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One of the most fearsome weapons of World War II was the use of human beings as suicide bombers. Deployed by both the German and Japanese armies, it lead to the common use of the word `kamikaze'....
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00:08In the midst of World War II,
00:11both Nazi Germany and her Japanese allies
00:13plan new terror tactics to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies.
00:19Suicide missions.
00:22When these kamikaze weapons first appeared,
00:24they scared the hell out of the Americans.
00:26But it's Japan that takes this fanatical concept to the extreme,
00:31with killer planes, super torpedoes,
00:35and rocket-powered missiles,
00:38all guided by human pilots.
00:42For some of these young pilots, this was a path of no return.
00:46Japan builds top-secret structures.
00:49This is fantastic.
00:51And terrifying weapons to commit the ultimate sacrifice.
00:58This is the incredible story of the kamikaze.
01:07The biggest construction projects of World War II,
01:12ordered by Hitler and his Japanese allies to secure world domination.
01:16Now the ruins survive as dark reminders of their fanatical military ambition.
01:22These are the secrets of the Nazi mega-weapons.
01:36In a secret underground bunker in southern Japan,
01:39Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki is preparing to unleash suicide squadrons
01:44against the American forces.
01:50Shokan, assemble the pilots and crews of the special attack unit.
01:57Ugaki's plan?
01:58To prevent the invasion of Japan by sending out the greatest number of suicide squadrons ever seen.
02:08Today's mission will not be an easy one.
02:11But brave and resolute action will scatter even devils.
02:17You will succeed!
02:21His new weapon, a rocket-powered suicide missile.
02:37On a hillside in southern Japan, hidden behind a jungle of bamboo,
02:41are the remains of the secret command center,
02:44where Vice Admiral Ugaki masterminded hundreds of suicide attacks.
02:51Well, this is fantastic!
02:56Military historian Mike Pavlik has gained rare access to this forgotten bunker.
03:05Oh, phenomenal.
03:09Ugaki buried his headquarters in this mountain to protect it from the Allied bombing.
03:22Just look at the thickness of these walls.
03:25It's probably three feet here at the top,
03:27and tapering down to about 18 inches here on the sides.
03:31It keeps the whole structure very, very solid and secure.
03:38This is not just one bunker.
03:40This is a series of hundreds of meters of reinforced concrete caves.
03:46The Admiral and his staff and secretaries,
03:51with maps and telephone and radio,
03:55would have been in this underground headquarters,
03:57where they directed all of the kamikaze operations against the American fleet.
04:12The story of this terrifying new tactic unfolds in both Japan and Nazi Germany.
04:19In Europe, as the tide of the war turned decisively against Hitler,
04:24the Nazis planned suicidal missions,
04:27driven by fanatical obedience to the Fuhrer and the Fatherland.
04:36In Japan, the story of suicide squadrons begins in 1940.
04:42The Japanese sign a pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
04:47And the three Axis powers promise to assist one another.
04:54The Empire of Japan looks to expand its borders, conquering swathes of Asia.
05:02The United States' response is to cut off trade with Japan.
05:08The economic blockade puts Japan in a really, really difficult position,
05:11because clearly it's now on a collision course with United States.
05:20December 7th, 1941.
05:23Japan launches a surprise airstrike against the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
05:34The attack of Pearl Harbor is an enormous success.
05:37It massively cripples the Pacific Fleet,
05:39but it catches the Americans totally unawares.
05:43Japan and her Nazi allies are now at war with the United States.
05:50But in the years that follow, the war goes against the Axis powers.
05:57June 6th, 1944. D-Day.
06:01The Allies invade France to liberate Europe from Nazi rule.
06:07And in the Pacific, a vast American fleet sweeps west.
06:12Mission? To crush the Empire of Japan.
06:20June 19th, 1944.
06:21The Japanese and Americans meet near the Mariana Islands.
06:31Japan faces the full might of the U.S. Navy and suffers a devastating defeat.
06:37The Mariana Islands is known as the Mariana's Turkey Chute,
06:40and it's where the U.S. Navy Air Force really gets one over the Imperial Japanese Navy's Air Force.
