Fire From the Sky: Surviving the Kamikaze Threat
by Robert C. Stern
Naval Institute Press, 2010, 384 pages
Few books have attempted to cover the entire complex story of Japan's aerial
suicide attacks during World War II. The Divine Wind: Japan's Kamikaze Force
in World War II, by Captain Rikihei Inoguchi and Commander Tadashi Nakajima,
remains the standard today, even though it was originally published in 1958.
Both authors served as senior officers associated with the Navy's Kamikaze
Special Attack Corps from its inception in the Philippines in October 1944.
Their book provides few details on the Battle of Okinawa, when three-quarters of
aerial suicide attacks took place [1], and the
Army's Special Attack Corps, whose airmen comprised more than one-third of those
who died in suicide attacks [2]. However, the
authors' personal involvement makes their history by far the most influential.
The Sacred Warriors: Japan's Suicide Legions (Van Nostrand Reinhold,
1982) by Denis and Peggy Warner also deserves high marks for its readable style
and thorough research using both Japanese and English-language sources.
In Fire from the Sky, Robert C. Stern, the author of more than 20
books primarily on naval topics, makes extensive use of ship action reports and
other U.S. Navy documents to chronicle all kamikaze attacks that sank or damaged
Allied ships. His book focuses entirely on battle details rather than personal
accounts. Each kamikaze attack is described in a generally standard format with
ship location, numbers and types of aircraft, battle details, crewmen's actions
after hits, ship damage, casualties, and what happened to ships after attack.
The descriptions frequently include lengthy excerpts from ship action reports.
These attack summaries provide helpful reference information for individual
ships, but they make much of the book read like an encyclopedia. It also lacks
maps of the Philippines and Okinawa to identify kamikaze attack locations.
After the author briefly presents Japan's kamikaze pilots in the book's
introduction, he goes on in Chapter 1 to discuss wartime precursors to organized
suicide attacks. The first part of Chapter 2 explains the formation of the first
kamikaze unit, and the rest of the book systematically describes, in
chronological order, the kamikaze attacks from the Allied perspective. The book
incorrectly uses Shinbu, rather than Shinpū, as the original Japanese name for
the Kamikaze Corps [3]. Stern states that his book's
objective is to assess the impact and effectiveness of the kamikaze weapon.
However, other than a few passing comments, only two short chapters directly
address this purpose by examining kamikaze tactics in the Philippines and
Okinawa. The author's rather straightforward conclusion is that the kamikaze
weapon could not win the war or even soften terms of peace despite 16,000 total
Allied casualties with 9.4 percent of kamikaze aircraft inflicting damage and an
average of 40 casualties per hit or near-miss.
In comparison with other English-language books about Japan's kamikazes,
Fire from the Sky stands apart with its excellent photo sequences and
detailed captions of individual attacks [4]. Over 20
attacks include three or more photos to display the approach, hit, and damage by
kamikaze aircraft. In several places Stern mentions the difficulties in counting
kamikaze attacks, since a Japanese pilot carrying out a conventional bombing or
escort mission might decide to crash into a ship if his aircraft got hit and
damaged. He argues convincingly that the first organized kamikaze attacks took
place on October 25, 1944, and previous attacks on Sonoma (ATO-12),
LCI(L)-1065, and HMAS Australia, considered by some to be the first
kamikaze attacks, were crashes into ships by pilots who made individual
decisions rather than planned suicide attacks by Special Attack Corps pilots.
Despite its 20 pages of endnotes and extensive primary and secondary sources,
the book's descriptions of kamikaze pilots still contain errors, most arising
from the oversimplification of the Special Attack Corps' complex history. For
example, Stern writes, “All were volunteers, meaning they had been requested,
but not ordered, to join a Special Attack Unit.” Although many pilots
volunteered, numerous Japanese accounts state that pilots in certain units
received orders to join the Special Attack Corps with no request for volunteers
[5]. The author writes that in 1945 the Japanese no
longer lined up pilots and asked for volunteers but rather gave them
applications or surveys. Again, Stern oversimplifies the facts, since former
kamikaze pilots state that even then they were lined up and volunteers were
asked to raise their hand or take one step forward [6].
