of continuing to get their own people killed.
@@Cybermat47 From our perspective. Japan was hoping it could cause enough damage, and casualties that the US, in particular, would seek peace on favorable terms. It just wasn't in their culture either. We can't judge them from our perspective, and values. In JPan during this period, the Japanese saw themselves as the pinnacle. Everyone else was lesser. They simply were not going to just give up. Listen to the Emperor's announcement. He said something about the war having turned not necessarily in their favor. Even in abject defeat the language does not reflect that. They were very rational when you try to understand it from their point of view.
@@scottjuhnke6825The problem simply is that Kamikaze was not a good tactic. Here's the thing about using Fighters instead of Kamikaze...a Fighter can make multiple passes. It can fight in multiple battles. It can eliminate other fighters and targets. A successful Kamikaze however is a One Shot Weapon. There is a Reason Frontline Troops carry weapons capable of Automatic Fire instead of Bazookas. Sure the Automatic Weapons can miss, but you can fire them multiple times. A Bazooka is pretty much a Single Fire Weapon. Sure, when it hits the target it does a lot of damage...but that is only when it hits the target and you have no second chance. Zero's did very well in Dogfights until the Mustang came around. Having more Skilled Pilots in a Capable Aircraft is much more valuable than throwing away your pilots in disposable bomb planes. Effective Air Combat is something only experienced pilots are capable of. If you are Kamikazing constantly, you do not have the Veteran Pilots that should be the backbone of your Air Force.
Not exactly. It was Peer Pressure, but they didn't need to be strong armed. When your culture views martyrdom as the highest honor and accomplishment, you get a long of willing volunteers for it.
Except in many cases they weren't peer pressured or strong armed. They were fanatically volunteering to die. Suicide bombers aren't coerced, they genuinely are that zealous.
I feel like, if you had to weld someone into a plane to fly it, you're better off just *not* - - do you really want that person who probably now hates you welded into a plane?
it is good to know the ones that had missed or had mechanical issues had the opportunity to return and try again at what they believed was their duty instead of sitting feeling like a failure in death.
‘Certain degree of peer pressure’ my brother it was not opt in it was opt out They were given all their fuel and not sealed in though, as there was no guarantee they’d even find a ship and losing a plane for no gain was what the kamikaze tactic was developed to prevent I remember something about a Japanese ace pretty much saying that pitting green pilots against seasoned aces was just the same amount of suicide
@@KPW2137 Indeed. Kamikaze and Kaiten were occasionally useful, but ultimately more wasteful and desperate than anything else. How many young men were sent to their deaths only for Japan to unconditionally surrender in the end? Absolutely senseless... I think Japan was banking moreso on the psychological impact of suicide bombers rather than practicality. "Look at how fanatical and devoted we our to our Emperor! Aren't we scary!? Absolutely terrifying! We will fight til the last man! If you want this brutality to end, it is up to YOU to surrender, America!"
@@sirhenrymorgan1187 on the idea of kamikaze attacks being a waste of men and resources it's somewhat of a misconception. The kamikaze attacks would see about half the casualties of torpedo bombers due to smaller attack forces being committed. They would also use planes with a simpler design and the pilots would be less well trained than other pilots so they wouldn't be loosing their best in these attacks
Also to note, the pilots who returned were extremely shamed for the rest of their life and often killed themselves. Search up the poem: Kamikaze by Beatrice Garland.
Not really. Kamikazes were very much encouraged to return to base if ever they didn't encounter any Allied ships (a hard-learned lesson from the first kamikaze units in the Philippines). They were realizing that a lot of kamikazes were crashing themselves into the ocean even if they didn't spot any enemy ships, so they were later explicitly ordered to stop wasting their precious planes and payloads and just return back to base if no contacts were made. That was part of why regular Japanese fighter units were ordered to escort kamikazes - They weren't escorting them so much as because they suspected them of cowardice, but because they wanted to make sure they were actually even dying from the enemy. But yes, there was a very real stigma around kamikaze pilots who didn't manage to die before the war ended. But as a rule, this stigma only applied to the post-war Japanese culture. There was nothing intrinsically wrong with the act of a kamikaze returning back to base in the hopes of flying another mission another time, though.
I have it on close second hand knowledge that those who survived by missing their target and crashing into the sea were not picked up, but met a very quick end .
I know people talk about it all the time, but Godzilla Minus One is actually a great modern telling of this situation. The main character was a Kamikaze that abandoned his duty by lying that he had mechanical issues. He returned home and was later plagued with the feeling that he had failed his country, that the world would be better off if he did his job, and even believed to the point that the great life he later had was just a dream and he really died either fulfilling his duty or to Godzilla in the opening scene. It really is a gripping character dynamic that is mostly foreign to western audiences.
According to the movie Godzilla Minus One, there weren't any seat ejector / parachutes in the kamikaze planes. So it's useless to save themselves when they're diving into the enemy.
They were guiding the missile. By the time impact was assured it was too late to eject anyway. The ejection for missing is because there's no honor in dying outside of combat.