06:49Three of Japan's aircraft carriers are sunk.
06:53Some 600 planes destroyed.
07:02The Japanese surface fleet essentially ceases to exist.
07:08I mean, the bulk of the fighting Japanese capability is lost at the Mariana's.
07:13A core reason for the defeat is the failure of the Japanese fighter plane,
07:19the Mitsubishi Zero.
07:23Mike is exploring one of only a handful that still survive.
07:29The Zero is simply outclassed by contemporary American aircraft.
07:36Part of the problem that the Zero has is that even though it has great range and maneuverability,
07:41the fuel system lacks self-sealing fuel tanks.
07:45So when American pilots shoot at Zeros, they tend to explode.
07:53Japan needs a new tactic to face down the might of the American fleet.
07:59And they need it fast.
08:02The Americans are now closing in on Japan.
08:05Their next target is the Philippines.
08:08The Philippines, a former U.S. colony, is absolutely crucial for the Japanese
08:14because it's through the Philippines that their oil supply comes.
08:17And without it, they're absolutely finished.
08:21In October 1944, the man in charge of Japan's air force in the Philippines is Takejiro Onishi.
08:29His orders are to stop the Allies from invading the islands at any cost.
08:37But he only has 30 Zero fighter planes to hold off hundreds of enemy ships.
08:45How can we possibly hold the Philippines with what we have?
08:52His solution is radical and unexpected.
08:56Turn the 30 Zero fighter planes into bombs.
09:00I don't think there'll be any other certain way to carry out the operation
09:06than to put a 250-kilogram bomb on a Zero
09:11and let it crash-dive into a U.S. carrier.
09:16This is the first time Japan orders suicide attacks.
09:21And it will totally change the face of the war.
09:26The new squadron is named Kamikaze, meaning Divine Wind.
09:32The aim? Each Zero plane takes out one American ship.
09:41To give the Zero the longest range possible, engineers reduce its weight by removing machine guns,
09:48armor, and radios.
09:50They add extra fuel tanks, and then a 550-pound bomb.
10:00They turned it into a flying missile that would attack the American fleet.
10:07All Vice Admiral Onishi needs now are some pilots.
10:23In Japan, shame is very important.
10:26And so it's very hard to say, no, I don't want to die for my country,
10:29because that brings shame upon not only yourself, but your family.
10:35And so a lot of these young soldiers had to put on a strong face, a strong look.
10:41They had to be manly.
10:44Looking for the first ever Kamikaze leader,
10:47officials call in one of their best pilots, 23-year-old Lieutenant Yukio Seki.
10:56You are being considered to lead the special attack unit.
11:02How do you feel about it?
11:04How do you feel about it?
11:06How do you feel about it?
11:13You absolutely must let me do it.
11:24Seki confides to a journalist that he believes suicide tactics are a waste of his skills.
11:31But still, he prepares himself for certain death.
11:36And he writes a letter of farewell to his new wife.
11:43My dear Mariko, I am very sorry that I must die before I could do much for you.
11:49As I am departing, I recall innumerable memories that we share.
12:00I'm sure they wanted to live.
12:02But the situation was so dire, so desperate,
12:07that they had no choice but to sacrifice their lives.
12:16The next day, the new Kamikazes are ready for their first ever attack.
12:24You're already gods without earthly desires.
12:28Your own crash dive is not in vain.
12:31I ask you all to do your best.
12:34Let's go.
12:38Before getting into his Zero, Seki makes a last request.
12:43Commander, please give this to my family.
12:47I'm ready.
12:49I'm ready.
13:07In the seas around the Philippines, the Japanese Navy is fighting an epic battle against the Allies.
13:19In the skies above, Yukio Seki leads the first ever squadron of Kamikaze pilots.
13:29After setting out on five successive days, he finally spots an American naval task force.
13:42As the Kamikaze pilots approached the American fleet, they would decide their tactics based on which ships they were assigned
13:50to attack.
