Amerika kara mita tokkō (Kamikaze on the American view)
by Hikaru Shiraishi
Argonauts Publications, 2007, 98 pages
In contrast to most Japanese books about the Special Attack Corps that
carried out special (suicide) attacks near the end of the Pacific War, this
picture-filled book focuses on how the American Navy experienced and defended
against them. The first half of Amerika kara mita tokkō (Kamikaze on the
American view) has about 90 historical high-quality photographs related to 35 American
ships in roughly chronological order of dates when they were sunk or damaged in
kamikaze attacks. The pictures show ships prior to the kamikaze attacks,
attacking planes headed for ships, explosions when planes and bombs hit, smoke
rising from fires caused by attacks, and resultant damage from the attacks. The
photographs are accompanied by captions with details regarding the
attacks. The English translation of "Kamikaze on the American view" comes from
the book itself although a more literal translation of the title in Japanese
would be "Special attacks seen by Americans."
The second half of the book has five sections that provide (1) diagrams and
descriptions of how planes and bombs hit the ships (see bottom of page for
example), (2) listing of ships sunk and damaged by special attacks, (3)
description and photographs of the American Navy's anti-aircraft guns with
defensive formations used by the American task force to protect aircraft
carriers from kamikaze attacks, (4) depiction of American Navy's carrier-based
fighters that played a key role in minimizing the number of kamikaze planes that
hit ships, and (5) explanation of how the American Navy defended against
kamikaze attacks and carried out damage control when ships were hit.
The book has a bibliography of over 30 sources and generally contains
accurate information, although there are a few errors. The book states that the
destroyers Luce (DD-522) and Morrison (DD-560) sank on May 3,
1945, but the actual date was May 4. Also, the destroyer Drexler (DD-741)
sank on May 28, 1945, not on May 27 as indicated in the book. In another
instance of incorrect information, the book states that the carrier Franklin
(CV-13) got hit by two bombs from a special attack aircraft on March 19, 1945,
which nearly caused the ship to sink, but these bombs were dropped by a
bomber, not a part of the Special Attack Corps, that made a conventional bombing
attack.
The last few pages of the book contain two sections of reference materials
from the Japanese side. First, there is a listing of Special Attack Corps
squadron names along with dates when deaths of their squadron members occurred. Second, there
are photographs and basic technical specifications of 30 Army and Navy aircraft types
used in special attacks.
Location where Japanese kamikaze plane hit
battleship New Mexico (BB-40) on May 12, 1945
|
