The kamikaze have been a source of unending fascination and there are numerous accounts in Japanese, English, and other languages. The bibliography here covers mainly English-language accounts, but a few of the better-illustrated Japanese accounts such as the Model Art series are mentioned here for modelers. This book focuses mainly on the weapons used in the kamikaze missions, but there is an extensive literature both on the personal experiences of the Japanese caught up in the kamikaze movement, as well as numerous American accounts of the ships that were on the receiving end of the kamikaze attacks; some of these are listed here. Some lesser-known English sources on kamikaze operations are the numerous monographs that were prepared by Japanese officers under the direction of US occupation forces in Japan in the years after the war. These were produced with the aim of recreating an account of the Pacific War, in spite of the large-scale destruction of Japanese documents between the surrender and the start of US occupation; the MacArthur report is a related effort. The United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS) and Naval Technical Mission studies are more narrowly focused accounts, concentrating on industrial and technical issues relating to the kamikazes. The USSBS files at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at College Park, Maryland, also contain extensive background material, such as a set of interrogations of senior IJA and IJN officers about the kamikaze operations. I also examined a variety of files at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM), especially those dealing with the restoration of the Ohka and the associated reports by Robert Mikesh. A particularly informative website on the subject is Bill Gordon’s “Kamikaze Images” (wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/index.htm).
Philippines Air Operations Record – Phase III August 1944–February 1945 (No. 12)
Homeland Operations Record (No. 17)
Homeland Operations Record, Volume IV, Fifth Area Army, Late 1943–1945 (No. 21)
Air Defense of the Homeland, 1944–1945 (No. 23)
Okinawa Area Naval Operations January–June 1945 (No. 83)
Philippines Area Naval Operations Part II – October–December 1944 (No. 84)
Preparations for Operations in Navy Defense of the Homeland, Plans and Preparations, July 1944–July 1945 (No. 85)
5th Air Fleet Operations, February–August 1945 (No. 86)
Outline of Third Phase Operations, February 1943–August 1945 (No. 117)
Homeland Defense Naval Operations, Part II, March 1943–August 1945 (No. 123)
Homeland Defense Naval Operations, Part III, June 1944–August 1945 (No. 124)
Submarine Operations in Third Phase Operations, Parts III, IV, and V Defense Operations, March 1944–August 1945 (No. 184)
Japanese Torpedoes and Tubes: Article 1 – Ship and Kaiten Torpedoes (O-01-1, 1946)
Characteristics of Japanese Naval Vessels: Submarines (Supplement II, S-01-7, 1946)
Ship and Related Targets: Japanese Suicide Craft (S-02, 1946)
The Fukuryu Special Harbor Defense and Underwater Attack Unit – Tokyo Bay (S-91, 1946)
The Japanese Aircraft Industry (No. 15, 1947)
Japanese Air Power (No. 62, 1947)
Japanese Air Weapons and Tactics (No. 63, 1947)
Defense against Kamikaze Attacks in World War II and its Relevance to Anti-ship Missile Defense (Center for Naval Analyses: November 1970)
German Technical Aid to Japan (Military Intelligence Division: August 1945)
Handbook on Guided Missiles: Germany and Japan, (Military Intelligence Division: February 1946)
Reports of General MacArthur: Japanese Operations in the Southwest Pacific Area Vol. II–Part II (Demobilization Bureau: 1966)
n/a, Ningen gyorai kaiten (Kaiten Human Torpedo) (Mediason: 2006)
Adams, Andrew (ed.), Born to Die: The Cherry Blossom Squadrons (Ohara: 1973)
This illustration from a US Army technical intelligence bulletin during the Okinawa campaign shows the employment of a lunge mine. Japanese infantry was taught to push it against the thinner side armor of American tanks. The prongs at the front are intended to keep the warhead at the optimum distance for the detonation of its shaped-charge warhead. (MHI)
Grunden, Walter, Secret Weapons & World War II: Japan in the Shadow of Big Science (University Press of Kansas: 2005)
Inoguchi, Rikihei et al., The Divine Wind (US Naval Institute: 1958)
Ishiguro, Ryusuke and Tadeusz Januszewski, Japanese Special Attack Aircraft & Flying Bombs (Mushroom Press: 2009)
Lamont-Brown, Raymond, Kamikaze: Japan’s Suicide Samurai (Arms & Armour: 1997)
Millot, Bernard, Divine Thunder: The Life & Death of the Kamikazes (McCall: 1970)
Nagatsuka, Ryugi, I Was a Kamikaze (Macmillan: 1972)
Naito, Hatsuho, Thunder Gods: The Kamikaze Pilots Tell Their Story (Kodansha: 1982)
O’Neill, Richard, Suicide Squads, (Salamander: 1981)
Rielly, Robin, Kamikaze Attacks of World War II: A Complete History of Japanese Suicide Strikes on American Ships, by Aircraft and Other Means (McFarland: 2010)
Sakaida, Henry et al., I-400: Japan’s Secret Aircraft-Carrying Strike Submarine (Hikoki: 2006)
Sheftall, M.G., Blossoms in the Wind: Human Legacies of the Kamikaze (Penguin: 2005)
Stern, Robert, Fire from the Sky: Surviving the Kamikaze Threat (US Naval Institute: 2010)
Warner, Denis & Peggy, and Sadao Seno, The Sacred Warriors (Van Nostrand: 1982)
Yokota, Yutaka, Suicide Submarine: The Story of Japan’s Submarine Kamikaze of Manned Torpedoes (Ballantine: 1962)
“Kamikaze,” Batailles Aeriennes Hors Serie, No. 19 (2002)
“Okinawa: La Bataille des Kamikaze,” Airmag Hors Serie, No. 2 (2005)
“Imperial Japanese Army Air Force Suicide Attack Unit,” Model Art Special, No. 451 (1995)
“Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force Suicide Attack Unit ‘Kamikaze,’” Model Art Special, No. 458 (1995)