What if Kamikaze Pilot Survived?

Takehiko Ena, 20, was prepared to die. It was April 28, 1945 and he was making final preparations for his first mission as a

pilot

in the Japanese Army, a mission he was designed to be his last. Once he took off, there would be no turning back. They had trained him to suppress his emotions and had convinced him to die for the honor of his country. He and his fellow

kamikaze

pilot

s had been ordered not to return; instead, they were embarking on a one-way mission that would only end when they crashed their planes into the side of an American battleship on a suicide mission they had been told.

It would bring honor to his family and glory to him. And yet, the young student couldn't help but wonder:

what

if a

kamikaze

pilot

survived

? In 1944, after nearly five years of brutal and bloody war across Europe, World War II had begun to tilt in favor of the Allies in the European theater. After the D-Day invasion, they had repelled the Nazis from France in the west, and with the help of the Russians, the Allies were giving them hell on the Eastern Front as well. It seemed only a matter of time before the Nazis surrendered, but the war was not yet over for the Allies, particularly the United States, who had entered the war late and would continue to fight countless battles against the Japanese long after the war. . in Europe it was over.

The United States had tried to stay out of the war, but Japan had forced them when, on December 7, 1941, it launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, prompting the United States to enter the war with all its might. force. Some of the bloodiest battles of the entire war would take place in the seas and skies of the Pacific in the final years of the war, when the United States turned its attention to making Japan pay for Pearl Harbor. Faced with the full power of the American military machine, the desperate Japanese needed a new way to fight the Americans, and thus the legendary Kamikaze was born.

The word Kamikaze means Divine Wind, a reference to a legendary moment in ancient Japanese history when an unexpected typhoon saved Japan from a horde of Mongol invaders in 1281. However, the United States had another name for these fanatical fighters. They called them Baka bombs, from the Japanese word "baka," meaning idiot, since the kamikaze planes were relatively easy to shoot down as they hurtled directly toward American ships. The US military could not understand

what

would drive so many young Japanese men to sacrifice their lives in such a spectacular and definitive way. Still, the kamikazes were able to inflict serious damage on the United States and its allies.

Although only 1 in 5 kamikaze pilots managed to hit their targets, they managed to sink 34 ships and damage hundreds more during the final years of the war. During the fierce Battle of Okinawa alone, kamikaze pilots were responsible for the deaths of 5,000 US Navy sailors, the largest loss of life in a single battle in US Navy history. Kamikaze tactics were also an effective form of psychological warfare. Every kamikaze mission was a suicide mission, and none of the thousands of kamikaze pilots who flew at the end of World War II were expected to return from their first and last flights.

The United States and its allies could not believe that so many young Japanese were willing to take such drastic measures to defeat their enemies, and they lived in constant fear of the next desperate kamikaze attack. History remembers the Kamikaze as fanatics who had the honor of dying for their emperor and his country, but those who

survived

tell a somewhat different story. In writing his 2008 book about kamikazes, The Hour of Danger, author Maxwell Taylor Kennedy expected to find a history of fanaticism and fervent ideology among kamikazes, but was surprised by what his research uncovered. He found the kamikazes to be no different from their American counterparts in their patriotism and self-sacrifice, calling them "extraordinarily patriotic but at the same time extraordinarily idealistic." By design, kamikaze pilots were not intended to survive their first and only mission.

And yet, most of what we know about the kamikaze comes from those who survived and lived to tell their stories. So what would happen if a kamikaze pilot survived? Some, like Hisao Horiyama, never had the opportunity to fulfill their final glorious mission and lived to share the true story of what drove thousands of kamikaze pilots to undertake their suicide missions. Horiyama was 21 years old in late 1944 when he was pulled from his artillery battalion to join a new elite force of aviators. Japan was losing the war, and the Kamikaze were an essential part of its last-ditch effort to turn the tide in its favor: Kamikaze missions were flown up until the very minute the war ended on August 15, 1945.

The young Horiyama was a a devoted subject of his Emperor, and relished the opportunity to have his moment of glory in the name of his beloved country. Horiyama had completed his training and was preparing for his final glorious mission when news came that the Japanese had surrendered and the war was over. Although he was grateful that the emperor had ended the war, he also felt regretful. “I felt bad for not being able to sacrifice myself for my country,” he told reporters in 2015, at the age of 92. “My comrades who had died would be remembered with infinite glory, but I had lost the opportunity to die the same way. “I felt like I had let everyone down.” How were the Japanese able to convince so many young men in their prime, like Horiyama, to willingly and even enthusiastically give their lives for their country on these suicide missions?

In short, they were trained to die. An excerpt from the kamikaze training manual illustrates how thoroughly these young men were indoctrinated. It says:   “When you eliminate all thoughts about life and death, you will be able to completely ignore your earthly life. This will also allow you to focus your attention on eradicating the enemy with unwavering determination, while reinforcing your excellence in flying skills.” Honor is an extremely important part of Japanese culture, and kamikaze training focused on reinforcing this ideology and convincing these young men that their sacrifice would bring them glory in the afterlife and honor to the families they left behind.