Literally a myth thats already debunked, even by survivors of the Imperial Japanese army. They were mostly crazed fanatics, but not all of them were willing to die.
I read an autobiography of a Kaitan pilot, called, "Suicide Submarine." Very interesting. A lot of them got ditched or floundered, killing the pilot inside.
They also had the "cherry blossom". A piloted V1 type aircraft. It was deployed from the bomb bay of a Japanese bomber. The Cherry Blossom pilots were unable to egress once deployed.
Their dedication and loyalty is both respectable and worrying. Though I know my hopes are futile, I pray something like this never has to happen again.
“There was a certain degree of peer pressure” Like… basically being treated as if they were dead by all their loved ones if they ever decided to bail and come back?
"Okay, watch carefully guys because im only going to do this once"
- Kamikaze instructor
💀-TimeGhost Ambassador
Lol
You should be ashamed of yourself! Just like I should be ashamed of myself for laughing! 😂
😂😂😂😂I hope I go to hell for laughing at this.
“there is no greater shame than dishonor” - some volunteers probably
There was actually one Kamikaze pilot that managed to sink an American destroyer by actually releasing the bomb and making an accurate direct hit. The guy thought the whole idea was stupid, but was pressured into joining the Kamikaze corp. After he returned to base, his superior were actually pissed at him for coming back alive and not set an example for others. He did this 9 times and each time his superiors puts him in even worse odds so he's less likely to return alive. He ended up surviving every mission and eventually the war and died in 2016 at the age of 92. His name was Sasaki Tomoji.
Seems like he was in the wrong unit?
What a Gangster
Good work, soldier. You're demoted.
Should make an anime based on him. Or at least a movie.
@@richardashendale922sause: youjo senki
jk
The torpedo operator had 100% fatality rate, whether he hit the target or sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Wow what a job.
I believe the warhead had a timer. It would blow no matter what, so the death would always be "quick", as opposed to suffocating at the bottom of the ocean
@@JoshuaTootellnot quick enough.
@@klashnacovak47 Quicker than most of us can hope for. Death is not kind.
it was also a child
@@relaxandunwind564 Yo, WTF? There's no way a kid willingly wanted to do that.
“When do I eject”
“That’s the neat part…!”
You don't!
@@matthewwynn3025nah.. more like "everywhere"
The saddest thing about the Kaiten is that the pilot, inside it, was truly a well-trained soldier. Imagine training a soldier exhaustively, spending a huge amount of time and resources, just to perform a suicide mission.
Not sad, the Japanese government at the time was allied with the Nazis
I can't imagine being told your life is only valuable to be on a suicide mission.
To put it in perspective Japan only started doing these kamikaze attacks very late into the war after the entire European front was all but lost and Japan was facing the full force of the US Navy, they had a lot of soldiers and a desperation to prevent total capitualation leading to such extreme measures
*He's not focusing on the truth which is sad*
#1: they were expected to complete their mission and their life was worth far less than their attack was worth.
#2: MANY Kamikaze pilots were sent on missions where they wouldn't have enough fuel to get back. Meaning their life was worth far less than their mission and forcing them to die either way.
#3: if they came home they & their family were completely disgraced regardless of the "reason"
#4: *and the worst part* they were basically forced into being Kamikaze pilots with the same social pressures that make 11 to 15-year-olds become suicide bombers in the multiple Jihad's.
*The ruling dictators for both them and Muslims decided MASS suicide missions were necessary, AND decided individual lives mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.*
The only value any persons life had was how much damage they could inflict on the enemy.
Is that not evil? If it isn't, please let me know why.
My last comment just got deleted by the channel. Why would they stifle discussion about what it means to be a suicide bomber?
Sealed into a sub. What a vile war it was. Good lord. I'm former military, and I understand duty, but that's just mind boggling.
Yeah, but that may have been more about obtaining a watertight seal than preventing the pilot from escaping.
Learn about the last Japanese soldier to surrender and you’ll understand better
@@castleanthrax1833
Yeah, and weren’t there rumors that he had a son whom he raised as a Japanese soldier who also resisted the fact that the war was long since over…? Just asking for a friend 😂.
grim fact: both of the original designers of the Kaiten died while piloting one. If I recall correctly, both were not in combat at the time, only training or testing of the Kaiten.
@@castleanthrax1833 Earlier models had an hatch that could be unlocked and opened from the inside, but I think no Kaiten pilot ever tried to use them, so they ditched that feature.
For any one wanting to learn more about the mindset of the kamikaze pilots the book "blossoms in the wind" published about 2005 is a very good read. It written by an American who has lived in and is a professor in Japan since the 80's. He was able to get many former pilots, relatives etc... to open up to him about how it was.
Thank you the book recommendation
Thank you!
+
No time to read. Please sum it up in 3 sentences or less. Thank you.
@@TheEgg185 you can't sum a complicated issue like that in 3 sentences or less.
I read about a Kamikaze unit that had more pilots than airplanes for the days' mission and those being left behind begged the "lucky" ones to let them take the planes.
