[Music] Fighters like these American P-51 Mustangs were key players in the deadly drama of the Pacific Campaign in World War II a campaign that began with Japan surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941 and ended shortly after the bombing of heroshima and later Nagasaki where a single bomb destroyed each City in just a few [Music] seconds in this special edition of wing over the Pacific we will meet Japanese and American pilots who fought over the Pacific through archival footage and reenactments we will see their aircraft in action and relive the major aerial campaigns of a battlefield that covered nearly 13 of the Earth's surface far from their home Waters Japanese Pilots await orders they're at Sea preparing for war and each day brings them closer to battle as part of their samurai warrior tradition they toast Japan and the emperor and in the days to come Japanese Crews will be preparing for a mission that will stun the world the hopes and dreams of Imperial Japan rest with these aerial warriors in l November of 1941 a Japanese Strike Force led by six aircraft carriers sails East under radio silence a few days later the commander of Japan's combined Fleet Admiral Yamamoto sends a coded message to begin the attack climb Mount nitake the die is cast Japan will strike at the US Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor on December 7th 19 1941 Yamamoto seeks a quick decisive victory that will force America to the negotiating table on Japanese terms the time has come there is no turning back the plan becomes a reality almost 200 aircraft lift off to attack Pearl Harbor the torpedo and dive bombers will strike at the American ships on Battleship road while other Fighters and bombers Target the airfields nearby the Nakajima B5 in torpedo bomber known to American Intelligence Officers as the Kate leads the attack it's deadly long Lance Torpedoes adjusted for the shallow Waters of Pearl Harbor the aichi d3a code name Val is a slow but highly maneuverable dive bomber at Pearl Harbor some valves carry modified 16-in armor-piercing shells as bombs to unload on the [Music] battleships on this fiful December morning the naval base and the menet Pearl Harbor are peaceful the aircraft at Hickam field are neatly lined up as if ready for inspection soldiers go about their lives oblivious to the reign of death and destruction heading their way although the breaking of diplomatic codes by the US has suggested the possibility of hostile action no extra security precautions are taken at 7:49 the first wave of Japanese aircraft attack the surprise is total failure to heed radar warnings proved disastrous and ships at dock are easy targets for Japanese [Music] [Music] bombers few aircraft even get in the air to protect the fleet most of the American planes are destroyed on the ground when the Japanese strike the airfields for the US Navy there is but one consolation its carriers are out to sea safe from the [Music] attack as a young enen John lour saw firsthand the chaos of that December morning I got down to the officer Club landing and uh it was right across from Battleship row and boy I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw all those ships sinking and capsized the Arizona had already sunk the Oklahoma had capsized and I think the West Virginia and the Nevada were badly damaged everything of course was mass confusion as we went by one of the airfields there where our planes were coming in some of them from the Enterprise and they were being shot down by our own people thinking it was a Japanese plane at at 840 the second Japanese strike force of 167 aircraft attacks but it meets much stronger resistance fighter pilot Yoo fuja lost most of his Squadron and witnessed what may have been the war's first kamakazi attack when I went to Pearl Harbor I expected to die I didn't expect to come back it's a wonder that I returned when we attacked they were ready for us so three out of nine friends never returned I watched my group leader self-d distru he used hand signals to tell us that he had no fuel and was going down to take out the target [Music] dense smoke from damaged ships hampers the second attack heavy resistance and the unknown location of American carriers caused the Japanese to break off the assault at the end of the day 18 American warships lie sunk or severely damaged in the shallow Waters of Pearl Harbor nearly 200 aircraft are destroyed most never having gotten off the ground more than 2,400 soldiers Sailors and Marines perish defending the fleet the Japanese lose only 28 aircraft and less than 50 men for those who surviv it the attack on Pearl Harbor is a swift intense preview of the Ferocious air and sea war that will soon envelop the Pacific in the war in the Pacific the battlefield is Limitless sky and Endless Ocean a campaign far different from the landlocked battlefields of Europe aircraft carriers rule the Seas they are mobile airfields launching aircraft to strike it targets hundreds of miles away and important targets themselves it is truly an aerial war and Men their ships and their aircraft will determine the Victor and vanquished of the Pacific Campaign Japan's aerial offensive continues on the Asian mainland a Nakajima k43 Cod name Oscar takes off to battle British forces in Southeast Asia in 1941 this is the Japanese Army's most common fighter and though armed only with a pair of 7.7 mm machine guns its maneuverability makes it a tough opponent for Allied aircraft in the early days of the [Applause] war