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01:00As the forces began the reconquest of the Philippine Islands, they came under a new and terrifying formal attack.
01:32Japanese pilots had changed tactics and were determined to crash their aircraft onto an enemy ship so as to be
01:38sure of taking it with them.
01:43For the U.S. crews, it was a shattering experience.
02:15They kept on coming in and it didn't pull out.
02:18And I yelled, pull out, you bastard, pull out.
02:20I screamed it.
02:22Over the next eight months, more than 500 Allied ships were damaged or sunk.
02:275,000 crewmen killed and almost as many wounded.
02:36As the Americans got closer to Japan itself, the attacks grew fiercer.
02:41It was a foul taste of the carnage which might happen if the Imperial Home Islands had to be invaded.
02:53Most of the kamikaze were barely out of their teens.
02:56Their methods were born of desperation.
02:59But they rose out of the very core of the Japanese military tradition.
03:06During the Middle Ages, a breed of warrior was born in Japan known as the Samurai.
03:14They followed the Bushido, or Way of the Warrior, code.
03:22This laid down that a Samurai owed total loyalty and obedience to his lord
03:26and must be ready to die for him or the emperor who was regarded as a god.
03:31Any Samurai who did so would enjoy reincarnation.
03:39The cult of Bushido resurfaced after World War I,
03:43as Japan grew increasingly militaristic.
03:48This was in reaction to widespread corruption,
03:50which had accompanied attempts to introduce a democratic system.
03:58Many younger people were disillusioned,
04:00and army officers in particular demanded a return to traditional values.
04:06Japan was also undergoing a population explosion,
04:09which stretched the economy to the limit.
04:15And because the country was almost totally reliant on the import of raw materials,
04:19unemployment and poverty soared,
04:21made worse by the Great Depression, which began in 1929.
04:28The military saw overseas expansion as the only solution.
04:32And in the early 1930s, Japan annexed Manchuria to provide more living space.
04:40Then, in July 1937, the Japanese attacked China.
04:49It was the beginning of a war that would last for eight long years.
04:55The Japanese army soon began to show the worst aspects of Bushido.
04:59Utter contempt for its enemies and total ruthlessness in conducting the war.
05:11Atrocities against the Chinese, especially civilians,
05:14became commonplace, and shocked much of the world.
05:21The military, however, ignored international protests,
05:25declaring that they were the servants of their emperor, Hirohito,
05:28whom they continued to regard as a god who could do no wrong.
05:32They also used this pretext to increase their influence over the government.
05:37In July 1940, General Hideki Tojo became defense minister,
05:42enabling the military to gain almost total power.
05:47He influenced the government to adopt a hardline attitude to the Western democracies,
05:51who were bitterly opposed to what Japan was doing in China.
05:55In retaliation, President Roosevelt of the United States
05:59placed a limited embargo on the export of raw materials to Japan.
06:04Its government faced a choice of caving in to international demands
06:08or taking action to seize its own resources,
06:11particularly of oil and rubber, which abounded in Southeast Asia.
06:16The idea of a Japanese-controlled Greater East Asia co-prosperity sphere was born.
06:22This was intended to cover the Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Thailand, Burma, and the Philippines.
06:33The Japanese recognized that the powerful U.S. Pacific Fleet
06:37was the main obstacle to these expansion ambitions.
06:42So plans were drawn up to destroy it.
06:49Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the architect of the strike on the American base at Pearl Harbor,
06:54had no illusions that the United States' industrial might
06:57would enable her to recover in six months.
07:01But he reckoned this would be long enough to establish the new Japanese Empire.
07:06After that, Japan's only hope of long-term survival lay in America,
07:10accepting that war with Japan would be too costly and bloody.
07:18Yamamoto was right in his calculation
07:20that the Greater East Asia co-prosperity sphere could be established in six months.
07:26Between the initial attack on Pearl Harbor on 7th December 1941 and May 1942,
07:32the Japanese overran all their objectives.
07:44The Japanese armed forces had proved that they were more than a match for Western troops.
07:51But the Bushido Code made them careless of their lives,
07:54often mounting suicidal charges.
