Film I see of kamikaze attacks typically seems to show planes attacking singly or in very small groups, enabling ships’ gunners to focus all their firepower on few planes and greatly diminishing the attackers’ probability of getting through to their target. Perhaps my data is inadequate, and I know many kamikazes did get through, but if that is true I wonder if it doesn’t expose a kamikaze “fatal” flaw (heh-heh): no feedback, no learning curve. No one came back and said here’s how we can better succeed: mass attacks, thereby overwhelming anti-air defenses and insuring success.
The lack of a feedback loop was a problem with the kamikaze tactics. There were no “veteran” kamikaze pilots. You could make “rookie of the year” but that was about it.
The kamikazes had something of a dilemma. If they tried mass attacks, the large groups of planes would be easier to see on radar from a greater distance, and the American fighter would be vectored in to start the turkey shoot well before they got to the fleet. Another issue is that the anti-aircraft fire of the day was probably more effective against a massed group than an individual plane.
And by the nature of the “Special Attack Corps,” the pilots had very little flight experience. So it was not like they practiced any sort of formation flying to stay in a massed group. Nor would they be able to make coordinated attacks based on sequential timing.
So I think the Japanese probably made the best decision; send a mass of planes out to make individual independent attack runs at about the same time from different directions. The CAP is dispersed, and the AA fire control officers have divided attention. One plane that gets all the attention from the AA batteries might sacrifice themselves to let a lurker make a successful run from another quarter.