in Malaya the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies the Japanese neutralize Allied Air Forces all too frequently Allied aircraft are caught on the ground easy targets for Japan skilled Pilots battle her Japanese troops Advance with lightning speed they easily defeat the poorly trained British troops unaccustomed to fighting in the jungles of Southeast Asia the British will make their last stand at Singapore known as the Gibralter of the east on the naval front hundreds of Ja Japanese aircraft scour the Seas hunting like birds of prey for two British warships the Prince of Wales and the repulse pride of Britain's Pacific Fleet the Mitsubishi g3m codenamed Nell leads Japan search it is their first modern land-based bomber and its exceptional range makes it an ideal aircraft for this Mission the two Great British warships are cited on the morning of December 10th Japanese plan begin the attack the British ships have no aerial escorts to protect them and must twist and turn to avoid wave after wave of torpedo and bombing strikes they are virtually defenseless against the withering assault from above the Prince of Wales and the repulse are doomed by early afternoon both ships and more than 800 of their men lie at the bottom of the sea the Japanese have lost just three aircraft the historic reign of the battleship is over Japan rules the Seas and the Skies of the Pacific the loss of the British ships leads to the unconditional surrender of Singapore to Japan the foundation of Britain's Imperial power in Asia is lost like a typhoon the Japanese have swept aside all opposition in 6 months their land sea and air forces have redrawn the map of the world by mid 1942 Japan has gained control of nearly 1/3 of the Pacific the aircraft leading Japan's air war is the Mitsubishi a6m codenamed Zeke but more popularly known as the zero more than 10,000 are built during the course of the war it is fast Nimble and deadly in 1942 the zero is the best performing fighter in the Pacific but the Zero's high performance does not come without cost its light armor and lack of self-sealing fuel tanks make it for many Japanese Pilots a fiery sarcophagus that zero was a heck of a flying fast piece of equipment and knew it down well better respect it when it came down on you better respect it on my very first combat strike I was a tail end Charlie of the whole darn strike of 48 tbfs and out of the clouds came four zos and I hear my Gunner screaming I got one I got one I said shut up and get another he did if you like to fly you would prefer this airplane we often wondered what why they did the Japanese zero did so many useless nip UPS well I tell you why they did it Pilots enjoyed it it was fun [Music] airplane in the case of the zero in order to maximize its ability they sacrificed weight to sacrifice weight means to have almost no armor it's as if we were fighting with little KN from the sash of our loin cloth where our enemies came in a suit of armor one little slip and you were gone I've seen many zeros come apart with just 10 or 12 bullets into them they were totally unprotected as far as armor plating and so forth I think as far as the pilot experience goes the Japanese at that time were were very experienced Pilots they were excellent Gunners and uh the only way we survived was the fact that we had a more rugged airplane the Grumman F4F Wildcat is the Navy's only carrier fighter at the start of the war it is a tough rugged aircraft with self-sealing fuel tanks and an armored body that will save many a pilot's life the toughness of the Wildcat along with its 650 caliber machine guns enables Pilots to hold their own against the more maneuverable zero Fighters as War rages in the Pacific back home America is on the lookout air defenses are Reed as the country prepares for [Music] war remember Pearl Harbor is the battlecry of the day thousands of young men enter the service women move into the factories replacing the men who go off to war us industry is quickly switching to war wartime production aircraft come off the assembly line and Pilots out of training school some Americans need no training in China the American volunteer group later known as The Flying Tigers is ready for [Music] comat using the fighter tactics of its Commander Colonel CLA chanol the Curtis P40 tomahawks proed deadly to enemy aircraft Flying Tiger veteran Ed Rector remembers chenel chenel would lecture each arriving group at 700 a.m. in the morning a half hour to 45 minute lecture and uh then at 8:00 we would be out practicing tactics and Maneuvers he knew the Japanese zero better than anyone he had analyzed it he said do not ever ever try to turn with a zero if you do he will turn inside you within two turns and get you if a fighter gets on your tail stick the nose down dive out and with that increased speed pull up and join the free remember that he does not have self-sealing tanks like you do and you can perforate those tanks and cause him not to get home with their distinctive shark tooth paint job the p4s make good their image as vicious Predators their half dozen 12.7 mm machine guns are deadly and their sturdy construction enables them to survive using Chanel's hit and run tactics the Flying Tigers destroy more than 296 aircraft while losing just 12 of their own it's not just the planes in the air but the supplies on the ground that keep the war going when the Japanese close all land routs Allied aircraft parts and fuel are bottlenecked in India the only option is by air across