08:00Japanese soldiers were also indoctrinated with the belief
08:03that to surrender to the enemy was a disgrace.
08:06As a result, their treatment of prisoners of war was brutal in the extreme
08:10and totally disregarded the Geneva Conventions.
08:16But this seemed of little concern in the spring of 1942.
08:19It was a time of euphoria for Japan.
08:22Their armed forces seemed invincible,
08:24and young Japanese went willingly into the army and navy,
08:28desperate to share in the glory.
08:35The tide of war turned swiftly against the Japanese.
08:39In June 1942, they attacked the Pacific island of Midway,
08:431,200 miles northwest of Pearl Harbor.
08:46But the Americans had broken their codes and already knew of the plan.
08:52The carriers of the U.S. Pacific fleet were ready to strike.
09:10In the battle that followed,
09:12the Americans destroyed all four of the Japanese aircraft carriers deployed against them.
09:17The cream of the Imperial Navy went up in smoke.
09:25Two months later, the Americans began to strike back.
09:32Their forces landed on Guadalcanal, in the Solomons.
09:36The Japanese did not oppose the initial landings.
09:40But they were not prepared to give up the island without a struggle,
09:43and it took six months of bitter fighting for the Americans to secure Guadalcanal.
09:51The Americans then advanced northwards through the Solomons.
09:55But on every island, the Japanese resistance was increasingly bitter.
10:05It was the same in the Central Pacific, where another American advance got underway.
10:11I thought they were very cruel, they were sadistic,
10:15and they wanted to die for their emperor,
10:17and we had to go out there and help them die for the emperor.
10:21Time and again, the Japanese fought on until the bitter end,
10:24with only the badly wounded taken prisoner.
10:27Banzai suicide charges became increasingly frequent.
10:36By July 1944, the U.S. forces had reached the Marianas Islands,
10:41from which their massive B-29 bombers could attack mainland Japan.
10:53the Japanese now began to show their growing desperation in another way.
10:59I decided to go back and send a message to the U.S.
11:10to the end of the day.
11:11Then I made a message that the B-29s were brought...
11:14...crash into the ground.
11:25The B-29s were brought crashing to the ground.
11:28The two Japanese pilots achieved their ambition of dying in defence of their homeland.
11:35Others soon followed their example.
11:39This determination to die in battle was about to be formalised as a new and terrible Japanese weapon.
12:00In October 1944, the American forces in the Pacific were poised to liberate the Philippines.
12:12The islands represented the junction between Admiral Chester Nimitz's drive across the Central Pacific
12:19and that by General Douglas MacArthur up through the islands of the southwest.
12:24Recognising the threat, the Japanese now drew up a plan for the defence of the inner ring of islands that
12:29protected mainland Japan.
12:31These ran from the Kurils in the north down to the Dutch East Indies.
12:38The plan was called Operation Sho, or Victory,
12:42and called for large-scale attacks by sea and air on the landings as soon as they took place.
12:49The still powerful Japanese combined fleet was now based in the Dutch East Indies, close to its main source of
12:55fuel.
12:56It could certainly reach the Philippines in good time.
13:06Admiral Takejino Onishi's first air fleet was ordered to mount the air component of Operation Sho
13:12as soon as the Americans invaded the Philippines.
13:17Simultaneously, the combined fleet would attack the American ships supporting the landings with two powerful groups of battleships and its
13:24remaining carriers.
13:30Japanese air power had suffered catastrophic losses since the beginning of 1944.
13:49Onishi was left with only 60 aircraft, not nearly enough to make an impression on the American fleet.
13:59To get through the U.S. defences, with maximum effect, he drew up a plan which would reflect the Bushido
14:05code in its purest form.
14:11Onishi's inspiration was a fellow naval aviator, Admiral Masabumi Arima.
14:20As the U.S. fleet approached the Philippines in mid-October 1944,
14:25Arima had led his air group in a Banzai attack against it.
14:34He deliberately dived his plane on the carrier USS Franklin and severely damaged it.
14:45Onishi decided that such suicide attacks were the only way to deal with the wooden decked U.S. carriers.
14:53These were the key element of the Allied armada, since they provided the essential air power to support the landings.
