Barts Unisex Kamikaze Bomber Hat

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Ena “was sent to join a squadron of pilots in Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island, in April 1945, when the kamikaze were at their most active. He was to pilot a crew of three aboard a plane with an 800kg [1,763-pound] bomb strapped to its undercarriage. The aircraft would have fuel only for a one-way flight. They were part of Operation Kikusui (floating chrysanthemum), an ambitious suicide-bombing mission against the allied ships bombarding Japanese forces in the Battle of Okinawa, one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific theatre.” Ivan Morris, The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan, p284 Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975

On 11 March, the U.S. carrier USS Randolph was hit and moderately damaged at Ulithi Atoll, in the Caroline Islands, by a kamikaze that had flown almost 4,000km (2,500mi) from Japan, in a mission called Operation Tan No. 2. On 20 March, the submarine USS Devilfish survived a hit from an aircraft just off Japan.

Yuri Kageyama of Associated Press wrote: “Books and movies have depicted them as crazed suicide bombers who screamed "Banzai" as they met their end. But interviews with survivors and families by The Associated Press, as well as letters and documents, offer a different portrait — of men driven by patriotism, self-sacrifice and necessity. The world they lived in was like that multiple-choice form: It contained no real options. [Source: Yuri Kageyama, Associated Press, June 17, 2015 +++] Meirion and Susie Harries, Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army p. 413 ISBN 0394569350

Kennedy, Maxwell Taylor: Danger's Hour, The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot who Crippled Her, Simon and Schuster, New York, 2008 ISBN 978-0743260800 After the war, Hayashi joined the military, called the Self-Defense Forces, and attended memorials for the dead pilots. He consoled families and told everyone how gentle the men had been. They smiled right up to their deaths, he said, because they didn't want anyone to mourn or worry. "Every day, 365 days a year, whenever I remember those who died, tears start coming. I have to run into the bathroom and weep. While I'm there weeping, I feel they're vibrantly alive within my heart, just the way they were long ago," he wrote in his essay "The Suicidal Drive." https://www.history.navy.mil/about-us/leadership/director/directors-corner/h-grams/h-gram-048/h-048-1.html . Retrieved 30 August 2023. Yet, although acutely conscious of how little time we had, I saw in your eyes and in your gaze all you wanted to say but couldn’t.Before the formation of kamikaze units, pilots had made deliberate crashes as a last resort when their aircraft had suffered severe damage and they did not want to risk being captured or wanted to do as much damage to the enemy as possible, since they were crashing anyway. Such situations occurred in both the Axis and Allied air forces. Axell and Kase see these suicides as "individual, impromptu decisions by men who were mentally prepared to die". [12] Millot, Bernard (1971). Divine Thunder: The Life and Death of the Kamikazes. Macdonald. ISBN 0356038564. OCLC 8142990.

Jenkins, David (1992). Battle Surface! Japan's Submarine War Against Australia 1942–44. Milsons Point NSW Australia: Random House Australia. p.122. ISBN 0091826381. Masami Takahashi, Last Kamikaze Testimonials from WWII Suicide Pilots (Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources, 2008) It's all a lie that they left filled with braveness and joy, crying, "Long live the emperor!" They were sheep at a slaughterhouse. Everybody was looking down and tottering. Some were unable to stand up and were carried and pushed into their aircraft by maintenance soldiers. TrainingAnother such letter, written by 23-year-old Adachi Takuya to his parents before his death as a Kamikaze pilot on April 28, 1945, has been preserved in its entirety: Honorable Mother, even if I was never able to fully accept the love you gave me, I received so much wisdom from you. And Father, your silent words are carved deeply into my heart. With this I will be able to fight together with you both. Even if I should die, it will be with a peaceful spirit.