a 15,000 ft mountain range of turbulent winds rugged beaks and lurking Japanese Fighters they call it the hump using aircraft like the Curtis c46 Commando the airbridge to China becomes a Lifeline to Allied ground and Air Forces we got by with less than 1/4 of the material of fighter groups say in Europe remember every bullet every bomb every gallon of fuel that we used was flown across hump airlifted that became very very dear in terms of cost but it kept us fighting it kept China in the war flying the hump proves perilous more than 450 aircraft will be lost transporting supplies into China aboard the USS Hornet an even more perilous mission is prepared using B25 Mitchell medium bumbers modified with extra fuel tanks Lieutenant Colonel James dle plans to lead America's first strike against the Japanese Mainland D's bold plan is to launch his landbased b-25s from The Hornet attack Japan then land in China after the strike and by returning a captured Japanese metal he will be sending a personal message to Tokyo D Little's Pilots have been practicing mock carrier takeoffs for weeks but are they ready for the real thing will the heavy planes make it into the air with such a short takeoff Airman Roy St remembers taking off we'd cross our fingers and do a hail Murray and say well I hope this this Joker gets off I thought the plane was going to vibrate apart everything was shaken and then when we released the brakes it smoothed out we just jumped into the air we had to push forward on the stick to keep from stalling up it was it was amazing more than we expected it it uh it was thrilling believe me it was [Music] thrilling they came in barely over the water when it lifted up we saw a star on the side of the plane and realized it was an American plane flying over us to bomb a Target America was so brave to fly landbased planes of carriers the low-flying b-25s meet little opposition as they strike Tokyo and three other Japanese [Music] cities they were bragging about the fact the Japanese Mainland had not been attacked for 236 years well after we hit they they weren't so proud of it anymore I'll tell you that for D little screws it was was a one-way Mission fog and lack of fuel caus all the b-25s that bombed Japan to crash land in China the Chinese Rescue all but eight crew members who were captured by the Japanese three other Airmen are killed in the crash Landings The Airmen of D Little's Raid on Japan become the war's First Heroes today a half century later the bond between these brave men still endures each year we toast the men who have gone and toast the ones that are alive and it's up to the last two guys to drink a toast to everyone when it's down to one he'll drink a toast to all of [Music] us the B25 was made famous by the doitt raid on Tokyo and was a very versatile and popular aircraft by the end of the war American workers had manufactured nearly 10,000 of them many of these b-25s were sent to the Pacific with the mission of punishing and destroying Japanese Naval and army forces winning the air War over the Pacific requires more than just a stout heart and Steady Hand the seeds of our Victory are found in the industrial hardland of America in its capacity and determination to outproduce the enemy this is a victory also made possible by the men and women on the home front who worked day and night to produce hundreds of ships and thousands of aircraft in 1942 only three American aircraft carriers are afloat a year later there are more than 50 by the end of the war more than 100 by adapting civilian mass production techniques to military hardware the United States is able to outproduce Japan at the time of Pearl Harbor the US had 177,000 aircraft on hand throughout the world the Japanese almost 7,000 by 1945 when the Japanese reached that level of 17,000 planes they will face more than 100,000 American aircraft to launch and retrieve aircraft is risky backbreaking work it is a dangerous dance between men and machines on a flight deck in constant [Music] motion whether they are preparing for torpedo strikes or guiding home wounded aircraft the deck crews are the lifeblood of the carrier the air War's unsung heroes the carrier's power is in its pilots and aircraft and the Pacific with its vast expanse of ocean is the ideal theater for Carrier Warfare USS Yorktown veteran William Leonard remembers the basic rule of combat it was not any great mystery that if you didn't defend the carrier you wouldn't have a place to hang your toothbrush and it wouldn't be have a nice place to come home so number one was defend the carrier but you can't defend the carrier by just standing there and Manning the walls and the ramp Parts you have to go out and get to the place where the trouble starts and try to put that place out of business Leonard defended American carriers in the first battle between carriers in the Coral Sea in the spring of 1942 the battle of the Carl sea is two days of chaotic fighting a shootout among obscuring clouds and Mists for the flight Crews of the American carriers it will be a trial by fire as they test themselves against veteran Japanese fighter and bomber Pilots both sides have difficulty in finding and identifying their opponents at one point Japanese aircraft even attempt to land on American carriers at the end of the battle despite losing a carrier the US Navy has stopped the enemy's expansion into new guy and destroyed Japan's Aura of invincibility the stage is now set for the most decisive Ive naval battle of the Pacific Campaign