Numerous stories about heroes who sacrificed their lives for the sake of the Motherland or the triumph of justice can be found in the history of many countries and peoples. The greatest in history and unheard of in terms of bloodshed and number of sacrifices, World War II was no exception to the rule. Moreover, it was she who showed the world many documented cases of genuine heroism of the soldiers of the opposing armies. In the USSR, in just one day, June 22, 1941, 18 pilots rammed air. The first of them was Lieutenant D. V. Kokorev, who performed his feat at 5.15 minutes of this tragic day (this ram is also confirmed by German documents). Dmitry Kokorev survived and managed to make another 100 sorties, shooting down at least 3 enemy aircraft, until he died on October 12, 1941.
The exact number of rams committed by Soviet pilots is unknown (it is assumed that there could have been about 600), the largest number of them was recorded in the first two years of the war. About 500 crews of other aircraft directed their vehicles at enemy targets on the ground. The fate of A. P. Maresyev, however, besides him, another 15 Soviet pilots continued to fight after amputations of the lower extremities.
In Serbia, at that time, the partisans said: “We must hit the tank with a club. It doesn't matter that the tank will crush you - the people will compose songs about the hero”.
However, against this background, Japan surprised the whole world by putting on a stream the massive training of suicide soldiers.
Let us say right away that in this article we will not touch upon the war crimes proven by the Tokyo International Court of Justice committed by the Japanese army, navy and the imperial house. We will try to tell about the hopeless attempt of 1,036 young Japanese, some of whom were almost boys, to win the already lost war at the cost of their lives. It is noteworthy that the army and navy pilots, the only Japanese military personnel, were not included in the list of war criminals by the Tokyo Tribunal.
Teixintai. Unique military units of Japan
Before the appearance of the suicide teishintai units in the Japanese army, only the Elders of the Assassins in the Middle East purposefully tried to train. But the differences between the assassins and the members of the Japanese Teishintai formations (which included the kamikaze squadrons) are much more than similar. Firstly, the organization of the assassins was not a state organization and was frankly terrorist in nature. Secondly, the fanatical fedayeen militants were absolutely not interested in either the personality of the victims or the political situation in the world around them. They just wanted to be in the Garden of Eden as soon as possible, promised by the next Old Man of the Mountain. Thirdly, the "elders" treasured their personal safety and material well-being extremely, and were in no hurry to meet with the houris. In Japan, for the first time in the history of mankind, the training of suicide bombers was carried out at the state level, moreover, they were allocated to a special branch of the military. Another difference is the atypical behavior of many commanders of kamikaze units. Some of them shared the fate of their subordinates, taking to the air for the last, absolutely hopeless and suicidal attack. For example, the recognized leader and commander of the Japanese suicide bombers, the commander of the 5th Air Force, Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki. It happened on the day of Japan's surrender - August 15, 1945. In his last radiogram, he reported:
“I am the only one to blame for the fact that we were unable to save the Fatherland and defeat the arrogant enemy. All the heroic efforts of the officers and soldiers under my command will be appreciated. I am about to fulfill my last duty in Okinawa, where my warriors died heroically, falling from the heavens like cherry petals. There I will direct my plane at the arrogant enemy in true bushido spirit."
Together with him, 7 of the last pilots of his corps were killed. Other commanders chose to commit ritual suicide, such as Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi, who was called "the father of the kamikaze." He committed hara-kiri after Japan's surrender. At the same time, he refused the traditional help of the "assistant" (who was supposed to save him from suffering by immediately chopping off his head) and died only after 12 hours of continuous torment. In a suicide note, he wrote about his desire to atone for his part of the guilt for the defeat of Japan and apologized to the souls of the dead pilots.
Contrary to popular belief, the overwhelming majority of kamikaze were neither fanatics fooled by militaristic or religious propaganda, nor soulless robots. Numerous stories of contemporaries testify that, setting off on their last flight, the young Japanese experienced not delight or euphoria, but quite understandable feelings of melancholy, doom and even fear. The verses below speak of the same thing:
“Attack Sakura Blossom Squadron!
Our base remained below on a distant land.
And through the haze of tears that overflowed our hearts, We see how our comrades wave after us goodbye!"
(The anthem of the kamikaze corps is "Gods of Thunder".)
And we will fall, And turn to ashes
Not having time to bloom, Like black cherry blossoms."
(Masafumi Orima.)
Many pilots, according to custom, composed suicide poems. In Japan, such verses are called "jisei" - "song of death." Traditionally, jisei were written on a piece of white silk and then placed in a hand-made wooden box ("bako") - along with a lock of hair and some personal item. In the boxes of the youngest kamikaze lay … baby teeth (!). After the death of the pilot, these boxes were handed over to relatives.
