The Japanese visit Pearl Harbor to see the site of their greatest victory. As for the Kamakazis—Japan’s air planes were so bad that most were shot out of the sky —the Kamaizai tactics were one of the few ways a pilot could make his loss count for something. For many it was a logical choice. In the 1950s, I read that American Pilots were to crash there fighters into Soviet Nuclear bombers before they could reach American Cities—would they have done it—I believe they would.
Yup. Desperation will drive people to take extreme actions.
Heck, I might even fly a plane into a nuke that was headed for my city if I knew that it might save my family.
The USAF pilots flying cover over NYC immediately after 9/11 were flying unarmed aircraft. Their orders were to
(somehow) disable any other aircraft that didn’t answer challenges in the closed airspace over Ground Zero. The orders left the details up to the pilots as to how to accomplish that mission & survive.
Kamikazes were the Japanese version of the guided cruise missile. I did an airshow at the min base in Japan that the Kamikazes flew from during the Okinawan campaign. They had a restored Zero pulled out of Tokyo bay. It’s one of the few remaining ones from the war.It is flyable but is kept on static display only.
Towards the end Japan was out of experienced pilots so this was a last ditch effort. Escorts had enough gar for a round trip and the only ones with ammo for their machine guns. Chicken out and you were shot down anyway.