13:51If they were assigned to attack aircraft carriers, they would come in really high and take a steep angle of
13:57attack in order to try to penetrate the aircraft carrier's decks.
14:02Aircraft carriers are proving to be the most dangerous and effective ships in the American fleet.
14:09Each able to deploy up to 100 fighter planes, they are the key to dominating the skies in the Pacific.
14:19As Seki looks down, he sees his number one target, an aircraft carrier.
14:40As Seki's plane smashes into the escort aircraft carrier USS St. Lowe.
14:52As Seki's plane smashes into the escort aircraft carrier USS St. Lowe.
14:55The ship sinks, with 889 men on board.
15:03The attack at later Gulf is incredibly successful because they managed to sink one aircraft carrier, which is the most
15:08important weapon, American weapon they could knock out.
15:10They badly damaged three others, and all for the loss of five aircraft.
15:14You know, that's a really good hit-to-loss ratio for the Japanese.
15:21It looks like this is a tactic that has some legs that may well be paying off.
15:28Void by the success of the Kamikaze Squadron, Commander Onishi greatly expands them.
15:35New planes and pilots arrive from Japan.
15:41Onishi now sends wave after wave of Kamikazes to defend the Philippines.
15:49At the Battle of the Philippine Sea, 121 Kamikaze pilots hit their intended target, sinking 16 American ships.
16:02It's the most effective use of air power that the Japanese have had in years.
16:08The power of the Kamikazes is not just hitting ships, it's also the psychological effect.
16:14That suddenly you are up against an enemy at which there seems to be no limits at all.
16:19And that's a terrifying proposition.
16:25But in the midst of the Kamikazes' early success, there is a growing problem.
16:32The Kamikazes are damaging and sinking U.S. ships, but so far they've only sunk one aircraft carrier.
16:45The biggest problem is that the Mitsubishi Zero, configured as a suicide weapon, is simply not a big bomb.
16:52Even though it's filled with fuel and it's carrying a 550 pound bomb that's supposed to go off,
16:57it's not a big enough weapon to sink an American battleship or aircraft carrier.
17:04The Japanese need something new.
17:09And what they come up with is something much more terrifying and much more powerful.
17:17Japan is developing a secret weapon, a rocket-powered missile designed for one purpose, suicide missions.
17:28It is named Oka, meaning cherry blossom.
17:33Unlike the Zero fighter, the Oka is more bomb than plane.
17:40The Oka was a small, piloted missile that had a huge bomb in the front.
17:46It has to be dropped from a larger bomber.
17:49And once it's dropped, it glides towards the American fleet, guided by the suicide pilot that's flying it.
18:02Very few original Oka's remain, but one in a restricted hangar in the UK is in the process of being
18:11restored.
18:15Wow.
18:17I wasn't expecting to see this.
18:19This is something that hasn't been seen in three quarters of a century.
18:24For aviation technology expert Joe Piccarella, it offers a rare chance to see how the Oka was originally put together.
18:35The whole purpose of the Oka was to carry a warhead to its target.
18:39And the whole front end, that's five and a half, six feet of the airframe, was warhead.
18:462,600 pounds of high explosives, equivalent to TNT.
18:52This was the raison d'etre of the Oka, to carry the largest bomb possible towards the Allied fleet.
19:04The warhead makes up about 60% of the weight of the Oka, and fills the entire nose cone.
19:13Sitting right behind this massive bomb is a small, basic cockpit for the pilot.
19:23The cockpit contained the bare minimum of instrumentation, just an altimeter, an airspeed indicator, and a compass.
19:31And up here is the original arming handle for the warhead.
19:36One hard tug of that handle, the warhead was alive, there was no going back.
19:46The cockpit also contained something found in no other aircraft.
19:52These two clips would hold the pilot's samurai sword.
19:57The pilot would look up, and one of the crew members on the betty would pass him his last worldly
20:03possession, his sword.
20:07Dropped from a height of 20,000 feet, the Oka could glide to a target up to 20 miles away.
20:16But there's a problem.
20:19The problem with a gliding bomb is that it's very slow and vulnerable to counter air fire.
