kamikaze

kamikaze

(kä'məkä`zē) [Jap.,=divine wind], the typhoon that destroyed Kublai Khan's fleet, foiling his invasion of Japan in 1281. In World War II the term was used for a Japanese suicide air force composed of fliers who crashed their bomb-laden planes into their targets, usually ships. The kamikaze was first used extensively at Leyte Gulf and was especially active at Okinawa.

Kamikaze

 

(Japanese, literally “wind of the gods”), a suicide pilot in the Japanese armed forces in World War II used to fight enemy surface ships in a single-action airplane. In addition to conventional aircraft flown by kamikaze, in 1945 the Japaneseair force had more than 5, 000 single-action airplanes called Bakathat carried explosive charges of up to 1 ton in their front end. The airplane, which had a small jet engine and a limited rangeof action, was directed by the kamikaze to the target, dived, andcrashed into it. More than 2, 500 suicide pilots died in combat inthe Pacific Ocean in 1944 and 1945.

kamikaze

An action taken by certain Japanese pilots during WW II, in which they flew explosive-laden airplanes as missiles against allied targets, killing themselves. Any like action performed by any pilot. A kamikaze plane is one that is explosive-laden and is to be used as a piloted missile; an attack by such plane is a kamikaze attack.

kamikaze

(in World War II) one of a group of Japanese pilots who performed suicidal missions by crashing their aircraft, loaded with explosives, into an enemy target, esp a ship