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How are kamikaze pilots selected?
Pat a asked, "are kamikaze pilots all volunteers?" How on earth were they chosen? " During World War II, thousands of Japanese pilots made the ultimate sacrifice for their country and basically became flying suicide bombers. But what makes these people so willing to give their lives in this way? Are they really eager to sacrifice themselves for greater interests, or are they forced to sacrifice themselves as wartime propaganda said? In addition, why did the Japanese military adopt such a strategy from the beginning? "First of all, Japanese military officials are desperate. The enemy allowed them to surpass in artillery and manpower and possess some key technologies that Japan did not have. In order to illustrate how terrible things are, dating back to 1942, one day in June of the same year, Japan lost more pilots than the pilots trained in the whole year before the war. It is totally infeasible to train new pilots fast enough. This has led to sending relatively inexperienced pilots to fly outdated aircraft. 1There is a reason why the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June, 944 was dubbed by the Allied Forces as "Turkey Battle of the Greater Mariana Islands". Moreover, death before the defeat was deeply rooted in Japanese military culture at that time. The Diary of Kamikaze Team (the so-called "student soldiers" in wartime Japan described from their works-many future Kamikaze volunteers are these "male pilots") said that the first thing that the student soldiers learned was

Pull the trigger with your toes and aim the gun at a point under his chin, so that the bullet will kill him immediately. If he is trapped in a cave or trench surrounded by enemies, he should use this technology. If he tries to escape instead of committing suicide, he may be shot in the back, because his superiors and some comrades believe in the national motto that he must never be captured by the enemy.

This brings us to Gejitai (literally "attack team") in Tokyo, whose members are usually called Kamikaze team. Although the idea of sending a pilot to carry out a one-way suicide mission is largely attributed to a man named Okamura Genji, it is not uncommon for Japanese pilots to deliberately crash their planes into the enemy before the start of the 1944 suicide pilot program. However, it is generally believed that Captain Okamura Benchun was the first senior Japanese officer to put forward this idea. There is a famous saying:

In our present situation, I firmly believe that the only way to make the war beneficial to us is to launch a crash and dive attack with our plane. There is no other way. There will be enough volunteers to fight for this opportunity to save the country. I want to direct such an action. Give me 300 planes, and I can turn things around.

That is to say, it was not Okamura who founded the first squadron, but Tokujiro Nishi, then deputy admiral of the Japanese navy, who was a kamikaze pilot. It is reported that Oni Heezen asked his superiors to form a suicide team, but one condition was approved, and he was only allowed to recruit volunteers.

Determined to make his suicide team a reality, Onic personally announced the first request for "Special attack force" volunteers at Ma barakat Air Force Base. All 23 pilots finally volunteered.

It is reported that there were many more pilots on that day than those who couldn't wait to register (it should be more than the existing aircraft by 3 1). "There are too many volunteers who commit suicide. He calls them a group of bees ... bees will die if they are stung." In fact, bees usually don't die when they bite something. This usually only happens after they sting humans, such as their stings on our fleshy skin. The situation is different when they stab many other animals. )

However, the official story of a group of enthusiastic volunteers clamoring for registration has been questioned by many historians, especially since then, first-hand information from actual pilots has appeared, depicting an obviously unpatriotic painting.

Saburo Sakai, a pilot of the Royal Japanese Navy, said in an interview: "Even now, when I close my eyes, many faces of my students will appear. He won at least 28 times in the war against Japan, ranking fourth, including shooting down or damaging more than 60 allied planes. Many students have left. Why did the headquarters continue this stupid attack for ten months! Fool! ..... Those people lied that they all volunteered to join the Kamikaze team. They lied!

Moreover, many "male soldiers" who eventually became pilots of Kamikaze special forces were treated cruelly in training, so that according to the first-hand information of the trainees, many people lost any sense of patriotism. For example, Irokawa Daikichi said that he was "hit hard on the face, often beaten beyond recognition ... I was knocked out of sight and fell to the ground. The moment I got up, I was hit by a stick again ... "The official said that the purpose of this extremely cruel" training "was to instill a" fighting spirit "in the soldiers.

