The Divine Wind: Japan's Kamikaze Force in World War II

by Masataka Chihaya (Author), Roger Pineau (Author)

12 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0837193038

ISBN-10: 0837193036

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Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Japanese (translation)

About the Author

oguchi /f Rikihei

ajima /f Tadashi

Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Praeger (May 15, 1978)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0837193036
ISBN-13: 978-0837193038
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 12 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,586,747 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #12960 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > History > Military
- #37047 in Books > History > Military > World War II

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P. A. Panozzo

THE KAMIKAZE ATTACKS!

September 14, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is the definitive account of the "Kamikaze" attacks carried out by the Japanese during World War Two. Captain Rikihei Inoguchi and Commander Tadashi Nakajima, the Japanese authors, were with the Kamikaze Corps and Captain Roger Pineau of the U. S. Navy are uniquely qualified to elucidate the Kamikaze operations of 1944-1945. One of the few, and best books available on the subject!

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Bruce Abele

Interesting Book that Hits Home

June 2, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book was fascinating for me because of two factors. First it described the reasons and techniques for convincing flyers to partake in suicide behavior. Secondly it described the use of a Ohka bomb, a large bomb guided by a suicidal pilot to sink a destroyer the USS Mannert L Abele named after my dad. There is also a video Kamikaze produced in Japan that shows an animation of that event.

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R. C. Schneider

A Partial Explanation

October 14, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

While “The Divine Wind” does explain the personal motivations of Kamikaze pilots and the initial strategic/military rationale for their actions—both of which, contrary to some opinion, may be understood by non-Japanese living many years later—these explanations are not enough to fully understand the Kamikaze phenomenon. What the book does not explain is why the Japanese continued with kamikaze attacks into 1945, when (despite a few spectacular successes) they could see that they were not achieving their professed goals; why organizationally despite the evidence the Navy persisted in pretending that these attacks could still somehow “turn the tide”; and especially why under these circumstances the pilots themselves continued their ultimate sacrifices.

Despite some muddy quasi-philosophical musings on these questions by Inoguchi and Nakajima, especially in the concluding chapters, they are for the most part simply avoided lest they shed light on the embarrassing imaginative limits and moral cowardice of those in charge. Because some Japanese at the time had the courage and professional pride to pose similar questions (as, indeed, the book relates) one comes away from reading “The Divine Wind” knowing that “Bushido spirit” (or any other supposedly unique Japanese national characteristic) did not preclude rational analysis of the circumstances and likely outcomes at the time, or fully explain the chosen courses of action. One is also therefore left to conclude that where “special attacks” are concerned Japan’s naval leadership acted in a colossal, months-long fit of pique, reflecting a blinding, furious frustration with their inability to halt or even measurably impede the American advance and with an astonishing lack of concern for the consequences.

Arguably for these reasons “The Divine Wind” only partially tells the Kamikaze story, and is at least as valuable merely as a first-hand account by Japanese authors detailing the material and operational conditions prevailing in the Imperial Navy during the last year of the war. The authors’ effusive praise for early Kamikaze backer Admiral Takajiro Ohnishi, however; their uncritical treatment of the “special attack” idea, and their conspicuously deferential treatment of the Kamikaze pilots contributes to the perception that some larger, less admirable aspect of the story has been deliberately left out. Three stars.

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Gonzalo Bures

Five Stars

July 15, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Great book

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Andrew

Five Stars

April 6, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Great insight into the minds of the pilots and there officers.

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David Jones

Five Stars

May 15, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Excellent, Well pleased

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Michael M.

Five Stars

September 27, 2015

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Great book

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History buff

The comming of the Kamikaze.

July 14, 2012

Format: Hardcover

My copy of the book is a paperback. This is the story of the start of the official Kamikaze forces from Japan in ww2. The midget subs at Pearl Harbor were essentially a kamikaze mission, as there were plans to rescue these crews, but very little realistic chance they would return safely. Throughout the first few years of the war, Japanese pilots with planes so badly damaged chose to make suicide dives onto & into allied targets. Whether these be another plane, a ship, or a ground target. But with the loss of many skilled pilots & aircrew, especially in 1942 & the Japanese planes no longer to measure up to their rivals, desperate measures were needed. The book covers the first rumblings of the special attack idea starting in 1943. Moves into the desperate fall of 1944 & the invasion to retake the Philippines. The Japanese navy there had less than 60 planes to cover all those islands. Admiral Onishi developed a plan to use the A6M Zero fighters of the 201st air group, carrying 250lb bombs on one way suicide missions to attack the U.S. naval fleet in the Philippines. The book introduces us to Lt. Yukio Seki the leader of this official suicide unit. It also brings out that these one way attacks were supposed to be only temporary. But thatlaterthey became the great hope for Japan to stop

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The Divine Wind: Japan's Kamikaze Force in World War II

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