Here is a Japanese WWII Kamikaze Attack Plane

(By Christian Orr – Former Air Force Security Officer)

The Ohka was a desperate attempt by Japan to use terror weapons to win World War II. It failed.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” the saying goes.

And arguably nowhere else in the history of warfare was this more starkly and morbidly demonstrated that the kamikazes, Imperial Japan’s WWII suicide pilots who – drawing their name from a “divine wind” that destroyed Kublai Khan’s would-be invading fleet of Mongols twice in the 13th century – embarked en masse on their one-way missions in an ultimately vain attempt to defeat the U.S. Navy as the latter entity closed in for the kill against the Japanese home islands.

Most of the warplanes used in the kamikaze attacks were improvised for that purpose, such as the famous Mitsubishi Zero fighter. But at least one such warbird was specifically designed from the ground up as a suicide plane, in essence, a flying bomb. Say “ohayo gozai masu 、 sayonara (Good morning and goodbye)” to MXY-7 Ohka kamikaze plane.

Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka Early History and Specifications

The Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka (桜花; “cherry blossom”) made its first unpowered flight on March 21, 1944, and its powered maiden flight in November of that same year. The aircraft was officially introduced into operational status with the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) Air Service in 1945. Designed by IJN officer Ensign Mitsuo Ohta, it was a rocket-powered human-guided aircraft.

It wasn’t unique, Japan designed an additional rocket-powered warplane during the war, the Mitsubishi J8M Shūsui [“Autumn Water/Sharp Sword’], but that one was not designed as a kamikaze craft. The Ohka was manufactured by the Yokosuka Naval Air Technical Arsenal in Yokosuka, Japan, which, plays host to United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka in modern Japan.

The plane was nicknamed a “Baka Bomb” by the Americans, after the Japanese word for “foolish” or “stupid.” “Stupid” or not, the flying bomb mounted a large warhead in the nose and – owing to its inherently limited range – was intended to be carried to the target area by a Mitsubishi G4M2e “Betty” bomber; upon release from the mothership (so to speak), the Ohka would engage its rocket motors to make a high-speed dash to the target, usually a ship.