"SURE HIT AND DIE"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 147, 23 June 1945, Page 3

"SURE HIT AND DIE"

JAP SUICIDE CORPS

LOADED WITH EXPLOSIVES

GUAM This is one of the most fantastic stories of the war—the story of the "sure hit, sure death" corps of Japanese, who crash their planes loaded with high explosives on to the decks of ships and who are "buried" with religious ceremony before they actually take off.

They are known as the "Kamikaze Corps!" or "Divine Wind Special Attack Corps," and they are being used in desperate attempts to cripple the U.S. and British Pacific fleets.

They are mainly teen-aged boys inoculated with patriotic fervour which amounts to frenzy. They take off in planes loaded with high explosives which are sometimes built into the aircraft.

"Sure, hit, sure death," are the instructions given to the "Kamikaze Kids" at their briefing. Everything possible is done to induce a mystic atmosphere into the operations. So they take off—sometimes in special robes with the swords of their ancestors in the cockpits— resolved to "do or die." But some lose their nerve at the last minute and very willingly become prisoners. It was disclosed here that the Japanese have been using these suicide pilots for some months in attacks upon our forces in the Western Pacific.

The latest attempt, made against the Allied fleet off Okinawa Island, cost them 118 planes. Only one U.S. ship was sunk—a destroyer—but other units were damaged. The Kamikaze Corps is undoubtedly a desperate attempt by the Japanese to find a "secret weapon" to halt the Allied march to Tokyo.

An official statement announces that the enemy has expended a large number of planes and personnel, with negligible effect on the continuing success of our operations. , "Some major units have been damaged, but no battleship, fast carrier, or cruiser, has been sunk,

"Some smaller ships have been sunk, but in the great majority of cases our ships have remained in operation after being struck by one of these suicide planes." The statment adds that; effective methods of meeting and destroying suicidal attacks have been developed and will continue to be employed.