at a place called Midway Chester W Nimitz commander of the Pacific Fleet using information obtained from broken Japanese secret codes orders three American carriers to Midway here the task force will intercept yamamoto's battle group of six aircraft carriers on Midway Island it becomes a waiting game [Music] [Music] on June 3rd 1942 The Waiting ends the Japanese strike at midways airst strip but unlike Pearl Harbor radar warnings have been heated and most us planes are aoft damage is minable as the strikes continue on Midway US carriers secretly launch their attack what killed the Japanese attack at Midway it was dive bombers the dive bombers were able to dive on three of the Japanese carriers without any fighter opposition and you say well where are all these vaunted Japanese zeros well I'll tell you where the zeros were they were down at sea level practically shooting at our torpedo planes the Japanese for a very good reason were terrified at the thought of torpedo attack from torpedo [Music] planes I was the only one chasing them I didn't want the carrier attack so I fired toward the enemy and as I lifted up I saw two of them forign we were taught that Americans were afraid I don't think so in that 20 plane formation as planes were shut down the rest would F in and go forth braver I was very [Music] impressed basically it was the torpedo planes that kept the fighters down torpedo 8 was the first to sight the Japanese Fleet my understanding is that waler tried to call the fighters down to give him some protection but they didn't come down so they went in and one by one were all shot down the Douglas SBD dauntless dive bomb proed the loss of the low-flying American torpedo bombers not to be in vain they attack virtually unchallenged by the Japanese Fighters the Japanese carriers are now alone and [Music] vulnerable the dive armers came in and there were no Fighters they just had a clear shot the carrier decks were completely loaded with ammunition and bombs and and uh and the dive armers were able to make runs without any fighter interference at all that's how they won with that Midway ends Japan's dream of Empire they will never recover from the loss of four carriers and 234 of their best [Music] Pilots 2 months after Midway the Pacific War shifts to the Solomon Islands where Japan will lose its more experienced p many of them at gu Canal which became known to the Japanese as the island of death located south of Japan's major Naval and Air Base at rabol wad canel threatens Allied supply lines to stop the Japanese construction of an Airbase American troops invade guad canel it is the first Allied amphibious action of the Pacific [Music] the guad canal campaign is the beginning move of a land sea and air campaign to recover the Solomons and force Japan from rabal after the capture of guad canal American Engineers quickly complete and then expand the air strip it will be known as Henderson field when we got to gule Canal I didn't believe that you could be standing in mud and have dirt blowing in your face that was the darnest bit of Island I've ever been on in my life for the next 6 months US troops defend Henderson field from land sea and air attacks as the Japanese seek to regain control of the island the longrange capabilities of their bombers and Fighters allow Japanese strikes against sadle Canal from as far away is rabal leading many of the Japanese bombing missions is the Mitsubishi g4m code named Betty it has great range but like so many Japanese aircraft it offers little armored protection for its seven-man crew from August to November of 1942 nearly 100 Japanese betties are lost at guad Canal Avenger pilot Doug laier recalls a Betty nicknamed washing machine Charlie washing machine Charlie was the Japanese bomber that came down to the islands every night just to annoy people and one or two bombs and keep you awake we had one night run against for a ball where we all flew in over Hospital Ridge and dropped Torpedoes and the fun part of that one was washing machine Charlie was returning to raal as we were flying out all the search lights Japanese search lights went up on PO washing machine chy and I could just picture what he was screaming down at him and they shot him out of the sky as we ducked out of there about 50 ft above the water and went home L Pier's plane the Grumman TBF Avenger originally designed solely as a torpedo bomber proves so adaptable that it soon becomes the only bomber an aircraft carrier needs Grumman would build over 10,000 and by 1943 the Avenger would be the most common of carrier [Applause] boms when the TBF went aboard ship it was the heaviest and largest carrier-based airplane that had ever been constructed uh the government gave Grumman who was the designer and the original manufacturer a very simple requirement they use what we lovingly refer to as the kiss principle keep it simple stupid rugged and reliable the Avenger helped stop Japan from retaking guad Canal as Allied Air Forces gain control of the air Japan is no longer able to support its troops isolated on many islands throughout the Pacific in January of 1943 Japan abandoned sadle Canal the prolonged battle has decimated the ranks of her veteran Pilots those Pilots had received 700 hours of Flight Training by contrast the new Japanese recruits receive only 100 50 hours they are brave but very inexperienced we were able to rescue our Pilots uh put them back in uh with all the experience they had and the Japanese kept losing pilots and obviously had no