15:01But his attacks needed to be organized rather than carried out haphazardly.
15:08Onishi called for volunteers among his pilots to form a special attack unit.
15:16He called it Kamikaze, or Divine Wind, after the typhoon which had devastated a Mongol invasion of Japan in the
15:2413th century.
15:28Some of Onishi's officers had doubts at first about what the response would be.
15:33If anyone could not write it, I would have thought of it.
15:38I would have thought of it.
15:38In other words, I had to write it in a pen and write it in a pen.
15:46I would have thought of it.
15:47I would have thought of it.
15:48I would have thought of it.
15:49I would have thought of it.
15:52I would have thought of it.
15:53I would have thought of it.
15:54I would have thought of it.
15:57Onishi's pilots considered it an honor to be given the opportunity to strike a mortal blow against their enemies and
16:03to die for their emperor.
16:16They were soon put to the test.
16:23On the 20th of October, 1944, US forces landed on Leyte in the central Philippines.
16:31A beachhead was quickly secured.
16:40The Japanese immediately put Operation Shoal into action.
16:49But American submarines spotted the combined fleet west of the Philippines.
16:56They engaged it with torpedoes.
17:16This marked the beginning of a sustained sea and air attack against the Japanese ships.
17:27Two carriers were sunk before they could reach the US landing site.
17:33It was now that Onishi launched the first of his kamikaze attacks.
17:38But because his planes lacked radar and visibility was poor, they failed to locate the US fleet.
17:48On the 25th of October, Onishi tried again.
17:52Five kamikaze zero fighters with four escorts took off.
17:58They spotted the US escort carriers supporting the forces on shore and the kamikazes immediately dived on them.
18:12Despite intense defensive fire, four of the five aircraft hit their targets.
18:33The escort carrier St. Lowe was sunk and three others badly damaged.
18:40An elated Onishi ordered another attack for the following day.
18:44This damaged two further carriers.
18:47But by this time, the Japanese fleet was in full retreat.
18:57Three battleships and its last four carriers had been sunk.
19:01Kamikaze seemed the only weapon left in the Japanese armory
19:04which was capable of turning back the growing threat to the homeland.
19:15The call went out for more kamikaze units to be raised.
19:19The High Command recognised that the few experienced combat pilots who remained
19:23were too valuable to be fritted away.
19:25They therefore targeted flight training schools.
19:31After all they reasoned, the kamikaze pilot only had to fly his aircraft to the target.
19:36He did not need the additional air combat training.
19:40As Japan's situation became ever more desperate,
19:43the training schools intensified the indoctrination of their students in the Bushido code
19:48to make them willing volunteers.
19:52It was very effective.
19:58All the fighter pilots, about 150 of us at the training base, were called in.
20:05A senior officer, the head of the troop, told us they were recruiting people for a special mission.
20:16Sometimes entire classes of students volunteered.
20:30They were given basic instruction on how to attack Allied ships.
20:37Most of the volunteers were clear about their motivation.
20:40to inviteagn hash, such as animals.
20:46They served responsibly.
20:49They found out even more covetous physical resources in his with the child.
21:02The Dankç»™ Habibusan.
21:25But as U.S. forces fought their way across the Philippines, they found that kamikaze was not just restricted to
21:31air attacks.
21:32Apart from banzai charges, Japanese troops would strap grenades or mines to themselves and attack tanks, knowing that they would
21:41be blown up in the process.
21:44Kamikaze was becoming widespread.
21:53By the beginning of 1945, the Americans had secured the major islands of the Philippines.
22:04Their attention now turned to the volcanic outcrop of Iwo Jima, which the Japanese had been using to mount some
22:10of their kamikaze air attacks.
22:16They also wanted to secure the island so that the B-29 bombers attacking Japan from the Marianas could be
22:23provided with escort fighters.
22:30U.S. Marines landed on Iwo Jima on the 19th of February, 1945.
22:35Their enemy was well entrenched in an extensive network of underground defences.
22:49The Marines were quickly involved in a grim struggle.
23:03The ship supporting the landing soon came under kamikaze attack.
