Japanese Kamakaze Plane!

[cbarnard7]

And everyone stateside who worked to provide the material that everyone needed. And everyone who bought War Bonds and lived with rationed gas, metal, silk, and everything else.

Yes! it seems during war, or after something big (Boston bombings) we really come together as a country. As much as I hate for something like the bombings (or 9/11) to happen, I'm always so proud to see so many American flags flying high! (even if they are at half-mast). Back then, it seems like it was more evident.

 

[amolitor]

Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attack on Hawaii, has nothing to do with Kamikazes.

(most people here know this, but there appears to be a little confusion among some posters)

 

[cbarnard7]

Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attack on Hawaii, has nothing to do with Kamikazes.

(most people here know this, but there appears to be a little confusion among some posters)

I must be confused- there were Japanese Kamikaze pilots who committed suicide in Pearl Harbor (ex: USS Bunker Hill). I'm unsure of what you mean?

 

[goodguy]

Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attack on Hawaii, has nothing to do with Kamikazes.

(most people here know this, but there appears to be a little confusion among some posters)

Not directly but for America the attack on PH was the beginning and the Kamikaze was a part of the war
.
The Japanese used this tactic when they basically got to a point when they were desperate enough to throw planes on US ships to try and stop the inevitable US invasion to Japan.
They couldn't produce enough planes and train enough pilots to offset US HUGE production capacity in WWII.
Also toward the end of the war crucial weapons like the Zero started to become obsolete compared to US weapons.

 

[amolitor]

Given that the USS Bunker Hill was launched in 1942 I am pretty confident that she was not attacked by a Kamikaze during the Pearl Harbor attack. She was damaged by a Kamikaze attack in 1945, almost 4 years later, off Okinawa.

 

[SCraig]

Not directly but for America the attack on PH was the beginning and the Kamikaze was a part of the war
.
The Japanese used this tactic when they basically got to a point when they were desperate enough to throw planes on US ships to try and stop the inevitable US invasion to Japan.
They couldn't produce enough planes and train enough pilots to offset US HUGE production capacity in WWII.
Also toward the end of the war crucial weapons like the Zero started to become obsolete compared to US weapons.

Although it has never been proven that he actually said it, the quote that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto made near the end of the movie "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and also in the movie "Pearl Harbor" sums it up pretty well: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." It took a while for the USA to get mobilized for war production but once we did it was assuredly a sleeping giant awakening.

 

[cbarnard7]

Given that the USS Bunker Hill was launched in 1942 I am pretty confident that she was not attacked by a Kamikaze during the Pearl Harbor attack. She was damaged by a Kamikaze attack in 1945, almost 4 years later, off Okinawa.

I stand corrected. Bunker Hill WAS off of Okinawa. I do believe, however, that there were a handful of instances at PH in which sailors described Japanese planes deliberately crashing planes into Naval ships (most, from what I have read were not designed to be "kamikaze planes" with no landing gear/closed cockpit..etc, but still tried to crashing into ships when being shot at [I guess any plane would though, huh?]). But yes, you're correct when you say that most of the suicide attacks happened towards the end of the war.

 

[cbarnard7]

Check out this short video (since we're on the topic), it's pretty crazy!

 

[SCraig]

I stand corrected. Bunker Hill WAS off of Okinawa. I do believe, however, that there were a handful of instances at PH in which sailors described Japanese planes deliberately crashing planes into Naval ships (most, from what I have read were not designed to be "kamikaze planes" with no landing gear/closed cockpit..etc, but still tried to crashing into ships when being shot at [I guess any plane would though, huh?]). But yes, you're correct when you say that most of the suicide attacks happened towards the end of the war.

The Japanese military of that day were highly devoted to their emperor. They were willing to die for him (not for their country, but for that one man), and it would come as no surprise to me to find that some of the pilots at Pearl Harbor crashed their aircraft into US ships when they had expended all of their ordnance.

If you really want a sober moment visit the USS Alabama Memorial at Pearl Harbor. I've been there, and it is an experience. After all these years big globs of bunker oil still rise up occasionally as if the ship were still bleeding. Truly, truly sad.

 

[amolitor]

No worries! The actual facts of the Kamikaze are astoundingly hard to comb apart from the mythology. I just look it up every single time.