20:26So you want to get it going fast enough to evade counter air fire, but also fast enough so it
20:32can penetrate the armor of the ships.
20:36The designers need a way to supercharge their terror weapon.
20:41They turn to solid rocket boosters.
20:50Three steel tubes inside the rear fuselage contain solid fuel rods.
20:57Once ignited, the fuel burns furiously, producing gas.
21:03As this gas expands, it is forced at high speed through nozzles at the back to create thrust.
21:11On the top of this control column, the switch is not for guns or a microphone.
21:16It's to ignite the three rocket motors in the tail that would speed him towards his target.
21:25For one-way suicide missions, the solid rocket booster was perfect.
21:31They could propel the Oka more than 150 miles per hour faster than any Allied planes in the Pacific.
21:43The Oka is incredibly fast.
21:45In a dive, it can reach speeds in excess of 600 miles an hour.
21:48So that's faster than anything else in the sky at that time.
21:53The Oka is a radical solution.
21:55But the Japanese are not alone.
22:00In Europe, Nazi Germany is desperately searching for ways to improve the accuracy of their own terror weapons.
22:09Their answer is also a human navigator.
22:14The Nazis add a cockpit to their powerful V-1 cruise missile, creating the Reichenberg.
22:24But Hitler is not convinced by the concept of kamikaze-like squadrons.
22:29He cancels the manned V-1 program.
22:39In Japan, development of the rocket-powered Oka is underway at a top-secret research base in the port city
22:47of Yokosuka, south of Tokyo.
22:53Today, remains of the base are still hidden amongst factories and warehouses.
22:59These are the very buildings where some of the early Oka were planned, designed, and tested.
23:05But the times were so desperate that the Japanese had to start mass production while they were still testing it.
23:12It was not ready for prime time, but they needed something new.
23:19One of the buildings that still stands is the Flight Dynamics Test Center.
23:27The prototypes of the Oka were brought here to be tested for flight worthiness.
23:36Somewhere in this complex, they would have had wind tunnels to test the flight dynamics.
23:42They would have had rocket booster test stands to test the rockets themselves.
23:52These columns and beams are enormous.
23:56These are built very solidly, with very thick concrete, in small compact spaces, just in case something exploded.
24:06But the Oka engineers here suffer a major setback.
24:12In the fall of 1944, the advancing Americans start bombing Japan's industrial centers.
24:20The Japanese need to move the production line of their new weapons to somewhere safer.
24:30They choose a hillside, right next to their research base in Yokosuka.
24:42Overgrown cliffs, hidden from view behind old factories, still house forgotten remains.
24:50This is a huge concrete bunker with these massive, inch-thick, bomb-proof, blast-proof doors on the outside, and
25:01then another steel door on the inside.
25:04Two sets of protection against bombs, bullets, whatever.
25:09It's just very, very heavy construction to protect something that was very vital.
25:16Beyond these bunkers, through dense undergrowth, is evidence of further structures.
25:23This entire mountain is riddled with caverns and tunnels where the Japanese built the Oka.
25:31Seven years later, you can still see the striations from the hand tools that were used to hack the stone
25:38out to make this cave.
25:41In order to protect the secrecy of the program, as well as to keep it safe from American bombs,
25:47they moved the entire manufacturing process from the exposed buildings, just across the street, into caves just like this.
25:56Not only to build the machine, but also to store the ones that they had already built.
26:07American bombing campaigns slow the production of the Oka.
26:13But the Japanese high command already have other suicide weapons in the pipeline.
26:20Including one that attacks not from the skies, but from below the waves.
26:29A manned torpedo.
26:37Japanese naval engineers developed this revolutionary suicide weapon, known as the chitin, from an existing torpedo.
26:46The chitin is based on the Type 93 torpedo, which is one of the most successful and most effective torpedoes
26:52of the entire war.
26:54The Type 93 torpedoes were the most advanced torpedoes at the period. It was very quick.
27:00The range was enormous, and most importantly, did not leave a white trail of water behind it.
27:07Like the Type 93 torpedo, the chitin has a warhead of over one and a half tons.