Here are the last poems of Iroshi Murakami, who died on February 21, 1945 at the age of 24:
“Looking into the sky promising a quick spring, I ask myself - how does mom manage the house
With her frostbitten fragile hands."
And here is what Hayashi Ishizo left in his diary (died on April 12, 1945):
“It is easy to talk about death while sitting safe and listening to the sayings of the sages. But when she gets close, you are bound by such fear that you do not know if you can overcome it. Even if you have lived a short life, you have enough good memories to keep you in this world. But I was able to overpower myself and cross the line. I cannot say that the desire to die for the emperor comes from my heart. However, I made a choice and there is no turning back."
So, the Japanese kamikaze pilots were neither supermen, nor "iron men", nor even animals from the "Hitler Youth" fooled by Nazi propaganda. And yet, fear did not prevent them from fulfilling their duty to the Motherland - in the only form they could imagine. And I think it deserves respect.
The Giri and Bushido Traditions
But why was it in Japan that the mass training of these unusual suicide soldiers became possible? To understand this, one will have to recall the peculiarities of the national character of the Japanese, the most important part of which is the concept of duty of honor ("giri"). This unique moral attitude, cultivated for centuries in Japan, forces a person to act contrary to profit and often even against his own will. Even the first European travelers who visited Japan in the 17th century were extremely surprised that the "debt of honor" in Japan was obligatory for all inhabitants of this country - not only for the privileged estates.
“I believe that there is no people in the world who would treat their own honor more scrupulously than the Japanese. They do not tolerate the slightest insult, even a harshly spoken word. So you treat (and truly should) with all courtesy, even to a scavenger or a digger. Otherwise, they will immediately quit their job, not for a second wondering what losses it promises them, or they will do something worse,”-
the Italian traveler Alessandro Valignavo wrote about the Japanese.
Catholic missionary Francois Xavier (general of the Jesuit order, patron saint of Australia, Borneo, China, India, Goa, Japan, New Zealand) agrees with the Italian:
“In honesty and virtue, they (the Japanese) surpass all other peoples discovered to this day. They have a pleasant character, no deceit, and above all they put honor."
Another surprising discovery made by Europeans in Japan was the statement of an incredible fact: if life is the highest value for a European, then for a Japanese it is the “right” death. The samurai code of honor bushido allowed (and even demanded) a person who for some reason does not want to live or considers further life a dishonor to choose himself death - at any time that he deems appropriate, convenient. Suicide was not considered a sin, the samurai even called themselves "in love with death." The Europeans were even more impressed by the custom of ritual suicide "following" - junshi, when vassals committed hara-kiri after the death of their overlord. Moreover, the strength of the tradition was such that many samurai ignored the order of the Tokugawa shogun, who in 1663 banned junshi, threatening the disobedient with the execution of relatives and confiscation of property. Even in the 20th century, junshi was not uncommon. For example, after the death of Emperor Mutsihito (1912), the national hero of Japan, General M. Nogi, committed "suicide in the wake" - the one who commanded the army that was besieging Port Arthur.
However, during the reign of the shoguns, the samurai class was closed and privileged. It was the samurai who could (and should) have been warriors. Other residents of Japan were forbidden to take up arms. And, naturally, there could be no question of ritual suicide. But the Meiji revolution, as a result of which the samurai class was abolished, led to an unexpected and paradoxical result. The fact is that in 1872, general military service was introduced in Japan. And military service, as we remember, in Japan has always been the privilege of the elite. And therefore, among ordinary Japanese - children of merchants, artisans, peasants, she became extremely prestigious. Naturally, the newly minted soldiers had a desire to imitate "true" warriors, and not real warriors, about whom they, in fact, knew little, but ideal - from medieval poems and stories. And therefore the ideals of bushido did not become a thing of the past, but, on the contrary, suddenly spread widely in the environment where they had not previously been thought of.
According to the ancient samurai tradition, now accepted by other Japanese, a feat committed for the benefit of comrades in arms or for the benefit of the clan became the property of the whole family, which was proud of the hero and kept the memory of him for centuries. And during a war with an external enemy, this feat was accomplished for the good of the entire people. This was the social imperative that reached its climax during the Second World War. Europe and the United States learned about the special "love" of the Japanese for death during the Russo-Japanese War. The audience was particularly impressed by the story of how Japanese soldiers and officers before the assault on Port Arthur, defending their right to an honorable death, applied a severed finger to a written request to identify them in the first column.
