The Japanese armed forces gave their suicide aircraft many designations, but this article uses the generally accepted term kamikaze (‘divine wind’). The term was originally used to describe the typhoons which destroyed the Mongol fleets sent by Kublai Khan to invade Japan in 1274 and 1281.
In 1944, Japan’s forces suffered a run of disasters in the Pacific theatre, where Allied forces were overrunning key islands to provide air bases for a strategic bombing campaign against the Japanese home islands. The Allies’ advance also cut Japan off from the bulk of its oil supplies, which were drawn from the former Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia). The loss of at least 550 Japanese aircraft in the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944 led to drastic reassessments of how air power could most effectively be employed against seemingly overwhelming Allied naval and air superiority.
This disaster swung the balance in favour of the concept of aircraft making suicide attacks, which had been under discussion at Japanese Imperial GHQ since 1943. By the autumn of 1944, the first kamikaze units had formed, equipped with A6M5 ‘Zero’ fighters, each modified to carry a single 250kg (550lb) bomb. Initially, the bombs were clamped to the aircraft, but conventional bomb racks were soon fitted as it was realised that more damage could be inflicted if the bomb was released just before the aircraft hit the target vessel.