no re real replacements for them as the war went on we got stronger and they got weaker throughout the Pacific Allied air power isolates Japanese garrisons in New Guinea control of the air enables American paratroopers to drop unchallenged Behind Enemy Lines spearheading the drive to liberate New Guinea and the Philippines is the fifth Air Force using unorthodox bombing tactics the fifth is Relentless in its attacks on Japanese ships and bases their slowly descending parab bombs allow low-flying aircraft to escape the shock wave of the released bomb's explosion another low altitude bombing technique used by b-25s skips bombs into the side of an enemy ship other b-25s modified with forward firing guns strafe enemy vessels in the bismar sea they sink a troop Convoy from rabol ending Japanese aspirations in New Guinea despite the the dominance of Allied Air Forces the victories are not without pain and sacrifice the Burial at Sea of a dead pilot in his battered plane is a sad reminder of the cost of War for both sides there will be many more pilots and ples committed to the Deep before this war is [Music] over unlike the Japanese some us Pilots can be rotated back home to train new recruits some of these veteran Airmen become the subjects of war bond and recruiting films you see it's a matter of teamwork it's the plane and the engines and the guns it's the pilot and all the rest of the Squadron it's the guys in the air and the crew on the ground you people back here who build the planes and push these changes through for us the riveters the welders the assemblers the foreman and all the rest I don't know how to say it exactly it's just something you got to feel it's the team all pulling together and when it's clicking right well you just can't beat it that's all rated by many as the best fighter of the war the F4U Corsair is superior to the zero in almost every performance category though early models have some difficulty landing on aircraft carriers at first they soon become the plane of choice for many carrier pilots I hate CES because they shot down so many of my men just hearing the name makes me angry entering combat in 1943 the Corsair is one of the most effective Allied fighter planes of the war losing less than 200 of their own aircraft Corsair Pilots shoot down more than 2,000 enemy planes a deadly partner of the Corsair is the P38 Lightning it is used extensively in Europe as well as the Pacific it becomes famous in the Solomons as the aircraft that takes part in the longest fighter intercept operation of the war the mission to hunt down Admiral Yamamoto on April 18th 1943 an enemy Mitsubishi Betty Bomber carrying Admiral Yamamoto departs on an inspection tour of Japanese bases from monitoring secret Japanese codes the Allies know the exact schedule of yamamoto's mission the order is given to intercept his plane loaded with extra fuel tags to a accommodate the 435m mission 16 p38s led by Pilot John Mitchell prepare for The aial Intercept as part of the kill team rex Barber's orders were to go after yamamoto's plane we knew we're after Yamamoto and we had instructions from headquarters at all cost get him well we had to find him first and then we had to get him and we really thought we would fly up there and come back and done nothing we been F because if you've done much flying you know how difficult it would be to intercept an airplane on those conditions that's what was surprised everybody was the bogey 11:00 High call there he was for zero pilot Kenji yania it was a deadly [Music] surprise it was a ceremonial escort I never dreamed that we would be attacked by p38s and have the Admiral shut down they came in from behind us low below the jungle and I was not able to protect him the p38s strike quickly [Music] yamamoto's aircraft one of the two betties to go down crashes Through the Jungle canopy for Yamamoto the war is over the Japanese empire loses its leading figure a warrior whose strategic Vision will never never be [Music] replaced by the end of the war more than 8,000 p38s have been built designed as a high altitude Interceptor it uses its high speed and its Superior altitude to dive at opponents its nose mounted Cannon and 50 caliber machine guns blazing the lightning is deadly it shoots down more Japanese aircraft than any other us plane the mobility and power of American Carrier task forces Ena the US Pacific Fleet to attack anywhere in the Pacific John Condon remembers the awesome scale of carrier operations people were a struck when they you take off and go up and look and as far as you could see there were carriers and capital ships battleships and cruisers and just literally hundreds and hundreds of them by 1944 allied forces are advancing on the Philippines and closing in on Japan Japanese and American carriers would duel again in the Marianas in the Marianas the Japanese Fleet supported by land-based bombers waits for the advancing American forces though both sides have the same number of of aircraft there is now a great difference in the quality of those pilots and planes we went home came back and came back in hellcats and it was a totally different war in hellcats we by the time we got back we had uh well for we'd go on fighter sweeps we'd have 250 Fighters we called us the big blue blanket though less maneuverable than a zero the Hellcat is Superior in speed armor and high altitude performance over the course of the war the Hellcat will shoot down more than 6,000 Japanese aircraft 75% of all Navy kills at a cost of 270 