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Sea Kamikaze, military tactic, World War II. When you hear the word Kamikaze, the first thing that comes to mind are Japanese suicide pilots crashing into the decks of enemy ships in World War II. These Kamikaze pilots, the divine wind of the Japanese Imperial forces, were eager to sacrifice themselves for the Empire of Japan. But committing the ultimate sacrifice was also performed by other means than from the sky. This tactic threatened the allies from the sea as well, even from below the sea. There were several maritime alternatives to air suicide attacks, such as explosive speedboats, Kamikaze torpedoes, submarines, and Kamikaze frogmen.
Explosive speedboats were identified by the Japanese commanders as the most effective alternative method to air Kamikaze attacks. Both the Japanese Imperial Navy and the Japanese Imperial Army ran their own projects. The Navy version was known as the Shinyo, meaning sea quake. The project, which started in spring of 1944, was aimed at creating a light and fast boat armed with a sufficient amount of explosive to cause damage even to large enemy vessels. After a series of prototypes, the project resulted in the Shinyo Type 1 Mod 1. In essence, the Mod 1 was a scaled-down torpedo boat using the same 67 horsepower Toyota KC6 automobile engine connected directly to the propeller shaft. With a length of 16 ft 9 in or
5.1 m and a hull made of wood, the Mod 1 was able to develop a speed of 23 knots. Its main armament was a 595-lb charge of high explosive placed in the bow. The charge was constructed to detonate upon impact, but also via a manual switch. Later versions of the Mod 1 had one or in some variants two anti-ship rocket launchers mounted on the stern. The boats also had built-in cable cutters on the bow and in front of the cockpit in order to be able to break through protective booms. The overall design of the Shinyo was so simple that production was established in both large and small shipyards and even at automobile factories.
The plan was to build around 7,000 boats. By the end of the war, production was halted at 6,200. The more sophisticated model was the Shinyo Type 5, armed with two rocket launchers plus a 13-mm heavy machine gun. The Type 5 was designed to serve as a detachment leader's boat that would provide cover fire for the Mod 1s. The Imperial Japanese Army's project was run under the cover name of Maru Rei. The army developed two types of boats, one for training and one that was used in combat. The latter was known as the Hayhon model.
Hayhons were constructed from plywood veneers and also used automobile engines that allowed speeds of up to 23 knots. The big difference from the Navy Kamikaze boats was that the Hayhon had no explosive charge. Instead, they were armed with two depth charges that were supposed to be dropped next to the hull of an enemy ship. As depth charges were not as effective, the Hayhon could have targeted only unarmored vessels such as troop transports. Using depth charges instead of explosives in the bow even allowed the pilot to survive the attack. In parallel with the boats, the Japanese Navy worked on a project involving man-driven Kamikaze torpedoes.
The idea was devised in 1942, but only when Imperial Japan began to face defeat was it brought to the table in spring of 1944. The project was carried out under the code name Kaiten I-Gyo, meaning the great undertaking. The first Kaiten Type 1 was completed already in June 1944. It was a modification of the Type 93 Model 3 Long Lance torpedo. The forward section was extended to fit the pilot and a massive 3,420-lb warhead, which was enough to sink almost any of the American ships.
Unlike similar human torpedo concepts, the pilot was placed inside the pressure hull and directed the torpedo with the help of a periscope. The Kaiten 1 was designed to be launched from a parent submarine. Once launched, the Kaiten had a fairly good range and could reach a speed of 30 knots. Its hull was strong enough to withhold a depth of 200 ft. Once close to the target, the pilot would level the torpedo to 16 ft in order to use his periscope.
A more sophisticated design than the Kamikaze boat, Kaitens were built at the Kure Navy Yard, one of the largest Japanese shipyards. Three other Kaiten versions were designed, but the Type 1 remained the first choice for mass production. A total of 330 Kaiten Type 1s and its improved modification, the Type 1 Mod 1, were produced until the end of the war. When the Kamikaze attacks became a generally accepted doctrine, the Japanese forces began to throw everything they had at the Allies, even considering submarines.
The Kōryū and the Kairyū submarines had been in service since the beginning of the war. In 1944, they were assigned to Tokko missions with the order to ram into enemy ships. About 360 submarines were built for the decisive Ketsu-Go operation, but fortunately for the Allies, they never saw combat. The Ketsu-Go operation of defending Japan from the impending Allied invasion implied the use of the entire Japanese arsenal at their disposal. The strategy specifically emphasized the use of Kamikaze attacks. For the defense against landing troops, the Japanese prepared a special type of suicide unit, Kamikaze frogmen. Fukuryū, or Crouching Dragons, were divers equipped with special diving suits and breathing apparatuses. They were armed with Type 5 mines with a
22-lb explosive charge attached to a long pole. The plan was to deploy Fukuryū frogmen along the coast where the Allied landing was expected. Hundreds of suicide divers would be positioned at a depth of 13 to 20 ft in three staggered rows. Fukuryūs would be waiting for an enemy landing craft in specially created concrete shelters. Once they arrive, Fukuryus would attack them with the mines on their poles. The first frogman Kamikaze unit, the 71st Totsugekitai Arashi, was established in summer 1945, and the plan was to deploy a total of 40,000 frogmen.