The C/O scolded them for being "so selfish," and their turn would come soon enough.
There was a Kamikaze Pilot that came back unsuccessful so many times that he became an Officer...and later practically hijacked a plane to Kamikaze with.
It's a good thing Japan was defeated - the world has a big enough death-cult with Islam.
Did the C/O later die on a mission or get executed when the war ended? Or did he survive the War?
I think I will ask both of you this about the subjects of your comments.
Sounds fake but I dont doubt it either.
i dont believe that for a second.
"We have a new torpedo that can home in on any target in the water"
"Interesting. What's the computer used in this device?"
"Computer?"
Funnily enough at that time "computer" referred to people who did computing...
Funnily enough at that time "computer" referred to a person, not a machine, that did computing work
Came to say what Ben said
his name is Toshi. he really had dedication. bless his heart
@@benjaminmorris4962 funnily enough,
we are back (in labs) to computers using a living brain cells to do their job,
the other one are using advanced physics.
My husband’s grandfather was a reserve 回天(Kaiten) pilot in the 特別攻撃隊. He “was volunteered” and, realizing the futility of the undertaking, managed to get put in reserve and survived the war.
There are rumors here (still existing probably) that they were high during missions.
not delirious but on some mild drugs.
@@archieil I would not discount this detail also, Japan was producing a lot of drugs in the early-mid Shōwa Era, as stimulants were seen as a productivity booster and were sought after in the domestic market. I can't recall if they issued drugs to their armed forces like the Germans did but I would be very surprised if they did not.
"Mechanical failures" is often a face-saving euphemism for being unwilling to attack.
Yea, and I think I would have “mechanical failures” if I were in their shoes
Source: Godzilla Minus One 😝
That is possible, but mechanical reliability of the aircraft was a serious problem in Japan late in the war.
@@KPW2137especially since a lot of the aircraft used in kamikaze attacks were older outdated models (the Japanese weren't just going to throw a state of the art Ki-84 at a cargo boat).
I'm not sure how prevalent the 'strong arming'/peer pressure was to people volunteering for these missions, but I doubt many people would go to the effort of learning and becoming Kamikaze pilots, only to ditch at the last second under the guise of a 'mechanical failure'. These people weren't suicidal as it were, they believed they were performing a sacrifice for the greater good.
Some were willing, some were voluntold
Yea.. very much so, i would say probobly most of them was Voluntold.Specially in the later part.
I like that term "voluntold." ✌️
@@castleanthrax1833its a popular term in the us military
My wifes Grandfather was 16. He was sent on a mission, failed to find a target. Was being sent for the second and FINAL try..when he was flagged down on takeoff and told the war was over. Poor guy was a big drinker and gambler all his life after that.
@@matsv201 there's a young man who's name I keep forgetting, who was an experienced dive bomber who actually managed to hit American vessels on more than one occasion, shortly after becoming married he was selected to be a Kamikaze
“Kamikaze pilots returning to base with mechanical failure”
One who faked it found a monster at base killing all the repair squad:
Gojira
And he went on to redeem himself and actually cause a tear in my eye.
Is that from a Godzilla movie? Which one?
@@destituteanddecadent9106Minus One
@@zachradoux2038 wow, didn't know the new one was a period piece. Is that why it's called minus one, like a prequel? I'm curious how they incorporated a real and tragic war into an popcorn movie franchise.
Kamikaze pilots were heavily questioned upon their returns to base and after a set number of returns, if they didn't find a target or found too many excuses to return, they were executed for cowardice
okay history matters
volunteers*
@@hotos.1.... you're literally watching a history video-
whereas in America you were just thrown in jail if you refuse to join the draft
@@katiebarber407
Your name is very suiting
Welded into a torpedo seems worse than welded into a plane
Completely agree
Instead of heights, you get thalassophobia and claustrophobia in a tiny neat package!
"I had a mechanical failure so I came back."
"Your job is literally crashing your plane."
Crashing it into the ocean would achieve nothing
Some kamikaze pilots returned to base due to the war being ended during their mission.
Some Japanese war planes landed on the wrong aircraft carriers and the refueling guys just filled em up and let them go so they could refill ours faster too! 😂😂😂
One actually returned 10 times before being executed for cowardice
@@CriminalonCrimeno way that's true
@@4.0.4 it's true, they couldn't very well hem up the deck with foriegn plane detainment while trying to refuel our own, it's actually logical when you think about it.
@@CriminalonCrime No it's not. In no universe would the crew of a carrier let an enemy plane land, let alone refuel it to "save time" so that the plane could turn around and shoot at them or RTB and report valuable Intel on the carrier. There are no known instances of japanese planes ever successfully landing on US carriers either to defect or to gather intelligence, although there were cases of japanese planes trying to land. The most famous being the damage yokosuka floatplane that tried to land on Yorktown but was turned away by AA fire before bombing Yorktown's deck. Which is what happened to every japanese plane that tried landing on US CVs, since AA wasn't keen on letting enemy planes near
The being welded shut into a submarine reminds me of Iron Lung
I read a war diary from the book "Leaves from an Autumn of Emergencies", there's one entry from a Kamikaze pilot. It's absolutely true that these guys were HYPED to die for the empire. Like, the dude could BARELY contain his frustration that he couldn't "commit gyokusai" and smash his body "to bits" against the ships of the Americans. Dudes were hardcore. It's true. Look up the book, it's the first of the twelve diaries.
