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15 Facts About Kamikaze Pilots
It was one of the worst jobs in history.
I’ve had some really bad jobs in my life, but there are a few jobs in history that stand out as so bad, no sane guy would want them. One would be harem guard. Job security is nice, but at what price? I’m not going to dwell on that.
Another is kamikaze pilot. That’s a really unappealing job. Did you ever wonder how recruiting for that job went? Also, what happened if a kamikaze pilot came back from a mission? Some of the answers are surprising. So here are some things you likely didn’t know about kamikaze pilots.
1: About 19% of kamikaze attacks were deemed successful.
The criteria for a successful kamikaze mission wasn’t just the death of the pilot. The attack was designed to inflict substantial damage on allied ships, hopefully even sinking them.
2: The strategy of using kamikaze pilots was adopted after things started going poorly for the Japanese during World War II.
They were losing their best pilots, were having a hard time replacing their planes and didn’t have enough time to train new pilots. Using kamikaze pilots didn’t take a lot of resources, unless of course, you count human life.