This book review, not including Notes below, was published in the August 2010
issue of Naval History magazine.
Damage to Hazelwood (DD-531) from hit to bridge by kamikaze
aircraft carrying bomb on April 29, 1945. Caused death of 46 men,
including captain and all officers stationed on bridge.
Notes
1. Yasunobu (1972, 171) gives a total of 2,503 special
attack aircraft that took off and did not return to base. Out of this total,
1,915 (76.5%) aircraft took off during the Okinawa operations.
2. The Tokkōtai (Special Attack Corps) Commemoration Peace
Memorial Association states that 2,514 men died in Navy aerial special attacks and
1,432 men died in Army aerial special attacks (including 88 men of Giretsu Airborne
Unit) (see plaque at Kamikaze
Pilot Statue at Yasukuni Jinja Yūshūkan). These figures indicate the Navy
accounted for 64% of aerial special attacks and the Army for 36%.
3. Stern states in a note (p. 342), "Some sources gives this
pronunciation as shinpu or shimpu." These are both acceptable
alternative romanizations of the Japanese pronunciation as would be shinpū
or shimpū to recognize the long vowel in the last syllable. However,
Shinbu is not an acceptable alternative pronunciation, and its use by the author
causes confusion since the Japanese name of many Army Special Attack Squadrons
was Shinbu (meaning "military might"), which uses different Japanese characters
than Shinpū or Kamikaze (meaning "divine wind").
4. Japanese-language books have been published
with photo sequences and detailed captions of individual ship attacks. The most
comprehensive is the 700-page two-volume set entitled Shashinshū kamikaze
(Kamikaze photograph collection), edited by Kamikaze Kankō Iinkai (Kamikaze
Publication Committee) and published in 1996 and 1997. A shorter photograph book
by Hara (2006) also has a similar approach.
5. Below are examples of Navy and Army pilots who
received orders to join the Special Attack Corps with no request for volunteers.
Navy - All Zero pilots in the 205th Air Group (over 100 men) were ordered
by Cdr. Tamai in early February 1945 at Taichū Air Base in Formosa to become
members of the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps (Hisayama 2009, 230). Captain
Kawamoto, Tokushima Naval Air Group Commander, ordered the formation of the
Kamikaze Corps Shiragiku Special Attack Unit in early April 1945 (Yoshitaka Fujioka in Nagasue 1997, 219). Five Tokushima Shiragiku Squadrons with
56 pilots and navigators died in suicide attacks after taking off from Kushira
Air Base in May and June 1945. Captain Nara, Ōi Naval Air Group Commander, also
ordered the formation of the Kamikaze Corps Shiragiku Special Attack Unit
(Nagasue 1994, 88). Nobuya Kinase (Tokkō 2006, 265) does not remember
volunteering for a special attack squadron at Tsukuba Naval Air Base. Jinno
(2000, 88-127) gives details of orders for the formation of the Azusa
Special Attack Unit from the 262nd Air Attack Unit of the 762nd Air Group but
does not mention any request for volunteers. The Azusa Special Attack Unit
included 24 Ginga bombers and 72 men. At Genzan Air Base in Korea during
April and May 1945, orders assigning men to special attack squadrons were
announced almost every day with no consideration for volunteers (Ozawa 1983, 132).
Army - On October 21, 1944, the first Army special attack squadron,
named Banda, was formed at Hokota Air Base by order without any request
for volunteers (Fukahori 2001, 98-9; Nagasawa 2004, 110-1). The 18 men of the
Special Attack Corps 6th Hakkō Squadron (also known as Sekichō Squadron)
received orders at Shimoshizu Air Base on November 6, 1944, with 17 men
later dying in special attacks (Toshio Yoshitake in Tokkō 2006, 134-5; Osuo
2005, 191). The 62nd Sentai formed a special attack squadron of three Sakura-dan
Ki-167 heavy bombers with 18 men by announcing the assignment and having written
that
"attack will be special attack" on a blackboard without asking for volunteers
(Hayashi 2005, 68-73).