27:14Its rear houses a highly explosive oxygen fuel tank and propulsion system that can propel the chitin at 30 knots.
27:22Fast enough to catch most warships in the Pacific.
27:27But unlike a torpedo, in the center, right between the warhead and the compressed gas,
27:33is a compartment for a pilot just three feet in diameter.
27:43The Japanese Imperial Navy is preparing their kamikaze torpedo at Otushima, a top secret naval base.
27:51Hidden on a small island near the south coast.
28:02Historian Tosh Minnehara is heading for the site.
28:07This is Ouzushima, the former Imperial Japanese Navy top secret base,
28:12where they have the human-guided suicide submarines known as chitin,
28:17which in English means heaven mover.
28:26Tosh has come to explore what remains of the base.
28:32A replica chitin stands as a reminder of what the Japanese were doing here in 1944.
28:45So this is the chitin.
28:47It's a human-guided torpedo with one pilot.
28:51The pilot would sit here.
28:53You would think, well, why not just your torpedo?
28:56Why does it need to have a pilot?
28:57Well, the reason why is because of the guidance system.
29:00It would supposedly increase accuracy.
29:02When you have a person sitting here, he can control it until the last minute.
29:11The 3,400-pound warhead is 30% larger than the one on an Oka missile.
29:19The chitin was intended to sink a very large battleship just with one shot.
29:25It packed a large punch.
29:30One of the first volunteers to train how to operate the chitin is teenager Yutaka Yukota.
29:38He arrives at Otushima in September of 1944.
29:45For Yukota to try out his new weapon, it first has to be wheeled out to the water.
29:56This is the path in which they carried the chitin, which was built over there, the base over there.
30:01They would wheel it on tracks through this tunnel, which they carved out from the hillside.
30:12This is really interesting here.
30:13You can see actually where the tracks used to be.
30:16The chitin would be wheeled along here out to sea.
30:24This is also the path where the pilots would walk through on their training missions or, you know, if it's
30:30an actual mission.
30:31This was a one-way path here. This was a path of no return.
30:43Nearly 48 feet long and weighing over eight tons,
30:46the chitins are wheeled the length of the concrete jetty to a launching bay.
30:56Oh, so this is really interesting right here.
30:59You have a great vantage point of where they actually launched the chitin subs.
31:04The tracks would come all the way up here and right there.
31:08And then because these subs were fairly heavy, they needed a crane to gently lower it into the ocean.
31:20Once down, a torpedo boat tows the chitin to deeper waters.
31:26Typical training mission would entail circling the island all the way around and then coming back.
31:33And it was very hazardous. I mean, 15 pilots lost their lives here just on a training mission.
31:38And so this was a very, very risky business.
31:44Learning to pilot this cutting-edge weapon takes months.
31:51The young trainees like Yokota must learn to navigate blind towards their target.
31:58Then take aim by identifying a ship through their periscope.
32:09They weren't guided by anything high-tech.
32:12It was just the skill of the pilot.
32:14And this pilot could not see.
32:16All he had was a compass and a stopwatch.
32:24November, 1944.
32:26The Japanese are fighting a losing battle against the American fleet in the seas around the Philippines.
32:33The Japanese Navy needs the chitins fast.
32:37But the Allied ships are over 1,600 miles away from the chitin base.
32:44The Japanese have to find a way to get their suicide torpedoes close enough to attack.
32:52The chitin was designed to be strapped onto a larger Japanese mother submarine.
32:57About four to six would be strapped onto the deck.
33:00And then these subs with a larger range would take the chitin to its intended target.
33:14The first ever chitin mission leaves Otoshima naval base.
33:23Pilot Yokota has not completed his training.
33:26But his fellow recruits set out.
33:31Their target?
33:32An Allied refueling harbor over 1,500 miles away.
33:4312 days later.
33:48Mother submarines close in on their target.
33:53Once released, the chitins speed towards a sheltered lagoon where hundreds of American ships are refueled.
34:06One chitin slams into the side of fuel supply ship USS Mississinua.