Lin went on to say:

As discussed by ancient philosophers, it is easy to talk about death in the abstract. But I'm afraid of real death. I don't know if I can overcome my fear. Even a short life, there are many memories. It's hard for a person who has a good life to give up. But I have reached the point where I can't turn back. I must jump into the enemy ship. To tell the truth, I can't say that the desire to die for the emperor is real and heartfelt. However, I decided to die for the emperor.

Captain Yukio Aoki, who commanded the first squadron of the 23rd Squadron, shared the same feeling: "If Japan is forced to kill one of its best pilots, its future will be bleak ... I won't perform this task for the emperor or empire ... I went because I was ordered."

Of course, some people are willing to sacrifice for the emperor and the country, and more people are willing to die in this way just because they feel that, to some extent, they are the last line of defense to protect their family and friends. In fact, many people seem to be just stressed.

So, what tactics are there to convince volunteers? As Mako Sasaki mentioned in his paper published in Concorde Review, he became a pilot in Fan Shen.

"KDSP" and their feelings about suicide mission, some men were recruited into this project through a simple questionnaire survey. The questionnaire consists of a multiple-choice question, the topic is: "Do you really want/hope/don't want to join the Kamikaze special attack team?" ? "All these people have to do is circle what they agree with most. The most important thing is that although these people are free to say that they don't want to participate, they still have to sign their names on it. As Sasaki pointed out, the pressure on young people to do something for the country during that time was enormous. If you say no, the threat of revenge is very real It's not just revenge against the soldiers that I'm afraid of. His family has gone home. According to Emiko Ohnuki Tierney's diary mentioned earlier, other ways to encourage male volunteers include keeping them in a room full of peers. After a long speech about patriotism, someone asked anyone who didn't want to be a kamikaze team to take a step forward. It is conceivable that such voluntary service is very effective. Apart from loyalty to the country and the emperor, few people are willing to show such cowardice, or endure the shame that comrades-in-arms don't want to die when they give themselves weapons. N is alive to protect his home, no matter who is present when the volunteers are asked or who finally completes the suicide mission. The latter point is often written in many volunteers' letters and diaries, explaining why they finally choose to do so.

If you want to know what happened to those who said no, according to Emiko,

If a soldier is brave enough not to volunteer, he will be sent to hell. Any soldier who refuses will become an unwelcome person or be sent to the southern battlefield, where death is inevitable. Some soldiers actually managed to refuse, but their refusal was ignored. Kenji Kuroda decided not to take part in volunteer activities, but he was surprised when he found his name on the volunteer list of Navy Dekutai. His boss proudly reported that all the members of his unit took part in voluntary activities.

Although not all kamikaze pilots are dead. If the pilot's plane has problems during the flight, or no suitable target appears, nothing can stop him from returning to the base and try again later. In fact, the manual for kamikaze pilots reads: "In bad weather conditions, when you can't find the target, or in other unfavorable circumstances, you can decide to return to the base. Don't be discouraged. Don't waste your life easily.

In an interview with a former kamikaze commando pilot named Tadamasa Itatsu, he pointed out that some young people are willing to sacrifice their lives simply because they sincerely "believe that their actions can save the country from disaster".

As Kazuo Hayashi wrote in a letter a few days before his death in April, 1945, "I am honored to be selected as a member of the special forces about to go into battle, but when I think of you, I can't help crying, Mom. When I recall your hope for my future … I feel very sad. I will never do anything to bring you happiness until I die.

All this may make you wonder how much the Kamikaze commando plan will do for the Japanese. According to the statistics of the US Air Force, there were nearly 3,000 kamikaze attacks, resulting in 368 injuries, including 34 sunken ships, 4,900 naval soldiers killed and 4,800 injured, but only about 14% kamikaze pilots successfully hit a ship. So in this sense, one plane after another, considering that Americans have radar, the number of people and planes are excellent, and the pilots of Kamikaze team are often inexperienced, which is a sad success.

I can't predict the outcome of air combat, but if you regard special attack as a normal method, you are all wet. The correct way is to use technology to attack the enemy and return to the base with good results. Planes should be used repeatedly. This is the way to fight. Now thinking is biased. Otherwise, don't expect to improve air power. If the pilot continues to die, there will be no progress.

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