It's overcompensation.
The reaction to "kill yourself for us" could hardly be "ehh ok not sure but whatever." Gotta Hype or th stupidity sets in
Same delusion from those willing to blow themselves to bits for the religion of peace.
Hardcore can be read as 'nuts'.
@@notyourordinarygranwell that depends on whether you believe in the Almighty Creator or not. I would assume you don't. However no dying for the Almighty Creator is not the same as dying for an "empire" whether it's the japanese or the american flavour. We shall see who is delusional.
'hardcore' more like nationwide madness and brainwashing
My father served in the Navy during WW2 on the USS Bunker Hill, an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. During one specific battle, they were kamikazeed not once, but two times. Over 1,300 sailors lost their lives that day. Dad never talked about the war, as he got too emotional about it. Got my info from Mom.
There was the Ohka too which was a piloted rocket. Though you wouldn’t need to seal a pilot in since they couldn’t return anyway.
Sure, they could return... just with a little "louder" landing than the kamikaze pilots. 💥
What was the purpose this exactly? When they land after being shot out of the rocket they are dead. So what does it yeild?
@@jupiterapollo4985 To try to sink a ship. Check out the cockpit anime.
@@jupiterapollo4985it was essentially a huge bomb with wings and it wasn't landed anywhere, it's a human guided kamikaze bomb if you will
True. The aircraft was called "Baka" by the allies, the Japanese word for "fool".
And while at it: Did you know that "kamikaze" actually means "special airborne assault force" (no suicides invloved)? The Japanese to this day do not use this word in the meaning the Westerrn Wolrd does.
It should also be noted that the guys operating the "torpedoes" were also called Pilots.
Kaiten Pilot was the name of my band when I was a teenager
That goes really hard
@@daruween1398 😂❤🍻
That is a really dope band name. I like that.
Now I'm just imagining a band called the nuclear warheads or the jihad jackers 💀
Was it a metal or punk band?
Trivia: if you’ve seen Godzilla Minus One, the Japanese themselves did not call these pilots “kamikaze”. They called them “Tokkou”, short for tokubetsu kougeki tai (“special attack force”).
Makes sense, it sounds a lot better than "crack suicide squad"
@@TheCheeseManGuy Kamikaze means divine wind, it only got the “suicide-squad” meaning afterwards
@@AnonymousTH-camconsumer Yes, it was a reference to a storm that wrecked a Mongol invasion fleet.
@@jic1Two storms!
Better yet, the "kamikaze" (神風) in the full name is actually read as "shinpu" in this context.
The Americans put all their skilled translators in concentration camps and only employed ones who had no real experience with the language outside of books.
The first pilot that it was named after actually missed, didn't die, and made it to the end of the war. When he found out during the war they were praising what he supposedly did he hid the fact he was still alive for many years after the war.
Research
Kamikazi wasn't named after a guy, my dude. The word means "divine wind" and refers to a real historical event where the Mongol empire failed to invade Japan because their ships were destroyed by a cyclone. The Japanese believed they had been protected by the gods through that storm, hence the term. The kamikazi pilots were meant to be the divine wind protecting Japan from foreign invasion once more.
My dad served on the U.S.S. Missouri from '44 to '46. The kamikaze aircraft that impacted the ship in April of '45 essentially disgorged the top half of the poor pilot kid's corpse onto the deck. That wouldn't have happened if he was welded to the cockpit. Really sad for the kid. At least they gave his remains a burial at sea. I still have a part of the "meatball" from the wing of the plane that flew up onto the deck that my dad took as a souvenir.
You shouldn't have kept a man's testicle as a souvenir
Wait, so you're saying you have human remains from WW2 of a kamikaze pilot taken as a "souvenir"?
@@gekigami1791”from the wing of the plane”.. reading comprehension
@@gekigami1791 “meatball” was the term used to describe the roundel markings used for identification on Imperial Japanese Army and Navy aircraft. The red circle 🔴 hence “meatball”.
Not meatball as in a ball of human remains😂
@@gonuts4donuts I only knew 'meatball' as the glideslope indication unit, which made no sense in this context so I was really thrown off for a second there too hahah
Thanks for clearing it out 🤣
Memiors of a Kamikaze by Kazuo Odachi is an excellent autobiography that puts you in the shoes of those pilots. An incredibly powerful work that grants Western readers a perspective not found elsewhere. Highly recommend.
Is there really any insight to reading about people being manipulated for a "Grander cause" that any of the other similar stories can't show you? It's the same old story of the fragility of the mind of young people told over and over again. The only difference is Japanese men in planes...
the way he moved at the beginning makes me think he's getting self-aware
Many were **not** willing volunteers. Extant letters home from some of these pilots questioned what they were doing and why they were picked for these missions. Toward the end of the war, most kamikaze pilots were not volunteers, though the peer pressure kept them from bowing out and heading for the infantry.
