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The , officially , abbreviated as , and used as a verb as , were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy warships more effectively than was possible with conventional attacks. During World War II, about 3,860 ''kamikaze'' pilots died, and about 19% of ''kamikaze'' attacks managed to hit a ship. ''Kamikaze'' aircraft were essentially pilot-guided explosive missiles, purpose-built or converted from conventional aircraft. Pilots would attempt to crash their aircraft into enemy ships in what was called a "body attack" (体当たり; 体当り, ''taiatari'') in planes laden with some combination of explosives, bombs, torpedoes and full fuel tanks; accuracy was much better than a conventional attack, the payload and explosion larger. A ''kamikaze'' could sustain damage which would disable a conventional attacker and still achieve its objective. The goal of crippling or destroying large numbers of Allied ships, particularly aircraft carriers, was considered by the Empire of Japan to be a just reason for sacrificing pilots and aircraft. These attacks, which began in October 1944, followed several critical military defeats for the Japanese. They had long since lost aerial dominance due to outdated aircraft and the loss of experienced pilots. On a macroeconomic scale, Japan suffered from a diminishing capacity for war, and a rapidly declining industrial capacity relative to the Allies. Despite these problems, the Japanese government expressed its reluctance to surrender. In combination, these factors led to the use of ''kamikaze'' tactics as Allied forces advanced towards the Japanese home islands. While the term "''kamikaze''" usually refers to the aerial strikes, it has also been applied to various other suicide attacks. The Japanese military also used or made plans for non-aerial Japanese Special Attack Units, including those involving submarines, human torpedoes, speedboats and divers. The tradition of death instead of defeat, capture, and perceived shame was deeply entrenched in Japanese military culture. It was one of the primary traditions in the samurai life and the ''Bushido'' code: loyalty and honour until death, as the Japanese perceived it.〔David Powers, "(Japan: No Surrender in World War Two )"〕〔John W. Dower, ''War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War'' p1 ISBN 0-394-50030-X〕〔John W. Dower, ''War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War'' p216 ISBN 0-394-50030-X〕〔Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook, ''Japan At War: An Oral History'' p264 ISBN 1-56584-014-3〕〔Meirion and Susie Harries, ''Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army'' p 413 ISBN 0-394-56935-0〕 ==Definition and etymology== The Japanese word ''kamikaze'' is usually translated as "divine wind" (''kami'' is the word for "god", "spirit", or "divinity", and ''kaze'' for "wind"). The word originated as the name of major typhoons in 1274 and 1281, which dispersed Mongolian invasion fleets under Kublai Khan. In Japanese, the formal term used for units carrying out suicide attacks during 1944–1945 is ''tokubetsu kōgeki tai'' (特別攻撃隊), which literally means "special attack unit". This is usually abbreviated to ''tokkōtai'' (特攻隊). More specifically, air suicide attack units from the Imperial Japanese Navy were officially called ''shinpū tokubetsu kōgeki tai'' (神風特別攻撃隊, "divine wind special attack units"). ''Shinpū'' is the on-reading (''on'yomi'' or Chinese-derived pronunciation) of the same characters that form the word ''kamikaze'' in Japanese. During World War II, the pronunciation ''kamikaze'' was used in Japan only informally in relation to suicide attacks, but after the war this usage gained acceptance worldwide and was re-imported into Japan. As a result, the special attack units are sometimes known in Japan as ''kamikaze tokubetsu kōgeki tai''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kamikaze」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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