34:12This is the actual footage of the ship as four and a half million gallons of fuel goes up in
34:18smoke.
34:21The first success the chitins have is one of the most astonishing strikes of the war really.
34:26And it is good news for the Japanese because a chitin has actually sunk a ship.
34:32The size of the explosion makes the Japanese think they have sunk five American ships.
34:42Bolstered by their success, they expand the chitin program.
34:49But they aren't ready in time to save the Philippines.
34:53The Allies begin liberating the islands in December 1944.
35:00Next step, the vast Allied fleet makes its move north to the island of Okinawa.
35:06They're closing in on mainland Japan.
35:11But they are now also coming into direct range of the full force of all Japan's kamikaze weapons.
35:17And a man on a mission to reign terror from all sides.
35:29A new commander is in charge of the kamikaze squadrons.
35:35Naval veteran Vice Admiral Matomi Ugaki.
35:42Ugaki has fought the Allied fleet at the Philippines and knows just how powerful it is.
35:53He now controls kamikaze operations from his high security underground bunker.
36:00Sir, five carriers and seven escorts have been spotted entering the lagoon.
36:09Assemble the pilot and crews of the special attack unit.
36:13The raid is set for tomorrow.
36:14All forces to depart by 8.30 a.m.
36:19Ugaki is determined to stop the Allies from taking Okinawa.
36:26The Japanese have an intense fear of being invaded.
36:28They haven't been successfully invaded in two millennia.
36:31And they have no intention of allowing that to happen now.
36:37The Japanese have good reason to fear the Allies.
36:45March 10th.
36:46U.S. bombers drop over 2,000 tons of firebombs on Tokyo.
36:5416 square miles of the city burns to the ground, killing over 100,000 citizens.
37:08It remains the deadliest bombing raid ever.
37:17Kamikaze Commander Ugaki's suicide pilots are based in Kanoya on the south coast of Japan.
37:25From here they can strike the Allied fleet as they approach Okinawa.
37:30If the Allies take this island, the next step is mainland Japan itself.
37:42It was from this very airfield where Admiral Motomi Ugaki sent his suicide pilots to attack the American fleet.
37:52Mike Pavlik has been granted special access to the airfield by the Japanese Navy.
38:00This is the southernmost airfield in all of Japan.
38:03The Americans are only 800 kilometers away at Okinawa.
38:08The Japanese are really beginning to feel the American pressure.
38:13Ugaki's planes can now reach the Allied fleet directly.
38:18But there's a flip side.
38:21The American planes can strike back.
38:28The Kamikaze airfield is under constant threat of attack.
38:38The Japanese solution can still be seen today, hidden in a disused part of the base.
38:48This is an amazing example of a revetment, a hardened concrete aircraft shelter.
38:56You can see it's made out of reinforced concrete, a little bit of the rebar here.
39:01Very, very thick concrete.
39:03And this cutout bit here is called the skirt.
39:06It's cut out in the shape of a zero.
39:08They could literally back a zero into this space, clearing the tail and the canopy and the notch there and
39:15the wings on the sides.
39:23In 1945, more than 260 aircraft shelters like this lined the runways.
39:30These concrete revetments were built to withstand bombs and bullets.
39:34It's about a meter and a half thick at the roof to withstand the impact of a 500 pound bomb.
39:42This is about two or three feet thick to protect against the bullets that are coming in from strafing aircraft.
39:53The zeroes that are parked inside here were fairly well protected from just about anything the Americans could throw at
40:01them.
40:03Ugaki's plan to save mainland Japan from invasion is swarms of suicide pilots.
40:12He sends in squadron after squadron.
40:24The battle for Okinawa sees the most intense use of kamikaze tactics ever.
40:33And Ugaki has an ace up his sleeve.
40:38Japan's secret mega weapon, the rocket powered Okinawa is finally operational and ready for launch.
40:50Saburo Doei is one of the suicide missile pilots known as the Thunder Gods.
40:59He takes his final drink, a ceremonial cup of rice wine.
41:07Today's mission will not be an easy one.
