Why This Kamikaze Kept Coming Back...

In November 1944, Corporal Sasaki Tomoji of the Banda squadron, the Japanese Army's first special attack (kamikaze) unit, was ordered to crash his Ki-48 bomber into an American warship. His captain, Iwamoto Masuomi, had told his men to drop their bombs and come back instead. Sasaki dropped his bomb, missed, and landed far away at Cagayan on Mindanao. Escort pilots reported that he had crashed into a ship, and Imperial General Headquarters announced that he had sunk a battleship and died a hero. His village in Tobetsu, Hokkaido, mourned him, and the report reached the Emperor. When he turned up alive, his officers ordered him to die on the next mission. Bad weather, an air raid that destroyed his plane on the ground, enemy fighters and engine trouble kept bringing him back. In December Japan announced his death a second time and his village held a second funeral. He was sent out nine times and survived every one. Several viral videos claim he was shot for cowardice; in fact he came home in 1946, became a farmer in Hokkaido, and died in 2016 at the age of 92. Sources: Kokami Shōji, "Fujimi no Tokkōhei" (The Undying Special Attack Pilot, Kodansha 2017) and his excerpts on gendai.media; "万朶隊" (Banda squadron), Japanese Wikipedia, sortie table after Takagi Toshirō; Hokkaido Shimbun on Sasaki Tomoji of Tobetsu (died 2016, aged 92); Asahi Shimbun, 9 December 1944. #history #ww2 #japan #shorts