Kamikaze - Effects

Effects

As the end of the war approached, the Allies did not suffer significantly more serious losses, despite having far more ships and facing a greater intensity of kamikaze attacks. Although causing some of the heaviest casualties on US carriers in 1945, the IJN had sacrificed 2,525 kamikaze pilots and the IJAAF 1,387; far more than they had lost in 1942 where they sunk or crippled three carriers (albeit without inflicting significant casualties). In 1942 when US Navy vessels were scarce, the temporary absence of key warships from the combat zone would tie up operational initiatives. However, by 1945, the US Navy was large enough that damaged ships could be detached back home for repair without significantly hampering the fleet's operational capability. The only surface losses were destroyers and smaller ships that lacked the capability to sustain heavy damage. Overall, the kamikazes were unable to turn the tide of the war and stop the Allied invasion. The destructive potential of the kamikaze sustained postwar funding of Operation Bumblebee until the RIM-8 Talos guided missile became operational in 1959.

In the immediate aftermath of kamikaze strikes, British carriers with their armoured flight decks appeared to recover more quickly compared to their US counterparts. However, post-war analysis showed that some British carriers such as HMS Formidable did suffer structural damage that led them to be written off and scrapped, as beyond economic repair, but Britain's dire post war finances and the constantly declining size of the Royal Navy undoubtedly played a role in deciding not to repair damaged carriers. By contrast, even the most seriously damaged American carriers such USS Bunker Hill were successfully repaired to operational condition, although they saw no service after World War II as they were considered surplus.

The number of ships sunk is a matter of debate. According to a wartime Japanese propaganda announcement, the missions sank 81 ships and damaged 195, and according to a Japanese tally, kamikaze attacks accounted for up to 80% of the U.S. losses in the final phase of the war in the Pacific. In a 2004 book, World War II, the historians Wilmott, Cross and Messenger stated that more than 70 U.S. vessels were "sunk or damaged beyond repair" by kamikazes.

According to a U.S Air Force webpage:

Approximately 2,800 Kamikaze attackers sunk 34 Navy ships, damaged 368 others, killed 4,900 sailors, and wounded over 4,800. Despite radar detection and cuing, airborne interception and attrition, and massive anti-aircraft barrages, a distressing 14 percent of Kamikazes survived to score a hit on a ship; nearly 8.5 percent of all ships hit by Kamikazes sank.

Australian journalists Denis and Peggy Warner, in a 1982 book with Japanese naval historian Sadao Seno (The Sacred Warriors: Japan’s Suicide Legions), arrived at a total of 57 ships sunk by kamikazes. However, Bill Gordon, an American Japanologist who specialises in kamikazes, lists in a 2007 article 47 ships known to have been sunk by kamikaze aircraft.Gordon says that the Warners and Seno included ten ships that did not sink. He lists:

• three escort carriers: USS St. Lo, USS Ommaney Bay, and USS Bismarck Sea
• 14 destroyers, including the last ship to be sunk, USS Callaghan (DD-792) on 29 July 1945, off Okinawa
• three high-speed transport ships
• five Landing Ship, Tank
• four Landing Ship Medium
• three Landing Ship Medium (Rocket)
• one auxiliary tanker
• three Canadian Victory ships
• three Liberty ships
• two high-speed minesweepers
• one Auk class minesweeper
• one submarine chaser
• two PT boats
• two Landing Craft Support

Over 300 Allied warships were damaged by kamikaze attacks.