Kamikaze - BBC4

[Skyedriver]

From the Japanese side with interviews of family left behind.

How thousands of young men, mostly 18 - 23 were persuaded, mostly quite easily persuaded, to commit suicide on behalf of the Emperor and a losing side in the war against the US. Although one survivor said "if we can only win the war by committing suicide we may as well surrender". Another, "I'm prepared to take a bullet in the war but voluntary suicide I don't agree with". Most though went ahead and died.

A great honour, for the family, for the town or village. Funerals in school halls with encouragement of the young ones to follow in the footsteps of those already dead. Siblings now regret the decisions of their brothers.

Fascinating and shocking how people can be persuaded.

[Wacky Racer]

My Dad had a finger on his left hand blown off by flying shrapnel in a Japanese Kamikaze attack on his Carrier "Formidable" in the Pacific in May 1945. Several of his shipmates were killed.

https://www.armouredcarriers.com/hms-formidable-ma...

(Seen here sitting in the cockpit)

[nicanary]

I've seen a previous documentary about this where they interviewed former Japanese pilots. One guy said he wasn't at all sure whether he wanted to, but celebrated the night before with his pals with copious amounts of saki. The next day it was foggy and raining, he turned up at the airfield, and nobody else arrived. He went home.

[Panamax]

The truly crazy thing is that being a Kamikaze wasn't all that much more likely to get you hurt than any other pilot.

For aircrew in WW2 only about 24% survived without death or injury. U-boats had similarly poor overall statistics, albeit with a greater proportion of deaths to injuries.

Those Japanese kids certainly weren't crazed nutters as some people have chosen to believe.

[Blib]

Weren't the UK carriers safer from attack because, un like the US ships they had steel flight decks, rather than wooden ones?

[Skyedriver]

Panamax said:

The truly crazy thing is that being a Kamikaze wasn't all that much more likely to get you hurt than any other pilot.

For aircrew in WW2 only about 24% survived without death or injury. U-boats had similarly poor overall statistics, albeit with a greater proportion of deaths to injuries.

Those Japanese kids certainly weren't crazed nutters as some people have chosen to believe.

Indeed, not depicted as "nutters"
These were young, generally well educated, often graduates of university, dedicated to their country and prepared to die for it. Albeit a country in a war it was already known to be losing but they were not prepared to give up.

[C69]

A really interesting programme, which emphasised the huge scale of kamikaze operations - it wasn't just a handful of fanatical pilots who volunteered. The peer pressure to participate was clearly enormous, though.