41:10But brave and resolute action will scatter even devils.
41:16You will succeed!
41:23Doei and eight other Thunder God pilots head for Okinawa on board bombers carrying the deadly Okos.
41:31Nearly 70 miles northwest of the island, Doei's crew spot the first of the U.S. fleet,
41:38the destroyer U.S.S. Mannert L. Abelli.
41:49Doei prepares for release.
41:56At an altitude of 19,000 feet, he drops from his mothership.
42:10He fires his rockets.
42:14Traveling at up to 600 miles per hour, he bears down on the American destroyer.
42:40It hits the ship square in the middle, it blows up and sinks.
42:44It looks like the Japanese have finally got their key killer weapon.
42:48It hits the ship square in the middle, it blows up and sinks.
42:51Okay.
42:52Sir, reports are that we have sunk one enemy ship, and damaged at least 14 others.
42:59We have the information we gave to.
43:04Prepare the squadrons for further attacks.
43:17As the US fleet continues its assault on Okinawa, Kamikaze Commander Ugaki sends more and more
43:24rocket bombs into the skies.
43:29It's an act of desperation, mirrored in Nazi Germany.
43:34In April 1945, the Allies are closing in on Berlin.
43:40Despite Hitler's previous opposition to suicidal missions, the Luftwaffe is under pressure.
43:47It sends squadrons on self-sacrifice missions, first to ram into US bombers, then to crash
43:59dive strategic bridges to halt the Allied advance.
44:07It's too little too late for Hitler.
44:10Berlin falls.
44:16But in Japan, the suicide aircraft continue to inflict damage on the Allied fleet off Okinawa.
44:26And beneath the waves, the suicide subs are also on the attack.
44:40A Japanese submarine approaches the US fleet.
44:47Kaiten pilot Yokota prepares to launch his suicide torpedo.
44:58After eight months of training, Yokota is desperate to play his part in the defense of his motherland.
45:07But there's a problem.
45:12There's a problem.
45:13Water leaking into cables cuts off all Yokota's communication.
45:19He can't be released.
45:23Set me loose.
45:28I'll find an enemy myself.
45:32Yokota is denied the opportunity to sacrifice his life for his nation.
45:41I'll find an enemy myself.
45:53The technical faults plaguing his chiton aren't the only problems facing underwater squadrons.
46:01The mother subs carrying the chitons are slow, easy targets for US ships.
46:08Eight are blown out of the water before their chitons can be released.
46:13Because you have chitons that are fairly heavy, eight tons, that are strapped onto the mother submarine,
46:19this creates a lot of drag.
46:21And so the submarines are very slow, very difficult to maneuver.
46:26This design flaw is affecting the rocket-powered Oka, too, as rare footage reveals.
46:32The Oka had a potential to be a devastating weapon.
46:36But because it had to be delivered by a larger aircraft, a bomb,
46:41because those aircraft were so slow and vulnerable,
46:45they were often shot down before the Oka even got within range of the US fleet.
46:53So far, the Japanese have sacrificed over 5,000 kamikaze pilots.
46:59But these new tactics have failed to halt the advance of the Allies.
47:06May 1945, in Europe, Nazi Germany has finally surrendered.
47:14More Allied ships are arriving to swell the fleet in the Pacific.
47:19And on June 22, the Americans secure Okinawa.
47:26The Allies are now set to invade the Japanese homeland.
47:32After the fall of Okinawa, Japan is now in pure survival mode.
47:38You'd have thought with the fall of Okinawa that that would be it,
47:41that the Japanese have got nothing left to chuck at it.
47:43But no, they're determined to still keep fighting and throw everything that they've still got
47:49at this final desperate defense of the Japanese mainland.
47:55At coastal bases like Otoshima, the Japanese Navy prepare a new way to deploy their torpedo subs.
48:04The Kaitan are now deployed directly from the bases.
48:09And so they're tugged out to deeper waters.
48:12From there, they're on their own.
48:14They are to seek and destroy American ships.
48:18The Japanese also decide to launch their suicide rocket missile, the Oka,
48:23directly from hidden coastal locations.