Most believed that their Emperor Hirohito and the nation of Japan were one and the same, and were conditioned to be willing to die for him. They were trained to repress all emotions and were made to believe that they had been specially chosen for sacrifice, a great honor in Japanese culture. In some cases, Emperor Hirohito himself would visit the kamikaze training school, attend his graduation ceremonies on a symbolic white horse, and personally request his services as kamikaze pilots. During their training, pilots would practice the daring moves that would be necessary to complete their missions, repeatedly flying their planes almost vertically toward the ground to simulate crashing into an enemy target, before abruptly reversing course just before crashing.

These exercises prepared them for the day when they would continue their dive and plummet to glory and certain death. His intense training was incredibly effective in convincing thousands of young Japanese to sacrifice their lives for their country and die for a worthy cause. By the end of World War II, at least 2,500 pilots had given their lives on kamikaze missions; many history books put the figure closer to 4,000. At the end of their training, Kamikaze pilots were given a sheet of paper with 3 options: they could passionately volunteer, simply agree to volunteer, or they could refuse (in theory, anyway).

Many survivors claim that those who refused were simply told to try again and choose the correct answer next time. At the end of the war, the Japanese were desperate for troops. Until then, university students had been exempt from military service, but in 1944 many young academics, such as Takehiko Ena, found themselves recruited into Japan's new elite force of kamikaze pilots. Ena, 20, was studying economics at the prestigious Waseda University when he was pulled out of school and pushed into Kamikaze training. Japanese culture places great value on firstborns and therefore they were exempt from the Kamikaze ranks to protect family lines.

Ena, as the youngest son, certainly had reservations about his kamikaze mission, but she welcomed the opportunity to bring honor to his family on a level uncommon for youngest sons. Ena completed his training, volunteered to give his life for his country, and prepared to die. But fate had other plans for him. In the later stages of the war, the exhausted Japanese were not only short of troops, but were using obsolete and damaged aircraft that had been dismantled and adapted for kamikaze missions. These old planes would prove to be Ena's salvation. On his first attempt, his plane failed to take off and Ena's suicide mission ended before it began.

His second attempt managed to take off, but engine problems forced him to make an emergency landing before approaching his target. During his third and final attempt, further engine problems forced him to land in the sea, and Ena and his 2 crew members had to swim to a nearby island, where they were stranded for 2 and a half months. When they were rescued, the war was over and Ena would never again have to prepare for certain death. Although kamikazes trained to die, not all did. Those who returned were divided into 1 of 2 groups: those who were forced to abort their mission due to mechanical problems, weather, or the inability to locate targets, and those who were unable to continue their mission due to fear.

Superiors treated the two groups very differently. Those, like Ena, who could prove that they had returned for reasons beyond their control were not punished; The Japanese couldn't afford to lose any pilots, so these Kamikaze simply prepared to try again. However, those who backed down were shamed and punished physically and mentally. Still, the exhausted Japanese could not afford to lose even these reluctant pilots, and the punishment was limited to ensuring that the pilot could make another attempt. However, even under these extraordinary circumstances, the Japanese military's tolerance had its limits. The surviving kamikaze pilots recall the fate of a pilot who returned from a total of 9 "final flights", each time unable to carry out his mission.

After his ninth attempt, he was finally executed for cowardice. To combat this natural tendency to withdraw at the last minute, the Japanese implemented a series of strategies designed to encourage pilots to continue their deadly mission. The pilots flew in a squadron in the hope that peer pressure would ensure the pilots accomplished their mission, and the kamikaze were even given some "liquid courage" before takeoff to help ease their doubts. Some say that the planes were loaded with enough fuel for a one-way trip to ensure there was no hope of returning, and that each pilot was required to write a will and a letter to his family before his final flight.

The Japanese kamikaze pilots of World War II went down in history as the fanatical and deranged samurai of the skies, committed to dying for the honor of their emperor and his country and willing to give their lives for glory. In reality, however, they were given no real choice in the matter, and most agreed to volunteer at the risk of dishonoring their families and being sent to die dishonorable deaths on the front lines anyway. In a desperate and desperate attempt to turn the war in their favor, the Japanese sent thousands of young men in their prime to die on kamikaze suicide missions.

Despite this, some Kamikaze returned from their missions and lived to tell their stories. Thanks to them, we know that the Kamikaze were not all fanatics or deranged, but rather desperate and afraid of disgracing their families if a Kamikaze survived. If you thought this video was fascinating, be sure to check out our other videos, like this one called "The Horrors of Unit 731" to learn more about Japan's role in World War II. Or maybe you like this other video. . As always, thanks for watching and don't forget to like, share and subscribe. Until next time!