“FLOATING CHRYSANTHEMUMS”

The Japanese plan for defense of Okinawa was known by the language characters “Ten-Go.”  While defenders on land waged a battle of attrition, Japanese air and naval forces would engage the American invasion fleet.  But the Japanese air forces were flagging.  Most of their planes and skilled pilots had been lost, the technology of their remaining aircraft was out-classed by the American Hellcat and Corsair, and their reserves of fuel were nearly spent.  This desperate situation bred a desperate response.

Kamikazes first appeared at the battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944.  They attacked in small groups, usually under fighter escort.  The first kamikaze pilots came from the ranks of veterans and could fly the ideal approach–a near vertical plunge from above the anti-aircraft barrage that was aimed amidships, at the base of the bridge structure.  Such a flight profile required evasion of enemy combat air patrols and proper timing of the push-over.  But as attrition claimed experienced pilots, the remaining resorted to a simpler, shallow, glide-in approach with its devastating exposure to anti-aircraft fire.  By Okinawa, kamikaze tactics had matured.  They appeared at dusk, out of the setting sun, sometimes approaching “on the deck,” below radar.  Planes were sent in mass flights, kikusui’s (“floating chrysanthemums”), 50 or more at a time, striking from all directions at once.  The target of choice was the aircraft carrier or battleship, but to the eyes of inexperienced pilots, destroyers appeared equally tempting.  One advanced variation, the baka, was a 500-knot rocket-propelled glide bomb, manned by a suicide pilot, and launched from the belly of a larger plane.

The terror of kamikazes cannot be overstated.  Initially American sailors were aghast that pilots would willfully sacrifice themselves in such a manner.  As we had never imagined such a weapon, our defenses were not up to the task.  Ultimately, radar pickets, interception sorties, raids on home airfields, and robust anti-air defenses insured that the majority of the hundreds of kamikazes thrown at the Allies off Okinawa failed in their attempt to glorify the Emperor.  Nevertheless, those who succeeded wrought death and destruction beyond description.  On this date, the first in a series of ten kikusui raids claimed the destroyers BUSH (DD-529) and COLHOUN (DD-801), the minesweeper EMMONS (DMS-22), an LST and the cargo ships Hobbs Victory and Logan Victory.  Twelve more were damaged including four crippled beyond repair; MORRIS (DD-417), LEUTZE (DD-481), NEWCOMB (DD-586), and WITTER (DE-636).

Kamikazes proved to be Japan’s most effective weapon against our Navy in WWII, sinking more ships and killing more sailors than any other weapon system.  Off Okinawa, they claimed most of the 34 ships sunk and 368 damaged and were responsible for most of the 4907 sailors killed. 

Continued tomorrow…

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Inoguchi, Rikihei and Tadashi Nakajima.  The Divine Wind:  Japan’s Kamikaze Force in World War II.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1958.

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Yahara, Hiromichi.  The Battle for Okinawa.  New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995.

Zimmerman, Robert.  “Okinawa:  A Last Step on the Bloodstained Road to Japan”.  San Diego Union-Tribune, p. A16, 1 Apr 1995.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  In the 3^rd kikusui raid on April 16^th LAFFEY (DD-724) was crashed by four bombs and six kamikazes (17 others missed or were shot down), killing or horribly burning 103 crewmen.  Though every gun aboard was disabled, she is remembered today as the US Navy warship to endure the single most intense enemy attack and remain afloat.

A surviving example of the baka can be seen at Navy Museum of the Washington Navy Yard.

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