I’m sure the infantry wouldn’t have been much better considering they were often sent on suicide runs
@@aidanhart6419neither sound great, but I'd rather a high likelihood of immediate death from a .50 cal or 20mm anti-aircraft cannon or severe blunt force trauma than bleeding out in the battlefield hours after disemboweled. Sounds like there is a higher likelihood of a quick and less painful death, and hey maybe you get a parachute and it has a "mechanical failure" somewhere half a kilometre from an allied warship. I dunno how well either side would have treated POWs, but I'd rather be an allied POW than be executed for cowardice. Don't even get me started on that manned torpedo, fuck that is evil, having such little value for human life.
What a horrible way to go, how anyone managed to make it back from that war is a mystery to me.
"peer pressure" i.e. execution for desertion
@@sor3999 I am not talking about desertion. They could bow out of kamikaze training and be sent to the enlisted ranks of the IJA infantry, complete with loss of face and family dishonor.
@@izak5356 just wondering why seemingly nobody thought of killing their commander while they sleep, literally my first idea
Your own people kill you one way or the other, nothing is stopping you from actually taking out the trash before being killed or killing yourself quickly to avoid torture
Germans: we made a mechanical computer guided bomb
Japanese: we took the computer out of the bomb and put people in it
This is hands town the best channel on TH-cam for WW2 information and history. The only thing that would send you guys over the top, would be to interview surviving veterans or civilians who were present. You would outdo every mainstream media outlets' work in terms of production value and just plain information (you already put 'discovery's and 'the history channel's to shame)
Well, I have some news for you ... -TimeGhost Ambassador
Besides, welding aluminum to aluminum is hard.
It's kind of hard to weld metal to wood. Would have had much better luck just screwing the canopies close.
What? No it's not. Although in the 40s it probably was. I must have missed the joke. R/whoosh?
@@dustinandtarynwolfe5540
Tig welding was invented in the US in 1941.
It wasn't EVER used on One single Japanese fighter fuselage during WW2 because the Japanese didn't have Tig welding until after WW2.
Even if they had Tig welding in Japan, the Zero fighter was light because the rolled aluminium sheet used was around a third the thickness gauge of the allied fighter planes.
This alone would have taken a highly skilled Tig welder. Sheet so thin its like trying to weld cigarette papers together.
Rivets were the main stay of WW2 fighter production for all countries.
They could have just drilled and riveted the canopy shut.
Truth
Kamakazies were a last ditch effort by a nation that knew defeat was coming. The proof is that there were zero suicidal pilots at the beginning of the war and didn’t begin until the war was decisively in favor of the allies.
Kamikaze pilots are what got America involved into the war in Pearl Harbor, Japan was dominating the Pacific until American involvement.
I recently watched a documentary about a kamikaze pilot who returned to base after having mechanical failure but then later that night a dinosaur looking creature killed his fellow soldiers and destroyed his plane.
Pretty good doc.
One of my favourite documentaries last year. Very informative.
Godzilla is real
It's really stupid as airframe aluminum isn't designed for welding. Especially not with 1940s welding technology.
aluminum is incredibly easy to weld and the technology barely differs from steel
no investigation, no right to speak
To be fair, I don't think airframe aluminum was designed to be smashed into a battleship either.
@@krisd5697 good point
"These new torpedoes are 💯% accurate!"
"Nice! What mechanisms are used to be so efficient?"
"A joystick and your hand! 🙃"
One of my Professors walked by a catering hall in Tokyo stating that it was hosting a Kamikaze Reunion. He kinded wanted to go up an visit it but could not.
A episode of black Sheep Squadron had a Kamikaze pilot land on their island and he tried to Grenade himself but Boyington captured him. I don't remember if they found a way he could die honorably.
It's not a Kamikaze, it's a Japanese ace in 1943.
@@RouGeZH I was early teens At the time. And the show jumped around. Thank you.
Wow...totally forgot about Black Sheep Squadron! What a show that was. 😅
I think this was due to the fact that many in the military like rumors and rumors spread really fast in the military. I once read that US Marines on Saipan were claiming that Japanese soldiers were chained to their tanks so they couldn’t escape.
Probably a rehash from WWI rumors that the Germans would chain machine gun operators to their weapons.
I heard Japanese cooks were chained to their grills so they couldnt escape
@@kewlf00l85 Japanese scuba divers were chained to the sea so they couldn't escape.
@@kewlf00l85 Japanese firefighters were chained to the buildings so they couldn't escape.
The rumor mill in the military is worse than high school just before prom. 🤣
Channels like this focusing on very specific facts of time in recent and distant history is so important because myths and false narratives often take over the nuance and truth of situations which were far more complex while they were happening. But it is easier for many to take one or two quick notes away from history as opposed to taking in all of the perspectives and reasons for it.
