[xone]

It is only after most of their planes were shot down that they engaged in kamikaze, not before.

I believe the historic reason is that they had expended their trained aircrew, and that their fleet of carriers had been relocated to Davey Jones' anchorage. Japan's only aviation recourse was to try and overwhelm air defenses by mass and take one way trips. The Japs had plenty of aircraft, not enough guys for the skill positions to use those assets in a conventional way.

[JCBreckenridge]

They only had 40 zeros that were flight worthy at Leyte Gulf. By Okinawa they were not using Zeros. They were using little wooden ‘rocket planes’.