23:13They sank the escort carrier Bismarck C and badly damaged the massive fleet carrier Saratoga.
23:29The anti-aircraft armament on the American ships had been strengthened since the previous autumn,
23:34and many more kamikaze planes were shot down before they could inflict damage.
23:42The tactics employed by the Japanese also played into the American hands.
23:47Instead of concentrating on a particular ship, kamikaze pilots were given individual targets.
23:53This enabled the ship's guns to concentrate on just one plane,
23:56rather than having to combat simultaneous attacks from different directions.
24:01Fortunately for the Allies, no kamikaze pilots survived to point out this tactical error.
24:09It took a month to secure Iwo Jima.
24:16Often, only flamethrowers were capable of destroying the Japanese soldiers in their underground bunkers.
24:28The campaign to take Iwo Jima cost the Americans nearly 30,000 casualties.
24:36This included some 7,000 killed.
24:44Of the 20,000 Japanese defenders, less than 1,000 survived to become prisoners of war.
24:53But Iwo Jima paled almost into insignificance when compared to the next Allied objective, Okinawa,
25:00the last island bastion guarding the route to mainland Japan.
25:11The Japanese knew that Okinawa was the last stepping stone barring the way to the home islands,
25:16and were determined to defend it to the last.
25:22The 110,000 men of the 32nd Army did not intend to fight the Americans on the beaches,
25:27but instead forced them to pay dearly in attacks on a series of well-concealed fortifications.
25:40The Japanese had also widened their range of kamikaze weapons.
25:44One was the Okha, or Cherry Blossom, a purpose-built piloted bomb.
25:51This was rocket powered, and had a 2,650 pound warhead.
25:59The Okha was carried beneath a bomber, and released close to its target.
26:15There could be no turning back for the Okha pilots.
26:21The Okha pilots.
26:23The Okha pilots are in the past year,
26:27The Okha pilots will be able to die for the next year,
26:29They will not be able to die today.
26:39The Okha pilots will be able to die in the past year,
26:50the Japanese had also developed an attack boat similar to those of the
26:54Italians which could be aimed at an enemy ship
26:58but in their case it was not intended that the pilot would bail out
27:05scores of these craft were waiting at secret bases on Okinawa
27:17more sophisticated was the kytan or heaven shaker which was a midget
27:23submarine based on the highly successful Lance torpedo modified to
27:27incorporate a crew compartment and conning time to enable it to be steered to
27:32its target
27:39in theory the pilot could evacuate the vessel just before it reached its target
27:46it certainly was extremely difficult first of all there were no safety
27:51devices at all it was like being put inside an oil drum spun round and round
27:58until you were dizzy the kite and were to be carried close to their targets by
28:03submarine and were designed to be launched underwater
28:18on the 19th kamikaze attacks against the Okinawa invasion fleet began in March 1945
28:26on the 19th kamikazes made their first successful interception
28:35they struck the carrier wasp and for the second time the franklin
29:03both vessels were severely damaged and 900 crewmen came
29:12the first operation by the okra piloted bombs took place two days later
29:17it was a disaster
29:20the weight of the rockets made their mother bombers slow and unmaneuverable
29:34US fighters were able to intercept them and shoot all of them down
29:38the
29:55On the 1st of April, the Americans made their initial landings on the west coast of Okinawa.
30:08They were surprised to meet no opposition on the beaches and began to advance inland.
30:17Three days after the landings, the Japanese launched a mass kamikaze raid of more than 350 planes against the shipping
30:24off the beaches.
30:28Intense US firepower turned it into a massacre, with only one carrier, Bellow Wood, slightly damaged.
30:48On the 4th of April, the Japanese began what was effectively the greatest kamikaze mission yet.
30:54The mighty battleship Yamato set off with only enough fuel for a one-way voyage to Okinawa, where she was
31:01to be beached to act as a gun battery.
31:04She never made it. US carrier planes sent her to the bottom.
31:13The explosive motorboats also met with little success.
31:17None got within range of an American ship, and several of their anchorages were overrun before they could be used.
31:33The sinking of an oil tanker, the USS Mississiniwa, was credited to the Kaitan, but more often they were intercepted
31:41while still with their mother craft.