After the surrender of Japan in 1945According to the scheme tested in Nazi Germany, the Americans first of all confiscated Japanese war films - and with great surprise they said later that they had never seen such explicit and harsh anti-war propaganda before. It turned out that these films are told about military exploits in passing, as if in passing. But there is a lot and in detail - about the physical and mental suffering experienced by the heroes, associated with the pain of wounds, the disorder of life, the death of relatives and friends. It was these films that were considered patriotic in Japan at that time. It turned out that when watching them, the Japanese felt not fear, but sympathy for the suffering and self-sacrificing heroes, and even a desire to share with them all the hardships and hardships of military life. And when the first kamikaze units began to form in Japan, there were three times more volunteers than planes. Only at first, professional pilots were sent on flights with a kamikaze mission, then yesterday's schoolchildren and first-year students, the younger sons in the family, came to these formations (the older sons were not taken on death row - they had to inherit the family name and traditions). Due to the large number of applicants, they took the best, so many of these guys were excellent students. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Divine Wind Special Attack Squadrons
By the summer of 1944, it had become clear to everyone that, thanks to its enormous industrial potential, the United States had gained an overwhelming advantage in the Pacific theater of operations. At first, each Japanese aircraft was met in the sky by 2-3 enemy fighters, then the balance of forces became even more tragic. The best military pilots of Japan, who started the war since Pearl Harbor, suffered defeat and died fighting against numerous "Mustangs" and "Aircobras" of the enemy, which, moreover, were superior to their aircraft in technical terms.
Under these conditions, many Japanese pilots, deeply experiencing their helplessness, in order to inflict at least some damage to the enemy, began to deliberately sacrifice themselves. Even during the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941), at least four Japanese pilots sent their destroyed bombers and fighters to American ships and anti-aircraft artillery batteries. Now, in the last suicide attack, the Japanese had to send undamaged aircraft. American historians have calculated that even before the "kamikaze era", 100 Japanese pilots attempted to ram.
Thus, the idea of creating squads of suicide pilots was literally in the air. The first to officially voice it was the already mentioned Vice Admiral Takijiro Onishi. On October 19, 1944, realizing the impossibility of confronting the enemy in conventional battles, he did not order, but suggested that his subordinates sacrifice themselves in the name of saving Japanese ships in the Philippines. This proposal found wide support among military pilots. As a result, a few days later, the first "Divine Wind Special Attack Squadron", "Kamikaze Tokubetsu Kogekitai", was created on the island of Luzon. This name may seem extremely pompous and pretentious to many, but in Japan it did not surprise anyone. Every student in the country knew the textbook story of the Mongols' failed attempt to conquer Japan. In 1274, Chinese engineers and workers built about 900 ships for the Mongol Khan Kublai (grandson of Genghis Khan), on which the 40,000th invasion army went to Japan. The Mongols had great combat experience, were distinguished by good training and discipline, but the Japanese resisted desperately and Kubilai did not succeed in a quick victory. But losses in the Japanese army grew every day. They were especially annoyed by the previously unknown Mongolian archery tactics, which, without aiming, simply bombarded the enemy with a huge number of arrows. In addition, the Mongols, according to the Japanese, fought dishonestly: they burned and ravaged villages, killed civilians (who, having no weapons, could not defend themselves), and several people attacked one soldier. The Japanese could not hold out for long, but a powerful typhoon scattered and sank the Sino-Mongolian fleet. Left without support from the mainland, the Mongol army was defeated and destroyed. Seven years later, when Khubilai repeated his attempt to invade Japan, a new typhoon sank his even more powerful fleet and larger army. It was these typhoons that the Japanese called the "divine wind". The planes, which, "having fallen from the sky", were supposed to sink the fleet of the new "barbarians", evoked a direct association with the events of the 13th century.
It should be said that the well-known word "kamikaze" in Japan itself has never been used and is not used. The Japanese pronounce this phrase like this: "Shimpu tokubetsu ko: geki tai." The fact is that the Japanese who served in the American army read this phrase in a different transcription. Another case of this kind is the reading of the hieroglyphs "ji-ben" as "i-pon" rather than "nip-pon". But, in order not to confuse readers, in this article, nevertheless, the word "kamikaze" will be used as a more familiar and familiar term to all.
