Harumpf! Dad’s introduction to the Japanese was off the coast of Okinawa when he was manning an antiaircraft gun at the base of the #3 turret of the Maryland, the a Kamikaze flew bare feet over his head and impacted the the top of said turret.
No doubt they saw action, men served bravely and courageously on them but in a retrospective strategic analysis of their impact, it is argued that the cost, resources and manpower allocated to them did not have the huge significant impact on the war’s outcome that many believe to be the case. In fact when you total the number of Japanese, British, German, American and others sailors killed or drowned on those ships, they would have been more effective if they had been deployed in other ways.