Kamikaze Attacks of World War II This page intentionally left blank Kamikaze Attacks of World War II A Complete History of Japanese Suicide Strikes on American Ships, by Aircraft and Other Means ROBIN L. RIELLY McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Rielly, Robin L. Kamikaze attacks of World War II : a complete history of Japanese suicide strikes on American ships, by aircraft and other means / Robin L. Rielly. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7864-4654-4 illustrated case binding : 50# alkaline paper ¡. Japan. Kaigun. Kamikaze Tokubetsu Kogekitai. 2. World War, 1939–1945— Aerial operations, Japanese. 3. Kamikaze pilots—History. 4. World War, 1939–1945—Campaigns—Pacific Area. 5. World War, 1939–1945— Naval operations, American. 6. Warships—United States— History—20th century. I. Title. D792.J3R523 2010 940.54'4952—dc22 2010021494 British Library cataloguing data are available ©2010 Robin L. Rielly. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. On the cover: Photograph of an attack on the U.S.S. White Plains by a Japanese A6M Zero on October 25, 1944 (National Archives and Records Administration) Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 6¡¡, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com To Madeline Rose Booth This page intentionally left blank Table of Contents Preface . 1 Introduction . 3 Part One—The Genesis of the Kamikazes, Their Organization, and Disposition 1. The Development of the Samurai Class and Its Ethos . 7 2. Kamikaze Traditions . 16 3. Special Attack Aircraft . 29 4. Development of the Tokko-tai . 42 5. Tactics . 54 6. Kamikazes on Land and Sea . 73 Part Two—The Kamikaze Chronicles: A Detailed Account of the Attacks 7. Prelude to Mayhem . 107 8. The December Kamikazes, 1944 . 138 9. Lingayen Gulf . 154 10. Taiwan, Iwo Jima, and Ulithi . 176 11. Okinawa and the Ten Go Campaign . 187 12. The Invasion of Okinawa, Week One . 205 13. The Onslaught Continues . 227 14. “...We Cleaned Up the Bodies...” . 253 15. A Miserable May . 273 16. The War Winds Down . 288 17. Ketsu Go: Defending the Homeland . 301 vii viii Table of Contents Appendix I: U.S. Navy and Merchant Marine Ships Damaged or Sunk by Kamikaze Attacks, 1942–1945 . 317 Appendix II: Ship Types . 325 Appendix III: American and Japanese Aircraft . 334 Chapter Notes . 343 Bibliography . 355 Index . 369 Preface For the past fifteen years or so I have focused my research efforts on American naval his- tory in the World War II era. This research began with an interest in the ship on which my father served during that war. I thought it would be my first and last effort in the area but as time went on, one research project seemed to lead to another. I completed books on the LCS(L) ships, then the radar picket ships at Okinawa and, in this work, the kamikaze expe- rience. Over the years there have been a number of books published on the kamikazes. Vir- tually all focus on specific incidents, campaigns, or ships and their experiences as they encoun- tered the Tokko-tai fliers or kamikazes. To this point no one has attempted a complete accounting of the more than 400 incidents of kamikaze attacks on American ships in World War II. Some of the books written to date were by eyewitnesses to the carnage suffered by the United States Navy ships that were attacked by the kamikazes in the Philippines and at Okinawa. Still others were by former members of the Japanese naval and army air wings whose fate assigned them to the special attack corps. Ultimately, they survived to tell of their training and experience. A few former Japanese naval officers have written about the kamikazes and sought to rationalize their participation in the organization that sent others, much junior, to their deaths. In addition, there are works that seek to sensationalize the kamikaze phenomenon. To my knowledge, no work exists that documents the numerous attacks that took place against the American ships that served in the Pacific theater of oper- ations. With that in mind, I have undertaken an examination of the kamikaze attacks during the Second World War. As the reader will note, there are a number of photos in this work from the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland. I have spent many hours of research there and have had excellent help from Rutha Beamon, Theresa Roy, Sharon Cully, and Holly Reed in the still photo section. Barry Zerbe in the textual reference branch has always been able to find materials hidden in the vast collection that have aided in my research. Numerous veterans of the war have generously consented to interviews and have aided substantially in my