The cost of the project, as well as the course of the events, ended in the project being abandoned. In the end, only the Kamikaze torpedoes and boats saw action against the allies. Japanese commanders had high expectations for these weapons. Crews were recruited from men aged 16 to 20, reservists, petty officers, and cadets. Some volunteers, and some not. The first Kaiten operation took place in November 1944 by three submarines, each armed with four Kamikaze torpedoes. The targets were ships from the US Navy's Ulithi Atoll Anchorage. Ships in Anchorage were considered the best
targets because they were static. Out of the initial three submarines, only two reached the target area. Only one out of eight Kaitens launched hit the target, the USS Mississinewa fleet oiler. As the ship was full of aircraft fuel, the hit resulted in a huge cloud of smoke. It was so powerful that it convinced the Japanese that several ships were hit. The Ulithi Atoll operation gave the Japanese the conviction that the Kaiten attacks were worth the effort. Over time though, this would prove to be false hope.
Due to the US Navy's highly effective anti-submarine operations, the number of Japanese submarines lost in action increased, and at the same time the number of Kaitens successfully hitting their targets decreased. Nevertheless, the Japanese continued with the Kamikaze sea attacks, but switched to targets in the open sea. These targets were less protected, still managed to repel the majority of Kaiten attacks. The last US vessel to be sunk by a Kaiten was the USS Underhill destroyer escort in July 1945. Unlike Kaitens, the Shin'yū and Hayon Kamikaze boats were planned to be used in defensive operations against the Allied landing forces. Their success
rate was slightly higher than Kaitens, but still far from making any significant impact. A great number of Kamikaze boats were destroyed while being transferred. The boats that managed to reach their bases had some success in early 1945, but that was soon stopped by an aggressive American anti-Kamikaze campaign. Kamikaze boats were hunted down by US Navy patrol torpedo boats and were also destroyed while still in their bases by aircraft attacks and naval gunfire. At Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Kamikaze boats posed absolutely no threat to the American landing craft. By the summer of 1945, the sea Kamikaze attacks had proven to be a massive failure.
Smoke fills the sky. The cockpit rattles like it's coming apart. Tracer fire streaks past the wings, red, white, and orange lines tearing up towards him. Aoki Kenji grips the control stick with both hands as he forces his Zero into a steep dive. Below him, growing larger every second, is the flat, unmistakable deck of an American aircraft carrier. He has one job, hit the ship. He has one chance, and he has only seconds left to live. His shoulder burns. Something hit him earlier, maybe shrapnel, maybe a bullet, but he ignores it. The nose drops. The engine screams.
The airframe shakes violently as if trying to tear itself free. But before this moment, before the smoke and the flak and the desperate dive, there were rituals, there were final meals, there were letters home, and there was a very young man trying to understand the meaning of a life he already knew would end today. Hours earlier, Aoki Kenji tied on a white hachimaki headband rooted in samurai tradition. He tucked a thousand stitch belt around his waist, hand sewn by loved ones, meant to bring protection on a mission no one returned from. Some pilots even carried katanas, not for combat, but as a symbolic bridge to Japan's warrior past. Before dawn, Aoki and other pilots sat together for
one last cup of sake and a final meal of simple rice. Then he climbed into his cockpit, a cockpit he had been trained to take off from, but not to land. That's right, kamikaze training rarely included landing. What was the point? Fuel, time, and equipment were all too scarce. You learn to lift up into the air, fly straight, and dive, and that was enough. Now, mid-dive, Aoki's plane is more of a weapon than an aircraft. A 550 lb bomb is strapped underneath the fuselage. He's no longer a fighter pilot. He is the guidance system for a flying explosive. Around him, explosions pop like black flowers in the sky.