Its crazy to think that the Kaitan probably required dozens of tests before ever being deployed in combat. Thats got to be a hard sell to a "voluntary" test subject.
They probably loaded those ones with dummy charges, and maybe gave the test pilots salvage axes, or something else to breach out with. If you are a good swimmer, you might be able to pilot a second one!
Indy nailed it in the first line. These were willing volunteers, so therefore there would be no need to seal them in.
His last name name is spelled way too similarly to "nailed 'et"
and the whole point of kamikaze tactics was to increase the effectiveness of pilots so imagine just losing these precious pilots simply because they got lost whatever
@@dubious_potat4587yeah, the idea and likely truth was they’d die anyway, so why not try and stop what they viewed as the end to Japan as a race and culture? (Completely brainwashed ofc, and that’s not excusing the worst abuses imaginable, but there were some calls for genocide after the war)
@@ad_astra5 that too, yeah
Idk why but immediately after he mentioned a torpedo and being welded in shut the game "Iron lung" imediately jumped into my mind
I'm surprised you're the only one mentioning it, especially with the movie coming out soon.
That headturn
Thank you so much for creating this channel
My Das’s ship was hit by a kamikaze at Okinawa. The wing went between the barrels of the aft 5-inch mount and pirouetted into the sea without exploding. They pulled the pilot out of the sea. They couldn’t have done that if he was welded in.
History Matters did a really good episode about this
My late father had a piece of a Japanese Zero.
His ship was covered with gas, water, oil and aluminum shreds, from bow to stern.
Someone found a piece of the pilot on the fantail of the ship, but you couldn't keep that.
Haha you can't easily weld thin aluminum or steel plates anyways.
That's what Rivets are for.
@justinlast2lastharder749 pop rivets are horrible though.
@@tylersmith1468 Pop rivets are, but traditional rivets are great. Just labor intensive
@@jonny-b4954 I've only used pop rivets, and I hate doing so. TIG welding is best, followed by bolts.
@@tylersmith1468 Yeah, old school riveting is pretty situational. Used in boat building, a lot still. Just a copper/bronze rod you hammer a head over on one side, then brace the head, and round over the other side after clamping the 2 pieces together.
So refreshing to see professional quality shorts, that have something interesting to say and something to teach us. One of the best channels out there.
Thank you for the kind words!
-TimeGhost Ambassador
Thank you for the kind words!
-TimeGhost Ambassador
Considering this is the first time I've heard this, I'm going to say "no."
Also, the picture where people holding flower branches towards the airplane... That' depicting a departing ritual where sake (or osake) were given to the pilots. Little known fact that the sake was drugged with Philopon which is the Japanese equivalent of Pervitin, the methamphetamine-based medicine and improver. This helped the already indoctrinated ones to become more brave and do the bidding without a question and lessen the chances of chickening out at the final moment.
Drinking sake is a ritual before any mission, not just kamikaze
@@aslamnurfikri7640Yet drugging sake with methamphetamine wasn't, which was my point.
It is a very good point about how the Japanese military government regarded the Japanese People as tools to do their bidding.
And, the fact that the Japanese people _clamored_ to go get themselves killed fighting for The Emperor shows something else.
If we had used a nuclear bomb on Tokyo, and destroyed the Rulers of Japan, that would not have ended the war.
Any land invasion would have been met with the civilian population charging the ground troops, everywhere and anywhere they went in all of Japan proper!
If the Emperor had not ordered the Japanese to surrender, they would have gone on fighting, without end...
(And by "they" I don't just mean the military or solders, I mean *all* Japanese everywhere in Japan!)
.... Say, I know the top military rulers of Japan killed themselves when they definitively lost the war,
But what about the Emperor? He had been the supreme authority at that time, with everyone under him.
I don't think _he_ killed himself. Was he sentenced to Life in Prison, or permanently put under house arrest?
Much like Slobadan Milosovich, did he just kind of put on civilian clothing, slip out the back door and start a new life under a different name?
What happened to him? 🤔
And make them more alert, maybe
As long as their mission doesn't last more than 3-4 hours that might work
There was one Kamikaze pilot who returned to base 7 times. He didn't get another go after that.
Thank you, TH-cam, for instilling a new ridiculous and totally irrational fear in me: Being welded into a human-piloted torpedo.
That intro was amazing
“No it was just the kamikaze divers who were welded in.”
The Kamikaze that held the record for the most times returned from a mission was 9. He was executed for cowardice on the 9th time.
How the hell did he even do that?
@@tankman5783 They were permitted to return for a few reasons, bad weather, mechanical malfunctions... if something beyond their control/ not their fault occurred, they would not be punished, just told better luck next time.
What's the difference between Arnold Schwarzenegger and a kamikaze pilots, when Arnie goes off to fight he says "I'll Be Back" where as the kamikaze pilots say "I Won't Be Back"
Imagine missing the ship while in your torpedo then slowly loosing speed and sinking to the bottom of the ocean💀
Being welded into a sub is somehow more horrific than an airplane.
Also they were running out of metal near the end of the war that’s why they were doing kamikaze so why waste metal welding them in
Uh, an ounce of welding rod while you are using thousands of pounds of planes to kill the good guys???