understanding of the events. Their eyewitness accounts have been most helpful. For their time and eyewitness testimony I am indebted to Dr. Donald L. Ball, John L. Barkley, Frank Barnby, Ray Baumler, Earl Blanton, Dean Bell, William E. Bletso, Robert Blyth, Harold H. Burgess, William R. Christman, George E. Davis, Mel Dean, W. A. Dworzak, 1 2 Preface Melvin Fenoglio, David Gauthier, Earl O. Griffis, Claude Haddock, Edwin Hoffman Jr., Lawrence S. Katz, Harold Kaup, James Kelley, Doyle Kennedy, Capt. Richard M. McCool, Franklin Moulton, Albert Perdeck, Harry Portolan, L. R. Russell, Mark Sellis, Tom Spargo, Robert Sprague, Harold Tolmas, and Dr. Robert Wisner. I benefited greatly from the interviews with karate master Teruyuki Okazaki who gra- ciously shared his views of samurai tradition as well as his experiences as a middle school stu- dent undergoing kamikaze training in Japan. Expert assistance in translating various Japanese language materials was given by Takamichi Maeshima, to whom I am indebted. Special thanks are due to my proofreaders Lucille Rielly and Ken Thompson who made numerous invaluable suggestions about the text. In spite of their diligent efforts, the sole responsibility for the accuracy of this work rests with the author. Introduction It should be noted from the outset that this is a study of the kamikazes from the American perspective. Sources used consist primarily of reports from army, navy, Marine, and merchant marine units, as well as secondary published materials. Although some records exist in Japa- nese pertinent to the operations of the Tokko-tai, many were officially destroyed in the after- math of the war, leaving large gaps in the available documentation needed to cover the subject from the Japanese perspective. Since the end of the war, many former members of the Japanese military have attempted to piece together the history of various units to which they were attached, some with great detail. The Reports of General MacArthur was an early attempt to coordinate the many available Japanese materials that survived in the aftermath of World War II. That work, along with the Japanese Monograph series, Allied Translator and Interpreter Section reports and interrogations, and United States Strategic Bombing Survey reports have provided a great deal of information as to how the Japanese formed and ran their special attack corps. The presentation of this material proved problematic. The chapters relating to kamikaze traditions and the development of the special attack forces, which is covered in the first part of the book, were easiest. The second part had to be organized as a chronicle, noting the attacks on each ship in a day by day manner. There was no single ship or group of ships that encountered kamikazes in exactly the same way and location. Attacks came singly or en masse, on individual ships or groups of ships, there were few common denominators. This would have made my chore easy as I could have followed the exploits of a ship as it wandered from war zone to war zone. Since my focus was to demonstrate the extent of the kamikaze program, I had to document the attacks as they occurred. There was simply no other way to approach the task. As time goes by, fewer and fewer of our World War II veterans are available to tell their stories. As a result, it was not possible to delve into personalities in the case of most of the ships. Accordingly, the information on most ships comes from ship action reports, war diaries, numerous government publications and some personal interviews and correspondence between me and survivors of kamikaze attacks. It was never my goal to delve into much of the personal history of the men on the ships. Rather it was to document the magnitude of the attacks during the war as this had not been done before and I thought it important to do so. Throughout the text I have made continual use of the term “suicide.” The Japanese never thought of the special attack missions as suicide. Rather, they were a means to an end, i.e., one aircraft had the ability to sink or seriously damage an enemy ship. Trading one man for 3 4 Introduction one hundred seemed to be an excellent swap in a war in which human life came to mean very little. The Japanese considered that the individual airman, seaman, or soldier was using special attack tactics to defeat an enemy. The ethos and training of the Japanese army or navy man made it possible to carry out such missions. As we shall see, this training did not coincide with the formation of the Tokko-tai in October 1944, but rather was the result of decades of militaristic training in civilian life as well.