What Happened When Kamikaze Pilots Failed or Wimped Out? (Short Animated Documentary)

you had one job most people have heard of kamikaze pilots young men who were tasked with crashing their planes into enemy warships these pilots could ideally accurately target important parts of ships and do more damage than a traditional bombing run also it was believed that the display of a kamikaze pilot willingly sacrificing themselves for Japan would demoralize the enemy now the effects of kamikaze attacks are well debated but something not spoken about is what happened when they failed what was to become of a kamikaze pilot that Eva missed or wimped out so some background as of 1944 things weren't exactly going great for Japan and the only hope of preventing America from defeating them was to destroy or at least their capital ships most importantly their aircraft carriers simply attacking the ships with conventional means was too costly for Japan as such taking young pilots sticking them into planes loaded with explosives and then ordering them to fly into critical parts of enemy ships was deemed to be a better strategy the men chose him for this weren't just some random champs but were some of the most gifted pilots in Japan the training was harsh but the rations were much better and culturally kamikaze pilots were revered pilots were expected to reflect on death in their time off to prepare them for their upcoming mission yet for some this preparation and love that Japan wasn't enough to get them to introduce their face to the deck of an American warship so what happened to failed kamikaze pilots well many were shot down before they even completed their mission or could get there some hit the wrong part of the ship or miss completely and fell into the ocean we're providing they survived they'd be captured and taken to a prisoner of war camp and before continuing there's a common misconception that kamikaze pilots were only given half a tank of fuel to ensure they couldn't come back which isn't true also there were legitimate reasons for a pilot to turn around and losing a world trained kamikaze to a malfunction would be a waste and the entire reason why Japan turned to this strategy in the first place was because their resources including pilots were limited so pilots that turned around because of technical issues or bad weather would face no consequences because it wasn't their fault better luck next time and there was going to be a next time those that returned due to less easy to confirm reasons like enemy resistance or the inability to find their target would be chastised and the number of these cases was alleviated by undertaking kamikaze attacks in groups and also getting the pilots drunk so they wouldn't think too much about the whole dying thing however when only one survivor returned he looked quite suspicious but remain kamikaze pilots were valuable resources and so Japan wanted to utilize every single one of them thus no punishment back out you go now there was a limit to how often someone could return for example there was one pilot that returned nine times before he was executed for cowardice for most pilots though returning from a suicide mission was to an extent expected in in many cases not something that would get you imprisoned or shocked like all resources during the Second World War Japan had to conserve who make the best use of his kamikaze pilots if it were to compete with the industrial might of the United States had given that a single kamikaze pilot could fit an aircraft carrier out of commission for mumps they were seen as something not to be wasted hence while returning kamikaze pilots weren't often punished I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching but thanks to my patreon supporters whom you can see on screen now and with an extra special thanks to James Bissonnette Ike Danny Maloney Colin Castleman Marvin Castle Rob Waterhouse Erin the white Jordan long way Chris wicker Gustav Swann Gareth Turner Marcus Ozma Maggie packs Kowski David Silverman spinning three plates Spencer Lightfoot Lexi Schwinn Winston Cawood Kelly moneymaker Anthony Beckett the original cage Robert Wetzel Skye Chappell par shoe 19 and Mo

Channel: History Matters

Views: 6,422,938

Rating: 4.9164171 out of 5

Keywords: Japan, Japanese, History, WW2, Kamikaze, Pilots, Special, Animated, Documentary, Missed, Training, USA, United States, Education, Educational

Id: _1VoMLwb_oA

Length: 3min 24sec (204 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 21 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/OhGreatItsHim]

From what I remember reading on this is that its ok to Return if there were no targets so it was not uncommon for them to return to base.

[u/OddEpisode]

I don’t blame him.

[u/SammyLBB]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4SSOTm0hEDQ

Chicken!

[u/RCSpartan73]

Have not heard of this guy but I do know the legend of the kamikaze pilot who flew 9 successful missions...

[u/farmerarmor]

the way I’ve understood it.... they volunteered for kamikaze missions. So if you say you’re gonna do something you better pony up.

That said... I can’t foresee any circumstance where I myself would volunteer for a suicide mission.