The Nobility of Failure by Morris Ivan

Author:Morris, Ivan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Japanese history, Japan, suicide, World War 2, kamikaze, Minamoto Yoshitsune, Saigo Takamori, Yamato Takeru, Sugawara Michizane
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2014-03-10T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

If only we might fall

Like cherry blossoms in the Spring—

So pure and radiant!

Haiku by a kamikaze pilot of the Seven Lives Unit, [10.1]

who died in combat in February 1945

at the age of twenty-two

... The aircraft was of simple design and construction without refinements and appropriate for its use. Three solid-fuel rocket motors were installed in the rear fuselage and operated for the final phase of the flight. The [aircraft] was usually carried by a twin-engined Mitsubishi bomber and released at high altitude some distance from the target. When within striking distance the rocket motors were ignited for the final high-speed dive through the defensive screen of the target.

Description: Single seat, mid-wing monoplane. Wood and mild steel construction. Span 16’15”; length 19’18 ½”; weight empty 970 lbs., loaded 4,700 lbs.; weight of high explosive in nose 2,650 lbs.

Performance: The aircraft could glide 50 miles at 230 m.p.h. after release from mother aircraft at 27,000’. With motors operating the aircraft dived at 570 m.p.h.

Power plant: 3 solid-fuel rocket motors giving a total thrust of 1,764 10.2 lbs. for 9 seconds. [10.2]

Thus the visitor to the Science Museum in London is introduced to one of the strangest and most poignant weapons in the history of warfare. Suspended by three slender cables, it hovers inconspicuously in the back of the third floor, where it is overshadowed by sturdy-looking Hawker Hurricanes, Supermarine Spitfires, and Gloster Turbojets—a delicate green cocoon, smaller and frailer and simpler than the nearby V-1 flying bomb, yet, unlike its German counterpart, equipped to carry a human warrior to his fiery destination. [10.3]

“Ōka” it was named by the Japanese—“cherry blossom,” the ancient symbol of purity and evanescence. [10.4] The Americans, against whom this diminutive craft was designed, dubbed it the “baka [idiot] bomb,” as if by denigrating this eerie weapon they might neutralize the unease it instinctively evoked. [10.5]

From any common-sense viewpoint it was indeed something of an absurdity. That hundreds of young pilots should have clambered into these contraptions—mere wooden torpedoes with toy-like fuselage and stubby wings—to pit themselves against the leviathan carriers and battleships of the American navy would truly appear idiotic, even incredible, to those unfamiliar with Japan’s ancient heroic tradition and the nobility that tradition attributed to forlorn ventures inspired by sincerity. [10.6]

The principle was simple enough: as conventional methods of aerial warfare were rapidly becoming ineffective, Japan would have recourse to a one-way glider which would be transported at high altitude close to the target and would then dive down at enormous speed to detonate its warhead onto the enemy ship. The use of such dirigible manned bombs would thus allow the transporting aircraft, the mother plane, to return safely to base and be available for future missions. The suicide craft itself with its ton of tri-nitro-anisol would sink, or at least incapacitate, the ships of the enemy navy, which were now slowly strangling the home islands; in addition, the use of this new secret weapon would overawe and demoralize the foreigners, who were psychologically unprepared for such methods.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.