Thunder Gods: The Kamikaze Pilots Tell Their Stories
by Hatsuho Naito
translated by Mayumi Ishikawa
Kodansha International, 1989, 215 pages
The ōka weapon, termed the "baka" (crazy) bomb by
Americans, has always intrigued both Japanese and Americans. Even though the
Japanese Navy deployed the ōka weapon only to a limited extent near the end of
the war and with minimal results, the ōka quickly gained notoriety as the
ultimate suicide weapon. A mother plane carried the ōka piloted glider bomb,
and a kamikaze pilot entered the glider if the mother plane got within range of
enemy ships. The pilot faced certain death after release from the mother plane,
as three rocket engines accelerated the ōka to over 550 miles per hour while
he tried to guide the weapon toward an enemy ship. This book tells the
fascinating history of the 721st Naval Flying Corps, known as the Thunder Gods
Special Attack Corps, whose men manned the ōka weapons and the mother planes.
The idea for the ōka human-guided missile came from a Navy
sub-lieutenant, who in August 1944 presented his rough drawing for the weapon
and mother plane to an officer at the Naval Aeronautical Research Laboratory.
The officer doubted the effectiveness of such a weapon, primarily due to the
mother plane being vulnerable to enemy attacks since the weapon's weight would
greatly slow the plane. Regardless, the Naval Aeronautical Department, looking
for a super weapon that would turn the tide of the war in favor of Japan, approved trial
production of the manned bomb.
The ōka's production and deployment experienced many
setbacks and delays, including the sinking of two Japanese carriers carrying
ōka bombs on November 29 and December 19, 1944. The first Thunder Gods mission
finally took place on March 21, 1945, but American fighter planes shot down the
Japanese planes carrying the ōka weapons. The mission resulted in 160 Thunder
Gods members, including 15 ōka pilots, losing their lives. Based on the
failure of this large-scale ōka attack, Navy leaders decided that part of the Thunder
Gods Corps would be assigned to fly special attack planes loaded with bombs.
The new group, named the Kenmu Squadron, achieved relatively more success than the
ōka
bombs in
destroying American ships, but American planes and
antiaircraft fire also shot down many Kenmu Squadron fighters and bombers
before they could execute their kamikaze attacks on ships.
Naito provides exceptional insight into the kamikaze pilots'
desperation and contradictory feelings as the Japanese military suffered
devastating loss after loss. He spent four years researching and writing this
book, originally published in Japanese in 1982 under the title of Ōka: The
Merciless Special Attack Weapon (Ōka hijō no tokkō heiki). The permanent
manager of the Thunder Gods Association writes in the Preface, "The
Association of Former Thunder Gods Corps Members regards the book as the only
accurate record of the corps and the most creditable of all the existing
publications related to the Thunder Gods" (p. 16). Although some people
may suspect the objectivity of a book with such a glowing official endorsement,
Naito glosses over none of the weaknesses and contradictions of the ōka
program. He gives a balanced treatment of the conflicting opinions regarding
the development and deployment of the ōka suicide weapon.
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Ōka at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa
(April 1945)
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Several short personal vignettes throughout the book depict
the doubts and frustrations experienced by Thunder Gods Corps members. For
example, on the way to the airfield, the leader of one of the Kenmu squadrons
"alternately boasted that he would skim the surface of the sea and crash
into the exact center of his target, and then cried out, 'Mother! The Navy is
trying to kill me!'" (p. 172). In another example, one pilot was close to
tears when the young daughter of a farm family near the base made a cherry
blossom of pink flannel and sewed it to his flight jacket. He gave the girl's
mother an envelope full of money for the kindness the family had extended to
him during his stay at the base. He explained he had no more use for the money.
The book's English subtitle, "The Kamikaze Pilots Tell
Their Stories," is misleading in a couple of ways. First, the book
concentrates on the history of the Thunder Gods Corps, which was only one part
of the Navy's kamikaze special attack corps. The use of "the kamikaze
pilots" in the subtitle makes it sound like the book will cover the entire
range of Japan's kamikaze operations, but it only briefly mentions kamikaze
attacks made by the Army and by other units in the Navy. Second, the subtitle implies
that this book will have personal accounts written by the pilots. Although the
author made extensive use of detail notes taken by Motoji Ichikawa, one of the
pilots in the Thunder Gods Corps, the story is told mostly in the third person,
with some quotes and dialogue by the pilots.
The history of the Thunder Gods Corps has many complexities
and details, but this book has several valuable features to aid readers. The
front of the book has a map with key military bases (over thirty) in the ōka
program, which helps readers to follow the different divisions and squadrons of
the Thunder Gods Corps as they move from base to base. The front also has two
pages listing key officers who promoted kamikaze attacks, technical officers
involved in developing the ōka, and key members of the Thunder Gods Corps. A
four-page chronology of key dates and sixteen pages of historical photos also
contribute to understanding the ōka weapon and the history of the Thunder Gods
Corps.
This excellent translation of the history of the Japanese
Navy's best-known and largest special attack unit, the Thunder Gods Corps,
provides many insights to the personal opinions and emotions of the men who
participated in kamikaze attacks. Readers may better appreciate this
outstanding account by first reading a general history of Japan's kamikaze
operations, since this book focuses on the story of the Thunder Gods Corps.
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