31:45Even so, Japanese propaganda claimed that numerous Allied battleships were being destroyed.
31:51The Japanese people were led to believe that a great victory was about to be snatched from the jaws of
31:56ultimate defeat.
32:02The kamikaze air attacks continued.
32:10The U.S. crews were resorting to desperate tactics.
32:14The way we stopped them was just to fill the air with flak, and if there was ever an opening
32:20in the flak, they were on you.
32:25We had a number of them just barely miss us at Okinawa.
32:31The attacks came in all round the clock. There was no respite.
32:40In spite of increasing losses, ever more volunteers stepped forward for the kamikaze units.
33:04By now, the preparations for a kamikaze attack had become a ritual.
33:14The members of an attack unit were usually told of their mission the previous night.
33:18This gave them time to mentally prepare themselves and to write last letters to their loved ones.
33:25Second Lieutenant Shigeyuki Suzuki wrote of,
33:28The great day that we can be directly in contact with the battle is our day of happiness,
33:34and at the same time, the memorial of our death.
33:43Isawa Matsuo said to his parents,
33:45Please congratulate me. I have been given a splendid opportunity to die.
33:50This is my last day.
33:51The destiny of our homeland hinges on the decisive battle in the seas to the south,
33:56where I shall fall like a blossom from the radiant cherry tree.
34:01On the day of their last and fatal mission,
34:04the kamikaze pilots donned white scarves or headbands,
34:08the samurai symbol for revenge.
34:11They would then drink a farewell glass of sake rice wine with their comrades.
34:21Then came the last short walk to their aircraft.
34:28It's a attempt to fly.
34:29The truck goes on to the traffic,
34:31and the truck goes on to the crossing.
34:34The truck goes on to the cliff.
34:34It's going to fly inside the mountain.
34:39Just wait, please.
34:42Let's wait.
34:45Third night
34:46My ciudad, the city of Baltimore,
34:48the city of Baltimore,
35:18Satsang with Mooji
35:27On Okinawa, the American forces fought a grim battle to break through the various fortified lines in the south.
35:52But in contrast to previous campaigns, Japanese soldiers did begin to surrender voluntarily as the weeks of fighting wore on.
36:03At least some of them had begun to realise that the war was lost, and the Bushido Code had no
36:08further relevance.
36:18But those who allowed themselves to become prisoners of war were still a small minority.
36:27Most Japanese soldiers simply fought on until they were killed.
36:36Many of the civilians on Okinawa had been so indoctrinated by their country's propaganda that they were convinced that the
36:43Americans would show them no mercy.
36:48Some chose to jump off cliffs, even clutching their children, rather than be taken alive.
37:02PIANO PLAYS
37:02PIANO PLAYS
37:24All the time, the supply of kamikaze pilots seemed inexhaustible.
37:32PIANO PLAYS
37:33But eventually the Americans broke through the final defence line.
37:39As many others had done before him, the Japanese commander, General Mitsuru Ushijima, committed suicide on the 22nd of June.
37:48PIANO PLAYS
37:49His death marked the end of almost three months of bitter combat.
37:57PIANO PLAYS
37:59During the battle for Okinawa, 2,394 kamikaze pilots and their planes were lost.
38:06They sank 28 allied ships and damaged a further 368.
38:14The Divine Wind sacrifice had not been enough to blunt the progress of the Allies, whose next objective was the
38:20Japanese home islands themselves.
38:23Given their experience on Okinawa, it appeared an awesome prospect.
38:29PIANO PLAYS
38:38By July 1945, Japan was in a desperate situation.
38:43PIANO PLAYS
38:49PIANO PLAYS
38:50A highly successful American submarine campaign had throttled maritime communications.
38:55Few raw materials were now getting through.
39:13PIANO PLAYS
39:16PIANO PLAYS
39:17Japan's cities were being systematically destroyed.
39:29PIANO PLAYS
39:32Ultimate defeat appeared imminent.
39:42PIANO PLAYS
39:43Some members of the Japanese government realized this, and were attempting to put out peace feelers to the Allies.
39:49But the military was still in charge, and refused to consider surrender.
