Japan’s kamikaze pilots made ultimate sacrifice for fading empire

On October 21, 1944, a Japanese pilot smashed his plane into the bridge of HMAS Australia. And so the suicide cult of the kamikaze pilots was born.

A kamikaze plane about to crash into the USS Missouri during the battle of Okinawa. Picture: Australian War Memorial.

The war was not going well for Japan in the summer of 1944. The Americans had recaptured the Philippines and the Japanese had lost too many ships to strike back immediately.

Defeat seemed only a matter of time unless they could strike a large enough blow at the enemy to give them time to commission more ships and rebuild its forces.

On October 21 there came a sign of what the Allies could expect from Japan, when a Japanese bomber crashed into the bridge of HMAS Australia.

Thirty members of the crew, including the commanding officer, Captain Emile Dechaineux, were killed or later died from their wounds, another 64 crewmen were injured.

Moments before the plane hit Lieutenant Commander Richard Peek, the gunnery officer aboard the Australia, yelled to the captain “Just look at this. She’s aiming for us.”News_Image_File: HMAS Australia burns after the attack by Japanese Kamikaze planes on October 21, 1944.This was not an unusual tactic but was mostly only employed by Japanese pilots if they were badly wounded or if they knew their aircraft was damaged and might crash.

A few days later, during the battle of Leyte Gulf, Japanese aircraft began purposefully crashing their planes into Allied ships. This was a new, desperate, measure being used by the emperor’s pilots. It would be known as kamikaze.

The word came to strike fear into Allied servicemen.

It meant literally “divine wind” but referred to two violent typhoons that had wrecked the Mongol fleet when they were attempting to invade Japan in 1274 and 1281.

The Japanese believed the winds were sent by the gods and had been sent after the emperor went on a pilgrimage to pray for deliverance from the invasion.News_Image_File: Artist Phillip Belbin’s painting of the kamikaze attack on HMAS Australia.

In World War II after major defeats including in New Guinea, the Coral Sea, Midway and then the Philippines, by October 1944 there was an increasing sense of urgency. Military production plants were going into overdrive, new ships would soon be ready to bring into battle, but something had to be done to slow the Allied advance.

Military leaders exploited the spirit of self-sacrifice that was at the heart of the Japanese Bushido warrior code. Volunteers were called upon to undertake missions from which they may never return, but which would guarantee them almost godly status as heroes in their death.

The Japanese had begun to develop new suicide weapons and formed a Special Attack Force to steer them to their targets.News_Image_File: Doomed ... Japanese kamikaze such as this squadron (pictured in 1945) went to their deaths believing they were guaranteed almost godly status as heroes in death.

One of the weapons was the Okha, or Cherry Blossom, a rocket-powered, explosives packed aircraft that needed to be launched from below a bomber and was designed to fly rapidly at the target and detonate on impact. The Americans called it the Baka, Japanese for fool, when it made its debut in November 1944.

In the months that followed the Japanese also launched suicide submarines and the Kaiten, a piloted torpedo.

In the meantime the Japanese used their planes. In October vice-admiral Takejiro Onishi, commander of the First Air Fleet in the Philippines, losing the battle for the Philippines asked for permission to employ suicide tactics.

Onishi arrived in the Philippines on October 17 to oversee the implementation of his plan. The first group of Kamikaze pilots were selected on October 19. Volunteers were restricted to single males from families with more than one surviving son, no oldest sons were allowed.

The first official Special Attack Force flight is listed as being on October 21, but no targets were sighted. While the plane that hit HMAS Australia on October 21 was not officially listed as a Special Attack Force mission, the timing suggests it may have been a test run or that the pilots, knew what was about to be unleashed by other pilots.News_Image_File: No oldest sons were allowed to volunteer for the suicide missions.

On October 23 another Special Attack Force flight was dispatched, the planes did not return but no Allied ships were listed as being hit on that day.

However, on October 25 the effectiveness of the Kamikaze bombers was demonstrated with the sinking of the escort carrier the USS St Lo and several other ships.

Although it didn’t win them the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Japanese deemed the damage the kamikaze pilots had inflicted on the Allies showed that the tactic could be successful.

The program was expanded and thousands of pilots were recruited over the next months, asked to sacrifice their lives in the remaining months of the war.

At Okinawa kamikaze would claim the lives of about 5000 men, the largest loss of men by the US Navy in a single day.

HMAS Australia was repaired but was later be hit again by kamikaze.