American gunners fire every weapon they have, 20 mm, 40 mm, and even massive 5-in guns meant for naval combat. Their shells are fitted with V fuses, tiny detectors that explode when close to a plane. They don't need a direct hit, just proximity. And today, there's no shortage of explosions. Planes around him fall from the sky, men he just shared rice and sake with, spiraling into the ocean long before reaching their targets. Yet, he continues the dive. But how did a 21-year-old university graduate end up here, in the middle of the Pacific, flying straight into a wall of gunfire with no intention of coming back? To understand that, we pull back from the smoke, from the flak, from the carrier rising in his
windshield, and return to where this all began. Japan is collapsing. Years of war have drained its strength. The mighty Imperial Navy is now scattered across the bottom of the ocean. Its air force is a shadow of what it was. The Americans are pushing forward island by island. Now the battle for Okinawa is underway and the home islands feel suddenly terrifyingly close to invasion. In this moment of desperation, Japan turns to a new weapon, the special attack units. History remembers them by another name, Kamikaze. Aoki Kenji, like many young men of his generation, grew up surrounded by strict discipline and a deep cultural reverence for the emperor. Loyalty wasn't just expected, it was taught as the highest
form of virtue. Sacrifice for the nation was seen as honorable, glorious even. When Aoki volunteers, he believes he's doing the right thing, the honorable thing, and he believes his death might help Japan survive a little longer. Before joining the mission, Aoki reflects on a five-point oath he once swore. Loyalty is your obligation, propriety is your way of life. You must esteem military valor. You must prize righteousness. You must live simply. He hopes he lived up to them. He writes his parents a final letter. He tells them not to worry. He tells them he's fulfilling his duty. He tells them they should be proud and they probably will be. Japan's culture, steeped in the
traditions of the samurai, taught that dying with honor was preferable to living with shame. Throughout the war, American soldiers faced banzai charges, last desperate rushes where survival was never the goal. The Kamikaze would become the ultimate banzai attack. Aoki's aircraft for this one-way mission is the Mitsubishi A6M0. Once the jewel of Japanese aviation, by now it's outdated and badly outmatched by American Hellcats and Corsairs. Japan has so few planes left that even damaged old models or training aircraft are used as Kamikaze tools. Some planes are even built specifically for suicide missions.
The most famous is the Oka, the cherry blossom, a rocket-powered, human-guided bomb. Aoki has heard about them, but never seen one, something he considers a small blessing. And not every kamikaze pilot is as willing as Aoki appears to be. All are technically volunteers, but some are coerced by subtle pressure, by classmates, commanders, or the fear of shame. Aoki has overheard quiet doubts among a few pilots, whispered only when they thought no one was listening. On the runway, when one plane refuses to start, Aoki wonders, just for a moment, whether it's a mechanical failure or fear. But there's no time to dwell. The ground crew raises their arms in salute as Aoki's squadron lifts off into the
early light. As Japan falls away behind him, he imagines cherry blossoms, beautiful, temporary, gone with the wind, just like him. The squadron turns south towards Okinawa. Their goal is simple: destroy American ships and raise the cost of invasion so high that the United States might ask for peace. Aoki hopes to hit a carrier, even wrote that dream into his final letter home. A carrier is the heart of the American fleet. Strike that, and maybe, just maybe, Japan can slow the inevitable. They scan the ocean for what seems an eternity, watching for any sign of the enemy. And then, there, a thin white trail across the waves, a ship's wake.
The formation shifts to follow it, but the Americans aren't surprised. They've faced kamikazes since October 1944. The shock of the first attacks has faded. Now they have a system, three defensive rings. The outer ring, the combat air patrol, fighters circling high above. The middle ring, destroyers and picket ships, fast and radar-equipped. The inner ring, the cruisers, battleships, and carriers, the core of the fleet. The ship Aoki sees first is one of these picket destroyers. It fires immediately. Flak bursts appear around him as the squadron presses forward. He
ignores the ship. His target is beyond it. He must reach the carrier. The destroyer radios their position. Guns across the battlefield awaken. Shells burst in every direction. Aoki's plane is hit again. His shoulder throbs, but he forces the zero onward. He breaks through the first ring, then the second, and in the distance, he finally sees it. The flat gray deck of an American aircraft carrier. This is his moment. The sky becomes a storm of metal. Tracers burn upwards. Shells detonate around him. Smoke fills the air. For a heartbeat, the carrier's deck fills his entire vision. He pushes the stick forward. The zero plunges. A final thought flickers through his mind. His
family, his home, the emperor, and then everything goes black. Aoki Kenji becomes one of nearly 4,000 kamikaze pilots who die months of the war. Their attacks kill thousands of American soldiers, including many at Okinawa, the deadliest battle the US Navy would ever fight. Their sacrifice prolongs the war, but cannot change its outcome. Japan will not fall to invasion. Something far more devastating will stop the war instead. And the story of Aoki Kenji, his final flight, his final dive, and his final choice, remains one of the most haunting examples of how far nations will go when pushed to the edge, and how far young men will go when taught that death can be a duty.