In schools for suicide pilots, isolated from the outside world, recruits not only got acquainted with the device of aircraft, but also practiced swordsmanship and martial arts. These disciplines were supposed to symbolize the continuity of the ancient martial traditions of Japan. The brutal practices in these schools are surprising, where, willing to voluntarily sacrifice themselves yesterday's children, they were regularly beaten and humiliated - in order to "increase their fighting spirit." Each of the cadets received a hashimaki headband, which served as a hair hoop and protection from sweat dripping from the forehead. For them, she became a symbol of sacred self-sacrifice. Before departure, a special ceremony was held with a ritual cup of sake and, as the main relic, a short sword in a brocade scabbard was handed over to be held in the hands during the last attack. In an instruction to his suicide pilots, Onishi Takijiro wrote:
“You must exert all your strength for the last time in your life. Do your best. Right before the collision, it is fundamentally important not to close your eyes for a second, so as not to miss the target … 30 meters from the target, you will feel that your speed suddenly and sharply increased … Three or two meters from the target, you can clearly see muzzle cuts of enemy guns. Suddenly you feel yourself floating through the air. At this moment, you see your mother's face. She doesn't smile or cry. You will feel like you are smiling at that last moment. Then you won't be there anymore.”
After the death of a suicide pilot (regardless of the result of his attack), he was automatically assigned the samurai title, and members of his family from that time were officially called "over-respected."
With the kamikaze mission, Japanese pilots most often flew in groups in which three planes (sometimes more) were piloted by poorly trained suicide bombers, two were experienced pilots who covered them, if necessary, even at the cost of their lives.
Teishintai: not only kamikaze
It should be said that the combination of kamikaze pilots was a special case of the phenomenon, which is designated by the term "teishintai" and unites all volunteer suicide bombers. In addition to pilots, this was the name, for example, of paratroopers who were dropped on enemy airfields to destroy aircraft and tanks with kerosene (for example, the Giretsu Kuteitai detachment created at the end of 1944).
Teishintai naval formations included suidze tokkotai - squadrons of light fire boats, and shove tokkotai - dwarf submarines Kairyu and Koryu, guided Kaiten torpedoes ("destiny-changing"), fukuryu diving squads "(" Dragons of the underwater grotto ").
In the ground units, suicide bombers were supposed to destroy enemy tanks, artillery pieces and officers. Numerous Teixintai detachments in 1945 were also part of the Kwantung Army: a separate suicide brigade plus battalions of volunteers in each division. Moreover, ordinary citizens often acted in the teisentai style. For example, on the island of Ie (near Okinawa), young women (with babies on their backs!), Armed with grenades and explosives, sometimes became suicide bombers.
It must be said that, in addition to material damage, the actions of "teishintai" had another "side", but very unpleasant psychological effect for the opposing side. The most impressive, of course, were the kamikaze strikes. Eyewitness accounts were sometimes so panicky that the American military censorship at that time deleted from letters any mention of suicide pilots - "in the name of preserving the morale of the US people." One of the sailors who had a chance to survive the kamikaze raid recalled:
“Around noon, loud banging bells announced an air raid alert. Interceptor fighters soared upward. Anxious wait - and here they are. Seven Japanese fighters from different directions come to the aircraft carrier "Ticonderoga". Despite the attacks of our interceptors and the heavy fire of anti-aircraft artillery, they with mad tenacity go to the goal. A few more seconds pass - and six Japanese planes are shot down. The seventh crashes into the deck of an aircraft carrier, an explosion permanently incapacitates the ship. More than 100 people were killed, almost 200 were wounded, and the rest cannot calm their nervous tremors for a long time.
The fear of kamikaze attacks was such that the sailors of destroyers and other small ships, seeing the approaching Japanese planes, painted large white arrows on the decks with the words: "Aircraft carriers (a much more desirable target for kamikaze) in that direction."
The first ship attacked by a kamikaze pilot was the flagship of the Australian Navy, the battle cruiser Australia. On October 21, 1944, an aircraft carrying a 200-kilogram bomb crashed into the ship's superstructure. Fortunately for the sailors, this bomb did not explode, but the blow of the fighter itself was enough to kill 30 people on the cruiser, including the ship's captain.
On October 25 of the same year, the first massive attack of an entire squadron of kamikaze took place, which attacked a group of American ships in Leyte Gulf. For American sailors, the new tactics of the Japanese came as a complete surprise, they could not organize an adequate rebuff, as a result the escort aircraft carrier "Saint-Lo" was sunk, 6 more aircraft carriers were damaged. The losses of the Japanese side amounted to 17 aircraft.
During this attack, several more American ships were hit, which remained afloat, but received serious damage. Among them was the cruiser Australia, already familiar to us: now it was put out of action for several months. Until the end of the war, this ship was attacked by the kamikaze 4 more times, becoming a kind of record holder, but the Japanese did not succeed in drowning it. In total, during the battle for the Philippines, the kamikaze sank 2 aircraft carriers, 6 destroyers, and 11 transports. In addition, as a result of their attacks, 22 aircraft carriers, 5 battleships, 10 cruisers and 23 destroyers were damaged. This success led to the formation of new kamikaze formations - "Asahi", "Shikishima", "Yamazakura" and "Yamato". By the end of World War II, Japanese naval aviation had trained 2,525 kamikaze pilots, and another 1,387 were provided by the army. They had almost half of all Japan's remaining aircraft at their disposal.
