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They were called the Kamikaze, which means 'divine wind' (a reference to storms that histrically prevented the invasion of Japan).

Kamikaze pilots flew small planes, with explosives in the nose cone, into Allied ships, sinking or damaging them. It was a last desperate use of inferior planes and pilots with little training, after the wartime losses of carriers, planes, pilots, and weaponry. There was a suicide boat equivalent, the Shin'yō,which saw use during the recapture of the Philippines by US forces in 1944.

Kamikaze is both singular and plural. The operators of the similar suicide submarines were known as Kaiten. Literally Kamikaze means Divine Wind, and Kaiten is untranslatable but roughly Heaven-shaker. Neither term originally meant suicide.

The Japanese also managed a virtual suicidal Task Force: a go-for-broke mission involving a battleship, several destroyers, and a light cruiser. There were some reluctant survivors, late in the second naval battle of Okinawa. One was later an author, Captain Tameichi Hara of the cruiser Yahagi.

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12y ago

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