US ples the Hellcat was perfectly suited it had armor it had the Firepower it had the maneuverability it had the performance that we needed and uh it could do everything except really outturn the Japanese airplane on a one-on-one basis and of course with the tactics we used very seldom did we get on a one-on-one basis you know we lived in a thing we called a Target Rich environment it was never a problem of finding them it was a problem of surviving we survived mainly because we just fired and forgot about them and you turned and somebody else was there and you fired at them and you turned back immediately and you had to keep turning to make sure sure your tail was there's nobody sitting on your tail we tried to keep keep the fight in the same area so that uh all of us could cover each other and you can imagine what that is a big melee with 40 or 50 airplanes just go in all [Music] directions the Hellcat Domin the sky and what will become known as the Mariana's turkey shoot 373 Japanese planes are lost to better aircraft and better pilots from Recently captured air bases in the Marianas a new bombing campaign Begins the destination is Japan and the aircraft the Boeing b29 super Fortress with its 141 ft wings spean and 20,000lb bomb load the b29 is the largest and most powerful bomber of the war it is also the most Innovative heated and pressurized cabins allow the 10-man crew to work at high altitudes without oxygen masks and bulky flight [Music] gear its computerized gun control system allows the b29 12 50 caliber machine guns to provide deadly protection against hostile airra [Music] CFT as the key weapon in a strategic bombing campaign of Japan the b29 Reigns death and destruction on Japanese cities and industries traditional bombing proves much less effective than firebombing which burns to the ground huge portions of Japan's cities with their wooden structures just 450 mi from Japan IO jima's Island defenses are softened for an amphibious assault a key element in the b29 bombing campaign the capture of iojima will create a life raft for crippled b-29s and an air base for fighter support for those who will hit the beach iojima becomes a nightmare of death and destruction it is an island of volcanic ash that looks like a hell on Earth soldiers on the ground call for air to ground support since there is no aerial opposition some corsairs and hellcats are modified solely for support missions of bombing and strafing iojima is a deadly killing field it is a battle waged on the ground to support the battles waged in the air a battle won by Marines advancing inch by inch fighting an enemy determined to resist to the last man the cost is high but iojima Falls over the course of the war more than 2,000 aircraft unable to make it all the way back to the Marianas find a temporary home at iojima based permanently there are North American P-51 Mustangs they provide fighter cover for the super Fortress near the end of the Pacific Campaign Mustangs similar to this one spend much of the war escorting b-29s over Japan its agility and maneuverability make it the favorite of many Pilots as they sweep the sky free of Japanese [Music] aircraft [Music] re of escort Beauties the Mustang is an effective fighter bomber for tactical air strikes against Japanese [Music] industries by 1945 Japan has few aircraft that can challenge the American domination of the [Music] air increasingly vanquished growing ever more desperate Japan now looks to the gods for a weapon to save the sacred Homeland that weapon will be the kamakazi their ceremonial headbands are symbolic ties to the warrior tradition and the samurai ethic of self-sacrifice for the honor of one's ancestors one's Emperor one's country such willingness to Die For A Cause makes the kamakazi pilots deadly weapons against whose lethal suicidal attacks there is little defense since their deaths are deaths of honor to face a kamakazi attack is to face a force that goes beyond planes and bombs to a deeply spiritual dedication the kamakazi are human bombs their missions oneway flights to death and eternal glory there are two types of kamakazi the veterans like myself who lost at rabau lost at the Philippines and stayed alive later there were young ones from the mainland those people who had only flown for half a year I didn't understand these student soldiers who wish to die as a kamakazi many of the veterans had seen most of their comrades shut down and were losing hope so this was the only way [Music] out in defense of owwa the kamakazi attack on April 6 1945 radar controlled American 8 aircraft batteries take their toll on any planes that managed to escape the prowling hellcats and Corsair the kamakazi SN 26 ships at a cost of more than 1,00 of their own aircraft but for all of its power and will Japan's suicide weapon will not be able to protect its Homeland from the final American attack Japanese zeros like these fought doggedly to attack Allied positions and defend the Imperial Empire however by 1945 Japan's Air Force was nearly wiped out America ruled the air its scientists had produced the only weapon that could tame the unconquerable spirit of the Japanese who were prepared to resist to the last man on September 15th 1945 little more than a month after the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and nagazaki Japan surrenders unconditionally finally the door is closed on the second world war and the dawning of the nuclear age initiates a new chapter in military Aviation and world history [Music] [Music]
