Another such letter, written by 23-year-old Adachi Takuya to his parents before his death as a Kamikaze pilot on April 28, 1945, has been preserved in its entirety: The this dismal mechanical record of Japan’s aging planes – “a reflection of the desperate lengths to which Japan’s military leaders were willing to go to win the war – that was to be Ena’s salvation. On 28 April 1945 he steered his aircraft along the runway at Kushira airfield in Kagoshima prefecture, but failed to get airborne. His second mission ended in failure when engine trouble forced him to make an emergency landing at a Japanese army base, still carrying the bomb intended for the enemy. Two weeks later, on 11 May, he was steeling himself for a third attempt, accompanied by a 20-year-old co-pilot and an 18-year-old communications officer.

https://www.history.navy.mil/about-us/leadership/director/directors-corner/h-grams/h-gram-048/h-048-1.html . Retrieved 30 August 2023.Masami Takahashi, Last Kamikaze Testimonials from WWII Suicide Pilots (Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources, 2008)

Thousands of Japanese youth volunteered for tokko missions by simply placing a circle around their names. In his book “Blossoms in the Wind” Mordecai Sheftall wrote: “The primary motivation was they were thinking about their family because the newspapers were saying that if the Americans land, you’re all going to be slaves, the women are all going to be raped and the men will all be murdered. Every nightmare scenario was put across on the Japanese public, saying this is what’s going to happen if the Allies aren’t stopped now.” Yuri Kageyama of Associated Press wrote: “The pilots filed into the room and were presented with a form that asked if they wanted to be kamikaze. It was multiple-choice, and there were three answers: "I passionately wish to join," ''I wish to join," and "I don't wish to join." This was 1945. Many were university students who had been previously exempt from service, but now Japan was running out of troops. [Source: Yuri Kageyama, Associated Press, June 17, 2015 +++]According to some sources, on 14 October 1944, USS Reno was hit by a deliberately crashed Japanese aircraft. [24] Rear Admiral Masafumi Arima