They had a experimental ohka missile that if deployed would have wielded the operator inside launched from the h8k i think
"SAMURAI" tells of how the first time they were ordered to kamikaze into the ships, noone did, they all returned. And were not admonished for it.
The damned proximity charge... if not for that K tactics would have worked pretty well.
Jedi: "It's dishonorable"
Sith: "You're a weakling"
Those torpedos were probably safer than an Oceangate sub.
I have also heard a rumor that they dropped the landing gear on takeoff so that they could not land.
That's more about weight savings, as well as cutting down on drag. A lot of landing gears where permanently fixed
You can land without landing gear.
No they thought it an honor to die for the emperor and homeland
which is what he meant when he said they were volunteers
Also, they knew that they would end up dead from the war anyways, so why wait.
That's a myth they already debunked, with sources from survivors of the Imperial Japanese army. There would be kamikaze missions where some would return, with the excuse of "not finding any targets". They will not kill these men because trained pilots were getting rarer and rarer. Stop mythologizing war criminals. They're already monstrous as they were.
People are not a monolith.
I think the issue here has a lot to do with the Western inability to wrap their heads around the whole Kamikaze tactic. I will admit I inherited that from my parents, Dad served in the Navy.
I believe it is Military History Visualized has a great video explaining the very rational reasons for the Japanese to embrace this tactic.
Nothing rational about it, just desperate
@@bigchungus4336 Desperation certainly played a part, but it was, nonetheless, very rational.
If you send 20 dive, or torpedo bombers at a US carrier, how many get through? Not very many, and even fewer will land hits. If you send out those same 20 aircraft on a kamikaze run, your odds are far greater that the planes will get through, and a significantly higher number of them will cause damage.
In a situation where there are a rapidly diminishing number of aircraft, it is a very rational use of those resources.
@@scottjuhnke6825the thing that makes it irrational is that Japan had already lost the war. It would have been far more logical for the Japanese government to simply surrender to the Allies instead of continuing to get their own people killed.
@@Cybermat47 From our perspective. Japan was hoping it could cause enough damage, and casualties that the US, in particular, would seek peace on favorable terms.
It just wasn't in their culture either. We can't judge them from our perspective, and values. In JPan during this period, the Japanese saw themselves as the pinnacle. Everyone else was lesser. They simply were not going to just give up. Listen to the Emperor's announcement. He said something about the war having turned not necessarily in their favor. Even in abject defeat the language does not reflect that.
They were very rational when you try to understand it from their point of view.
@@scottjuhnke6825The problem simply is that Kamikaze was not a good tactic. Here's the thing about using Fighters instead of Kamikaze...a Fighter can make multiple passes. It can fight in multiple battles. It can eliminate other fighters and targets. A successful Kamikaze however is a One Shot Weapon. There is a Reason Frontline Troops carry weapons capable of Automatic Fire instead of Bazookas. Sure the Automatic Weapons can miss, but you can fire them multiple times. A Bazooka is pretty much a Single Fire Weapon. Sure, when it hits the target it does a lot of damage...but that is only when it hits the target and you have no second chance.
Zero's did very well in Dogfights until the Mustang came around. Having more Skilled Pilots in a Capable Aircraft is much more valuable than throwing away your pilots in disposable bomb planes. Effective Air Combat is something only experienced pilots are capable of. If you are Kamikazing constantly, you do not have the Veteran Pilots that should be the backbone of your Air Force.
A “certain degree of peer pressure and strong arming” feels like a huge understatement
I like the way you intro the video with the head swish and noise to go with it. Content was good but the intro had be locked in.
early version of the iron lung game
Peer pressured and strong arming does not qualify them as being volunteers. That’s what we would call coercion with the threat of violence.
Not exactly. It was Peer Pressure, but they didn't need to be strong armed. When your culture views martyrdom as the highest honor and accomplishment, you get a long of willing volunteers for it.
Except in many cases they weren't peer pressured or strong armed. They were fanatically volunteering to die. Suicide bombers aren't coerced, they genuinely are that zealous.
If you listened properly, most cases were people volunteering, while few were strong armed and pressured into it.
How horrific it all was
Being welded into a torpedo is even more horrifying.
Certain degree of peer pressure is putting it lightly.
I feel like, if you had to weld someone into a plane to fly it, you're better off just *not* - - do you really want that person who probably now hates you welded into a plane?
Well, it never happened, so trying to explain how it's a bad idea is kind of superfluous.
That flag looks better with 2 heads
Why did I read the thumbnail as “why the kamikaze pilots welded the sun into their aircraft.”?
It’s late and I’m tired.
Nice Tanya pfp
Dude you look like Michael Caine!!
And I don't blink. And I don't blink. And I don't blink.
Thank you for your service and this report.
it is good to know the ones that had missed or had mechanical issues had the opportunity to return and try again at what they believed was their duty instead of sitting feeling like a failure in death.