6. Imamura (2001, 101-3) describes that in
February 1945 special attack unit volunteers at the Tōkyō Detachment (renamed
Tōkyō Naval Air Corps on March 1, 1945) were asked to come one step forward. On
February 4, 1945, the Army's 22nd Shinbu Squadron was asked to volunteer by
raising their hands (Hayashi 2007, 110; Osuo 2005, 195).
Sources Cited
Fukahori, Michiyoshi. 2001. Tokkō no shinjitsu: Meirei to
kenshin to izoku no kokoro (Truth of Special Attack Corps: Orders, devotion,
and bereaved families' hearts). Tōkyō: Hara Shobō.
Hara, Katsuhiro. 2004. Shinsō kamikaze tokkō: Hisshi
hitchū no 300 nichi (Kamikaze special attack facts: 300 days of certain-death, sure-hit
attacks). Tōkyō: KK Bestsellers.
Hayashi, Eidai. 2005. Jūbaku tokkō sakuradan ki
(Heavy bomber Sakura-dan special attack plane). Ōsaka: Tōhō Shuppan.
________. 2007. Rikugun tokkō shinbu ryō:
Seikansha no shūyō shisetsu (Army special attack Shinbu barracks:
Detention facility for survivors). Ōsaka: Tōhō Shuppan.
Hisayama, Shinobu. 2009. Aozora no kōseki: Moto zerosen
pairotto ga kataru kūsen to tokkō no kiroku (Flight path in blue sky:
Record of air battles and special attacks as told by former Zero fighter
pilot). Tōkyō: Sankei Shinbun Shuppan.
Imamura, Shigeo. 2001. Shig: The True Story of an American
Kamikaze. Baltimore: American Literary Press.
Jinno, Masami. 2000. Azusa tokubetsu kōgekitai: Bakugekiki "Ginga" sanzen kiro no kōseki (Azusa special attack
unit: "Ginga" bombers' 3,000-km flight path). Tōkyō:
Kōjinsha.
Kamikaze Kankō Iinkai (Kamikaze Publication
Committee), ed. 1996. Shashinshū kamikaze: Riku kaigun tokubetsu
kōgekitai jōkan (Kamikaze photograph collection: Army and Navy special
attacks, Vol. 1, October 1944 to March 1945). Tōkyō: KK Bestsellers.
________. 1997. Shashinshū kamikaze: Riku kaigun
tokubetsu kōgekitai gekan (Kamikaze photograph collection: Army and
Navy special attacks, Vol. 2, March 1945 to end of war). Tōkyō: KK
Bestsellers.
Nagasawa, Michio. 2004. Tokkō sōkessan (Special
attack bottom line). Tōkyō: Kōjinsha.
Nagasue, Senri. 1994. Kaerazaru tsubasa (Wings of no
return). Fukuoka City: Kaichōsha.
________. 1997. Shiragiku tokkōtai: Kaerazaru wakawashitachi e
no chinkonfu (Shiragiku special attack unit: Requiem to young eagles who
would not
return). Tōkyō: Kōjinsha.
Osuo, Kazuhiko. 2005. Tokubetsu kōgekitai no kiroku (rikugun hen)
(Record of special attack corps (Army)). Tōkyō: Kōjinsha.
Ozawa, Ikurō. 1983. Tsurai shinjitsu: kyokō no tokkō shinwa
(Hard truths: Fictitious special attack myths). Tōkyō: Dohsei Publishing Co.
Tokkō: Saigo no shōgen seisaku iinkai (Special
attacks: Final statements Production Committee. 2006. Tokkō: saigo no
shōgen (Special attacks: Final statements). Tōkyō: Aspect.
Yasunobu, Takeo. 1972.
Kamikaze tokkōtai (Kamikaze
special attack corps). Edited by Kengo Tominaga. Tōkyō: Akita Shoten.
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