Kamikaze
Dive bombed at American/Allied ships to sink/damage them
Definition
The word kamikaze means “divine wind,” a reference to a typhoon that fortuitously dispersed a Mongol invasion fleet threatening Japan from the west in 1281.
A Japanese monoplane that made a record-breaking flight from Tokyo to London in 1937 for the Asahi newspaper group was named Kamikaze. She was a prototype for the Mitsubishi Ki-15 ("Babs").[10]
In Japanese, the formal term used for units carrying out suicide attacks during 1944–1945 is tokubetsu kōgekitai (特別攻撃隊), which literally means "special attack unit". This is usually abbreviated to tokkōtai (特攻隊).
Nicknamed 'baka bombs' by Americans
Only had a 19% success rate
Would load planes with bombs to create more destruction
Was used as a drastic attempt to gain an advantage
All based upon Japanese military values of death instead of surrendering
In Japanese culture, it was very honorable to die for your country
Like samurai
Used inexperienced and weak pilots as they were more expendable
The war had also killed many of Japan's best pilots
Purpose-built kamikazes, opposed to converted fighters and dive bombers, were also being constructed.
baka is Japanese for "idiot" or "stupid" aka jason
Culture
non-retractable landing gear was jettisoned shortly after takeoff for a suicide mission, recovered, and reused.
Would yell 'long live the emperor ' (in Japanese) before they crashed
Seen as an honourable deed
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