Episode Details

In late 1944 when it was clear the war in the Pacific was lost, the Imperial Japanese Navy employed a frightening tactic to attack the US Navy: suicide attacks. Invoking the "divine wind" that twice turned back marauding Mongrols, such attacks were called kamikaze.

On this episode, New York City-based author Gary Santos explains the scourge of kamikaze attacks during World War ll, including an attack on the USS Randolph--the aircraft carrier his father Eugene served on. Gary explains the mindset and techniques used by Japanese pilots to commit aerial hari-kari.

Check out Gary's book, A Grand Pause chronicling a single day in 1945 between battling U.S. and Japanese navies here.