39:56Instead, they were preparing to resist an Allied invasion.
40:00Suicide weapons would play a major role.
40:02Ever more kamikaze pilots were being trained.
40:06Thousands of explosive motorboats were being prepared.
40:09More Kaiten human torpedoes were being built.
40:13The whole Japanese population was being mobilized and indoctrinated to resist to the last.
40:2428 million civilians had been enrolled in a new militia to fight alongside the 2.3 million troops and 4
40:31million naval and army civilian employees.
40:36All of these preparations were being monitored by Allied intelligence.
40:45This map of the special suicide formations was based on information gained at Britain's Bletchley Park Code Breaking Centre, and
40:52is on display there.
41:02Some die-hards amongst the military even suggested a mass suicide charge by the entire population.
41:09Men, women and children.
41:11Men, women and children.
41:15It was with this in mind that the Allies began to draw up plans for the final assault.
41:25The initial attack was to be mounted on the 1st of November 1945 against Kyushu, the southernmost of the Japanese
41:32main islands.
41:34This would be followed by a second assault in Tokyo Bay in March 1946.
41:44Painfully aware of the Japanese resistance on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and the knowledge that the people of Japan were
41:51likely to sell their lives even more dearly when their homeland was invaded,
41:55the Allies were certain that their invading forces would suffer heavy casualties, especially from kamikaze attacks.
42:04Around a million dead were forecast.
42:15There was, however, an alternative, which could bring the war to a speedy end.
42:21Deep in the Alamogordo Desert, New Mexico, an atomic bomb was exploded on the 16th of July.
42:30Knowing this, the Allied leaders issued Japan with a demand for unconditional surrender.
42:35The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction.
42:43The Japanese government rejected the demand because it insisted on unconditional surrender and made no mention of the fate of
42:51Emperor Hirohito.
42:54Faced with this, the Allies believed that they had no choice but to use the awesome destructive power of the
43:01atomic bomb.
43:09The first was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on the 6th of August.
43:22When no positive Japanese response was received, a second was dropped on Nagasaki three days later.
43:39The Japanese Supreme Council was now deadlocked between the civilian members who wanted to sue for peace and the military
43:46who were determined to fight on until the end.
43:48Eventually, both parties agreed that the Emperor should be consulted.
44:00Hirohito realized that his people had suffered enough.
44:06In order to prevent a military coup, he took the unprecedented step on the 14th of August of broadcasting Japan's
44:13acceptance of the Allied demands.
44:23Two weeks later, the Japanese signed the instrument of surrender in a ceremony presided over by General Douglas MacArthur on
44:30board the battleship USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay.
44:38Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.
44:51These proceedings are closed.
45:00The dropping of the atomic bombs has been a matter of intense debate since 1945.
45:06A major reason for the action was the fear of unacceptable Allied casualties if Japan had to be invaded and
45:13the knowledge that kamikazes would be a major cause of these.
45:17The thousands of idealistic young Japanese men who volunteered to follow the ultimate demand of the Bushido code were undoubtedly
45:25gladiators of great courage.
45:30But they were also victims of a self-destructive ideology.
45:41Some have accused them of selfishness in wanting to prolong a war that Japan could not win for the sake
45:47of securing their places in heaven.
45:50Their fanaticism had blinded them to the ultimate consequences of their actions.
45:58In Japan today, there is a kamikaze museum.
46:14Today's young Japanese visited to try to understand what drove their forebears to do what they did.
46:25The families of the kamikazes, and the ever-dwindling band of those who volunteered but were not called, continue to
46:32revere the memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
46:43Many others view this episode in Japan's history as an aberration, one that is best forgotten.
46:55Despite their courage, the kamikazes could not prevent the inevitable.
47:00Ugh!
47:10Under thehip of thekazes, and the horde and the kaze of a blow on them,
47:15all these opportunities came to do that.
47:15Huh, no, those who had died in Japan!
47:18Most of the most have died in Japan was a farm of gold.
47:18No, that's not good, isn't it?
47:18Oh, that's not good.
47:22All the night was announced to the next day.
47:30It was a man that entered Egypt with a assault,
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