48:34One such site is near Miyoshi Village, south of Tokyo.
48:43This concrete pad was the bottom layer of a land-based launch system for the Oka.
48:49This would have had steel rails on it.
48:52A trolley would sit on top of the rails, which held the Oka.
48:59The trolley had rockets on it to get it going down this rail to launch the Oka,
49:04to get it enough airspeed to launch it off the end and out towards its targets.
49:08It's pointed out towards the sea where the expected American invasion was going to come from.
49:17At the launch point, Mike discovers a clue that reveals the desperation of the Japanese engineers.
49:27Well, this is very interesting.
49:29One of the things you can see from this broken piece here is that there was no steel reinforcement.
49:36This is very weak concrete that was not built to last very long,
49:40whether they did it because of speed and necessity,
49:42or whether they did it because the Japanese were simply out of steel.
49:46This is very, very poor construction.
49:49This ramp would not have lasted very long with the violence of the launch of these weapons.
49:55And as you can see here, it simply broke off at a weak point.
50:02The Japanese start building over 40 of these launch ramps.
50:12Behind a local temple, Mike finds more evidence of the launch ramp construction.
50:21This is incredible.
50:24These look like the rails for the launch system for the Oka.
50:30The channel here is where the trolley would have run that ran down the rails to launch the aircraft.
50:38The bolt holes here were where the rails attached to the concrete that we just saw.
50:44You can see the tongue and groove here.
50:47They fit together and they were machined to be a very coherent system.
50:51This is a phenomenal find.
50:57August 1945.
51:00Over 600 Oka missiles are on standby.
51:055,000 aircraft are assigned to kamikaze attacks.
51:09And more than 100 chitons are primed.
51:13All ready for the greatest onslaught of suicide attacks the world has ever seen.
51:23But these plans are in vain.
51:29On August 6, 1945, the Americans dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
51:37Three days later, they dropped the second on Nagasaki.
51:44While Japan pursued the tactic of one suicide bomber to destroy one ship,
51:49the U.S. turned to science to create a bomb that can destroy a whole city.
51:59It is the lethality of this, the destruction caused by these bombs,
52:04that finally persuades the Imperial Japanese to throw in the towel at long last and surrender.
52:11The war is over.
52:17Ultimately, you have to see the rather grotesque kamikaze tactics as a complete failure.
52:26If you just look at the numbers, they only sunk 51 ships.
52:30And out of those, just one aircraft carrier.
52:3251 ships after all that effort, after all those lives lost,
52:36is an appalling failure by any one standard.
52:41Japanese suicide tactics ultimately failed,
52:44because the Americans are able to flood the theater with men and material
52:47at an unprecedented scale.
52:50The Japanese concurrently are running out of everything.
52:54Food, fuel, men, planes, machines, oil, everything.
52:59The Americans simply overwhelmed Japan in the Pacific.
53:09After he hears of Japan's surrender,
53:12Kamikaze Commander Ugaki orders one last suicide mission.
53:17His own.
53:21Overcome by the shame of surrender,
53:23he resolves to die in the same way as his young pilots.
53:30He records the event for posterity in this photograph.
53:38Ugaki can't fly himself.
53:41So taking the kamikaze spirit to a new extreme,
53:44one of his pilots volunteers to take him as a passenger.
53:53But Ugaki's plane is intercepted and shot down by U.S. fighters.
54:05With Ugaki's death, he becomes the last of Japan's kamikazas.
54:23pounds of hurl clever.
54:24After the gremies Liureibt Sand frog's ramikazas.
54:25Hump, move another woman within a room.
54:29Heром, move another h lunar dragon with though,
54:29using Kofי's death back onning likewise forever.
54:29It is really close to me at his coffee.
54:29Whereas the newですね.
54:30Should be faced by healal' man,
54:30where he rates себ Lapqué?
54:30Behind him table, he looks like he Plazaations.
54:31The upset rocket Kushalives we're going on the horizon
54:40No media warfare may possible run on the road for this dialogue,
54:49Transcription by CastingWords
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