The aircraft prepared for the kamikaze mission was usually filled to capacity with explosives, but could carry conventional torpedoes and bombs: after dropping them, the pilot went to the ram, diving at the target with the engine running. Another, specially created kamikaze aircraft (MXY-7 "Oka" - "Cherry Blossom") was delivered to the target by a twin-engine bomber and separated from it when an attack object was detected at a distance of 170 cables. This aircraft was equipped with jet engines, which accelerated it to a speed of 1000 km / h. However, such aircraft, like carrier aircraft, were very vulnerable to fighters, moreover, their effectiveness was low. The Americans called these aircraft "tank-bombs" ("fool-bomb") or "idiots": their maneuverability was extremely low, at the slightest mistake in aiming, they fell into the sea and exploded on impact on the water. During the entire period of their use (in the battles for the island of Okinawa), only four successful hits of the Cherry Blossom on ships were recorded. One of them literally "pierced" the American destroyer Stanley, flying through - only this saved it from sinking.
And 755 of these aircraft were produced.
There is a widespread myth that kamikaze aircraft threw off the landing gear after takeoff, making it impossible for the pilot to return. However, such aircraft - the Nakajima Ki-115 "Tsurugi", were designed "out of poverty" and only at the very end of the war. They used outdated engines of the 1920s and 1930s, in total, before the surrender of Japan, about a hundred of these aircraft were produced, and none of them was used for their intended purpose. Which is quite understandable: the goal of any kamikaze was not suicide, but inflicting maximum damage on the enemy. Therefore, if the pilot could not find a worthy target for an attack, he returned to base, and, after several days of rest, set off on a new flight. During the battles in the Philippines, during the first sortie, only about 60% of the kamikaze who flew into the sky were attacked by the enemy.
On February 21, 1945, two Japanese aircraft attacked the American aircraft carrier Bismarck Sea. After the impact of the first of them, a fire started, which was extinguished. But the blow of the second was fatal, so it damaged the fire-fighting system. The captain was forced to give the order to leave the burning ship.
During the battle for the island of Okinawa (April 1 - June 23, 1945, Operation "Iceberg"), kamikaze squadrons conducted their own operation with the poetic name "Kikusui" ("chrysanthemum floating on the water"). Within its framework, ten massive raids were carried out on enemy warships: more than 1,500 kamikaze attacks and almost the same number of ramming attempts undertaken by pilots of other formations. But by this time, the Americans had already learned how to effectively protect their ships, and about 90% of Japanese aircraft were shot down in the air. But the blows of the remaining ones inflicted heavy losses on the enemy: 24 ships were sunk (out of 34 lost by the Americans) and 164 (out of 168) were damaged. The aircraft carrier Bunker Hill remained afloat, but 80 aircraft burned out in a fire on board.
The last US warship destroyed in the kamikaze raid was the destroyer Callagen, sunk on July 28, 1945. In its entire history, the American fleet has not lost so many ships.
And what were the total losses of the US Navy from kamikaze strikes? The Japanese claim that they managed to sink 81 ships and damage 195. The Americans dispute these figures, according to their data, the losses amounted to 34 sunk and 288 damaged ships, which, however, is also quite a lot.
In total, 1,036 Japanese pilots were killed during the kamikaze attacks. Only 14% of their attacks were successful.
Memory of the kamikaze in modern Japan
Suicidal attacks by kamikaze could not and could not turn the tide of the war. Japan was defeated and subjected to a humiliating demilitarization procedure. The emperor was forced to publicly declare his renunciation of his divine origin. Thousands of soldiers and officers committed ritual suicide after surrender, but the surviving Japanese managed to rebuild their lives in a new way and build a new developed high-tech society, once again surprising the world with their economic "miracle". However, according to ancient folk traditions, the feat of the kamikaze is not forgotten. On the Satsuma Peninsula, where one of the schools was located, a kamikaze memorial was built. At the base of the statue of the pilot at the entrance there are 1036 plaques with the names of the pilots and the date of their death. Nearby is a small Buddhist temple dedicated to the goddess of mercy Kannon.
There are also monuments to kamikaze pilots in Tokyo and Kyoto.
But outside of Japan there is also a similar monument. It is located in the Philippine city of Mabalacate, from the airfield of which the first kamikaze planes took off.
The monument was opened in 2005 and serves as a kind of symbol of reconciliation between these countries.
