Richard O’neill. Suicied Squads

Richard O'neill. Suicied Squads: W.W.II Axis and Allied Special Weapons of World War II: their Development and their mission. NewYork: St. Martin's Press, 2001

It is conventional that commander order his men for dangerous operations, also soldiers spontaneously come forward hazardous operation to breakthrough the war situation. Is it conventional that commander order his men to die? O’neill tried to show that there is no inherent difference between Japan’s suicide squads and other nation’s one through comparative approach, but he didn’t give “suicidal weapon” clear definition. In my opinion, the “Suicidal operation” has two meanings: “highly dangerous” in Japanese “Kessi” and “mortal” in Japanese “Hisshi” Although German midget submarine or ramming squadrons were highly dangerous for pilots or crews, these weapons didn’t bring crews them definite death. In the Sturmstaffeln operation, 35% crews survived in the decisive battle on 7 April 1945 (p.197). On the other hand, Japanese “Kaiten” or “Kamikaze” were mortal weapon, and “Tokko” operation were forced pilot or crew to die. There is no hope for pilots to return safety. I think that Japanese operation that was premised on sacrifice of crews was quite different from German or Italy’s one.