He told the assembled pilots and staff officers, “In my opinion, there is only one way of assuring that our meager strength will be effective to a maximum degree. How could such a small force hold back the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of American planes coming to Leyte Gulf?Īdmiral Ohnishi presented his solution. The problem was that the 1st Air Fleet had only 30 serviceable aircraft on Luzon. He had orders to protect the fleet for at least one week, keeping the American aircraft carriers from launching strikes that would cripple or destroy the oncoming Japanese fleet. But the Japanese fleet had no air cover of its own the 1st Air Fleet on Luzon would have to provide that air cover. He then explained that the Imperial Japanese Navy was about to launch an all-out attack on the American fleet off Leyte. But the continued defeats in the Pacific and the loss of vital resource territory seemed to have changed his opinion by the time he was appointed to command the 1st Air Fleet in the Philippines.Īdmiral Ohnishi began by stating the obvious: Japan’s situation was critical. As a staff officer, Ohnishi had long been involved in discussions in Tokyo over the use of suicide operations, arguing against them. He had helped plan the Pearl Harbor attack and had been a protégé of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Joined by some squadron leaders, the group sat down to listen to Admiral Ohnishi’s instructions.Īdmiral Ohnishi was himself a pilot and a long-time advocate of naval aviation in Japan. Takijiro Ohnishi, the recently appointed commander of Japanese Naval Air Forces in the Philippines. While speaking with Commander Asaichi Tamai, commanding the 201st Air Group, he was joined suddenly by Vice Adm. As a senior staff officer of the 1st Air Fleet, he had been assigned the job of organizing the air defenses of the Philippines. Captain Rikihei Inoguchi of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Forces was at Clark Field discussing attack plans against the approaching American invasion force. The Americans were about to invade those islands, and the Japanese were preparing to meet that invasion. The origins of the modern Kamikaze are traced to Luzon, in the Philippines, in October 1944. Once again, the accepted solution was the Kamikaze. All attempts to stop the American advance had so far failed, and, as in 1281, Japan was growing increasingly desperate. Without those supplies, Japan could not sustain its war effort much longer. By then, the Americans were invading the Philippines and the Palau Islands, threatening to cut off Japanese lines of supply from the Far East. Suicide as a doctrinal military tactic, however, did not enter Japanese military policy until October 1944. These men were presumed to have been granted a direct passage to an honored place in heaven for their actions. Throughout the war, individual Japanese, particularly pilots whose planes were too badly damaged to return to base and being culturally unable to accept a surrender to the enemy, would fly their damaged aircraft into some enemy target, be it a ship or a ground target. It would appear repeatedly during the Pacific war, beginning at Guadalcanal and lasting to, and even after, Japan’s surrender.īut mass suicide was something else. Suicide was generally accepted as the way to atone for failure, and ritual suicide, also known as seppuku and harakiri, was common among the military of Japan. The concept of individual suicide was accepted within Japanese society, particularly among those descended from the warrior, or Samurai, class. This time, the Kamikaze would not be a typhoon, but swarms of suicide planes that were to be unleashed at the advancing allies. In desperation, some Japanese leaders looked to another “Divine Wind” again to save them. The Western Allies had begun their inexorable advance against Japan three years earlier at New Guinea and Guadalcanal, and they were now more than halfway across the vast Pacific, aiming directly for Japan itself. It was not Mongols this time, but an enormous military force led by the United States that was threatening to invade Japan. Nearly 700 years later, in 1944, the same situation faced Japan. In the year 1281, Japan had been saved by this help from above. The enemy, Mongols under Kublai Khan, had been destroyed by a sudden typhoon, a “Divine Wind” or “Kamikaze,” as it came to be known in Japanese history. But then, suddenly and without warning, a great wind came and destroyed the enemy fleet. There was nothing left but to fight to the death against the savage invaders. They were outnumbered, and the enemy was about to land on the shores of the Imperial Home Islands. The nation of Japan was hopeless before the invading force.
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