Kamikaze (神風)

 Kamikaze (Japanese: 神風; kami = god, kaze = wind) is a word of Japanese origin, which in the English language usually refers to the suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan, against Allied shipping, in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II.



 In the Japanese language, kamikaze (Japanese:神風), usually translated as "divine wind" (kami is the word for "god", "spirit", or "divinity"; and kaze for "wind"), came into being as the name of legendary typhoons said to have saved Japan from a Mongol invasion fleet in 1274 and 1281.

 In Japanese, the formal term used for units carrying out these suicide attacks during World War II is tokubetsu kōgeki tai (特別攻撃隊), which literally means "special attack unit." This is usually abbreviated to tokkōtai (特攻隊). More specifically, air suicide attack units from the Imperial Japanese Navy were officially called shinpū tokubetsu kōgeki tai (神風特別攻撃隊, "divine wind special attack units".

 Shinpū is the on-reading (on'yomi or Chinese-derived pronunciation) of the same characters that form the word Kamikaze in Japanese. However, during World War II, the actual word Kamikaze was never, or rarely, used in Japan in relation to suicide attacks. U.S. translators during the war erroneously used the kun'yomi (indigenous Japanese pronunciation) for Shinpū, giving the English language the word kamikaze, for Japanese suicide units in general. This usage gained acceptance worldwide.

 While kamikaze is pronounced with short vowels in Japanese, it is generally pronounced with a long "e" sound in English, and often with the "i" replaced with a short "a".

 After the war, Japanese speakers re-imported the word and the English language pronunciation, under the influence of U.S. media sources. As a result, the special attack units are sometimes known in Japan as kamikaze tokubetsu kōgeki tai.



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