Definition: Kamikaze

The Miriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following explanation for the word 'kamikaze'

1. a member of a Japanese air attack corps in World War II assigned to make a suicidal crash on a target

2. an airplane containing explosives to be flown in a suicide crash on a target


These are fairly symbolic, pared-down, simplistic explanations of 'kamikaze,' however a history class that I recently attended at the University level gave me a more well-rounded understanding of 'kamikaze.'

Since I put the word 'Kamikaze' in my blog Title, I feel the need to explain further - rather than be mistaken as insinuating that readers adopt a kamikaze 'suicidal,' 'crash' technique of trying to make money online!

Kamikaze pilots were seen as having the quality of 'fearlessness' and were viewed as heroes by the global regions known to use the pilots. Westerners viewed the pilots as 'crazy,' and the title of 'kamikaze' has garnered quite a derogatory meaning because of this second, Western connotation.

It is true that kamikaze pilots flew in erractic fashion and appeared to make very dangerous decisions in the air, controlling their machinery in what appeared as 'risky' and 'suicidal' maneouvers. The truth of the matter is that MOST AIRPLANES of that era did not have very sophisticated controls for flight. MOST PILOTS of any aircraft - from any country - had limited control of their 'airships.' Kamikaze pilots had some of the very worst planes available.

Due to financial issues during WW II, certain countries had obviously less money than others. Those with less money made fewer planes, of poorer quality - however - with WW II considered a GLOBAL CONFLICT, certain countries still had the need to engage in air combat - regardless that their aircraft were of poor quality, without 'bells and whistles.'





Much of the erratic flight of the kamikaze pilots wasn't due to 'suicidal' decisions in the air or from deliberate dangerous manipulation of their craft in the sky at all. Their planes simply did not function in the same ways as other planes in the air. The nose-dive typically noticed in 'kamikaze flight' pilots was usually NOT a 'tactic' of flight designed to 'psyche-out' other pilots, as is often believed. Often, the nose-dive was NECESSARY for keeping the aircraft from losing speed and having the engine completely stall out. Pilots would nose-dive, then loop back up - just to keep in the air, stay in combat, etc. Many a time, the dive and loop was employed because the engine HAD ACTUALLY STOPPED FUNCTIONING and this 'dive and glide' kept the pilot from a sure plummet to his death.

Misreported are the instances where these pilots with useless engines - would loop, glide, loop and glide, in order to land and survive the flight experience itself. Other pilots would rarely know what happened to the kamikaze foe. The Japanese pilot would just 'disappear' from the sight of other pilots. Later, the incident would be reported as 'the Japanese craft just vanished!' All of these factors have contributed to a type of 'mystery' attached to the kamikaze pilots, which still outshines the truth today. Perhaps we still like to think in terms of 'mystery,' however, Kamikaze pilots weren't some strange, mysterious, suicidal, phantoms up in the air. They were very REAL, accomplished, and mentally focused pilots! Kamikaze pilots had to 'use the air currents' effectively, along with whatever controls were manageable and all their wits, too - while adversary pilots and machines did not have to take into consideration as much about air currents or worry about crash-landing or whether their engines would stall, even in regular, routine flight. In essence, the Kamikaze Pilots were in a constant state of multi-tasking, using every sense they could muster in order to make their craft obey what they needed to accomplish in the air, even if they were only in the air over safe territory, in a practice situation.

I take some issue even with the dictionary explanation I posted to lead this topic, because, truthfully - the Japanese pilots were not necessarily an 'attack' branch of pilots. (Weren't most aircraft designed for 'attack' purposes? Why aren't the other pilots called 'attack' pilots - when they, indeed, WERE on 'attack missions' against Japan?). Much of their reason for being in the air was DEFENSE. Their flight patterns, unlike ANY OTHER airplanes from any other country, granted them so much attention that all kinds of associations have been made - erroneously - about their presence and activity in WW II.

They were Japanese pilots who manipulated DIFFERENT TYPES OF MACHINES than other countries did. The appearances of their flight and the instances of their deaths have been associated with 'personality' of the pilots (crazy and suicidal) to give the term 'kamikaze' a negative connotation for many people - and also to enforce a strong and long-lasting racial stereotype (heartless, cruel Japanese). These pilots 'seem to have' (this is debatable, they may not have had more deaths but the attention their deaths received was greater than with other pilots) suffered higher instances of death - not because they conducted their machines in a suicidal, risky maner while in flight - but because their machinery had little in the way of 'safety' and control options - less than other countries' machines did. If a few things went 'wrong' in the air, the pilots often nose-dived to try and recover some control. If this didn't work, a crashing, fiery death was inevitable. These out-of-control crashes are often attributed as the 'suicidal crash on a target' which is also in the definition I choose to open this post with. The inference made in the definition is that the 'crash on a target' was calculated - whereas a great many crashes said to be 'intentional' and 'targetted' probably were NOT and were, instead, malfunctions and loss of basic control of the airplane.

As well, the firearms that these pilots had use of were often inferior to the ones their adversaries employed. Kamikaze pilots often had to get their aircraft much closer to their target than did other aircraft pilots. This had nothing to do with pilot 'heartlessness' where they thought so little of human life that they would get close enough to SEE the other pilot to watch him die (this is a crazy idea, isn't it? Nonetheless, it is a popular myth). It had to do with the fact that their firing range was so limited that they couldn't hit anything unless they were quite close to their target.

I believe it must have required great courage for kamikaze pilots to step aboard their aircraft, knowing how different the craft were from the ones they would face in the air. They would know, more than other pilots, how dangerous their next moments would be and that their life was in mortal danger - yet they trained as well as they could to know their machines and they didn't see their situations as 'impossible.' They saw the possibilities of utilizing air currents, utilizing split-second human judgements in the air, and they flew their planes remarkably well - all considered.

They also SURVIVED remarkably well, all considered. It is a shame that their efforts and their actions have been so sorely misinterpreted.