Contrary
to popular belief, many in the Japanese military establishment were reluctant
to adopt suicide or “body-crashing” tactics as official doctrine. Even as the war turned against the country,
Japanese tacticians believed that the goal in battle was to kill the enemy
while at least trying to survive the battle.
Yet, as Japanese defeats mounted, there were more and more instances of
desperate Japanese soldiers charging superior American forces, only to be mowed
down in return. Further, groups of
pilots calling themselves Kamikazes)
were making intentional suicide attacks on American ships, by deliberately
crashing into and causing major damage to them.
Given
the effectiveness of Kamikaze attacks,
it didn’t take long for Japanese Naval officers to start lobbying for the use
of suicide attacks as a regular strategy.
Although Naval Headquarters staff members were reluctant to go along
with the idea, the reality of Japan’s war situation made it clear that there
weren’t too many other options.
Accordingly, headquarters staff decided to include suicide attacks as
part of Japan’s overall strategy.
The
“official” body-crashing tactics, though, left open the possibility (however
slight) of crew survival. This is
because the early plans did not include aerial
attacks. Rather, the early strategy
involved the use of manned torpedoes and the like. This began to change in July of 1944, after
the U.S. successfully invaded the Marianas.
Even so, naval leaders continued to resist the use of aerial body-crash
attacks, because the deaths of the aircrews were guaranteed under such attacks.
In
the meantime, B-29’s began making regular bombing attacks on Japan itself. In addition, the Tojo government collapsed
twelve days after U.S. forces occupied Saipan.
At that point, Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi - a proponent of aerial suicide attacks –
“leaked” a story about the plans to produce body-crash weapons to a large
newspaper. In the story, Onishi
advocated the use of aerial body-crash tactics as a means of winning the war. He then lobbied the new government for the
use of these same tactics. With a flair
for the dramatic, Onishi went to the home of one of the new government
leaders. There, he wrote the words
“RESTORATION OF THE NAVY” with a brush on a large paper scroll. Onishi was then placed in charge of the First
Naval Aviation Fleet, a position that would enable him to carry out the plans
for aerial body-crash missions.
To be continued...
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