‘Certain degree of peer pressure’ my brother it was not opt in it was opt out
They were given all their fuel and not sealed in though, as there was no guarantee they’d even find a ship and losing a plane for no gain was what the kamikaze tactic was developed to prevent
I remember something about a Japanese ace pretty much saying that pitting green pilots against seasoned aces was just the same amount of suicide
A human piloted *what?*
Torpedo. Yes, the Japanese had suicide bomber torpedos that were manually piloted from the inside.
@@sirhenrymorgan1187 and very ineffective at that - Kaiten in theory was sort of serious threat, but in reality the weapon was problematic.
@@KPW2137 Indeed. Kamikaze and Kaiten were occasionally useful, but ultimately more wasteful and desperate than anything else. How many young men were sent to their deaths only for Japan to unconditionally surrender in the end? Absolutely senseless...
I think Japan was banking moreso on the psychological impact of suicide bombers rather than practicality. "Look at how fanatical and devoted we our to our Emperor! Aren't we scary!? Absolutely terrifying! We will fight til the last man! If you want this brutality to end, it is up to YOU to surrender, America!"
I remembered the Kaiten from the game 'Battlestations: Pacific' back on the 360. Very morbid in hindsight, piloting the sub in the Japanese missions.
@@sirhenrymorgan1187 on the idea of kamikaze attacks being a waste of men and resources it's somewhat of a misconception. The kamikaze attacks would see about half the casualties of torpedo bombers due to smaller attack forces being committed. They would also use planes with a simpler design and the pilots would be less well trained than other pilots so they wouldn't be loosing their best in these attacks
Also to note, the pilots who returned were extremely shamed for the rest of their life and often killed themselves.
Search up the poem: Kamikaze by Beatrice Garland.
Not really. Kamikazes were very much encouraged to return to base if ever they didn't encounter any Allied ships (a hard-learned lesson from the first kamikaze units in the Philippines). They were realizing that a lot of kamikazes were crashing themselves into the ocean even if they didn't spot any enemy ships, so they were later explicitly ordered to stop wasting their precious planes and payloads and just return back to base if no contacts were made. That was part of why regular Japanese fighter units were ordered to escort kamikazes - They weren't escorting them so much as because they suspected them of cowardice, but because they wanted to make sure they were actually even dying from the enemy.
But yes, there was a very real stigma around kamikaze pilots who didn't manage to die before the war ended. But as a rule, this stigma only applied to the post-war Japanese culture. There was nothing intrinsically wrong with the act of a kamikaze returning back to base in the hopes of flying another mission another time, though.
Bit of an exaggeration. Returning to base(with the goal of trying again on another mission), was perfectly acceptable.
I have it on close second hand knowledge that those who survived by missing their target and crashing into the sea were not picked up, but met a very quick end .
Imagine your torpedo misses, runs out of fuel, and just starts sinking.
They were high on meth
There's not a myth(Lie) that hasn't been told
Yeah like me NOT sleeping with your mother. That's an Obvious lie
They were bolted in
They were not, as this guy said. They were willing participants
Myth. The Japanese soldiers did this willingly in service of the Emperor. I think this is a concept a lot of modern people find hard to understand.
I know people talk about it all the time, but Godzilla Minus One is actually a great modern telling of this situation. The main character was a Kamikaze that abandoned his duty by lying that he had mechanical issues. He returned home and was later plagued with the feeling that he had failed his country, that the world would be better off if he did his job, and even believed to the point that the great life he later had was just a dream and he really died either fulfilling his duty or to Godzilla in the opening scene. It really is a gripping character dynamic that is mostly foreign to western audiences.
According to the movie Godzilla Minus One, there weren't any seat ejector / parachutes in the kamikaze planes. So it's useless to save themselves when they're diving into the enemy.
Wait, a second; if they could ditch the plain after missing the target, then why wouldn’t they just ditch the plane anyway?
and get shot by all those AA fire? nah.
Because they were soldiers?
They were guiding the missile. By the time impact was assured it was too late to eject anyway. The ejection for missing is because there's no honor in dying outside of combat.
burtal
No, Kamikaze pilots were dedicated to their WW2 objective.
Literally a myth thats already debunked, even by survivors of the Imperial Japanese army. They were mostly crazed fanatics, but not all of them were willing to die.
One time Godzilla showed up and scared the pilot into turning back
I read an autobiography of a Kaitan pilot, called, "Suicide Submarine." Very interesting. A lot of them got ditched or floundered, killing the pilot inside.
They also had the "cherry blossom". A piloted V1 type aircraft. It was deployed from the bomb bay of a Japanese bomber. The Cherry Blossom pilots were unable to egress once deployed.
Their dedication and loyalty is both respectable and worrying. Though I know my hopes are futile, I pray something like this never has to happen again.
Never knew Tre Cool was also a history buff
“There was a certain degree of peer pressure”
Like… basically being treated as if they were dead by all their loved ones if they ever decided to bail and come back?
honestly, being sealed into a torpedo sounds even worse than being sealed into a plane.
Why do you look like you were just woken up when the video starts? You get my sub for that. 😂