Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "Kamikaze Commandos! Japanese Airborne Raid Okinawa 1945" video.

  1. This was really a classic type of Japanese operation. Overly complicated, dependant on split second timing, not enough manpower or weapons, no back up plan, and using a kamikaze type attack rather than the parachute assault the soldiers had actually been trained to carry out. Japanese intelligence of American strength on Okinawa was nearly non-existent, and the numbers of troops and fighters already on the island was far in excess of their estimates. A largely nuisance raid like Operation Gi-gou could never seriously impair America's ability to continue bombing the home islands. Some historians believe Operation Gi-gou was simply an army demonstration of how they too were willing to engage in organized suicide attacks. Operation Ten-Go, the doomed suicide attack of the Yamato and her escorts headed to Okinawa, happened five weeks before Operation Gi-gou, and there was great pressure on the army to show they were fully committed to the defense of the homeland. This operation was to answer the criticism of the army that Japanese soldiers, while they fought to death in defensive battles, had no offensive plans, especially for suicide attacks, while the navy and air force were losing thousands of men a week in such attacks. The fruitless Operation Gi-gou would seem to have been a political response on the part of the army to save face and show the emperor they were also fully committed. On such things did the last days of the war turn for Japan.
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