Veterans of World War II who fought in the South Pacific remember the infamous Japanese kamikaze suicide pilots. The flyers, most of them very young, were trained to fly their scrap aircraft, heavily loaded with explosives, into American ships.

In Japanese, the word kamikaze means "divine wind."I suppose this was a religious zealot thing. The young pilots received only about five hours of flight training, learning only how to take off and steer. Landing was never an option.

The following account was given to me by a former submariner who witnessed this kamikaze attack through a periscope:

The fog is heavy, allowing a ceiling of about 500 feet. Suddenly, diving through that low ceiling comes a Japanese kamikaze. With such foul weather, nobody’s expecting an air attack.

U.S. naval gunners are unprepared for this attack as the enemy flyer zones in on a heavy cruiser. The bomber is about 400 yards astern of his targeted warship.

On the fantail of the cruiser is a pair of dive bombers sitting on catapults. The planes are loaded with bombs and fully fueled.

The kamikaze closes on the cruiser. Impact of the suicide plane with the dive bombers will surely disable the cruiser, making it a sitting duck for other attackers.

The Jap plane is closing to about 200 yards when, for no apparent reason, the pilot pulls up at an extremely hard angle. The strain is more than the junk aircraft can manage and the wings collapse and fall into the sea.

Moments later the Jap pilot is standing on the floating fuselage waving his arms wildly. Apparently he changed his mind about dying for his emperor.

But, the enemy plane is still a threat to the fleet. Any vessel that collides with this floating arsenal will surely sink. Not anymore! A Corsair from a nearby carrier in the U.S. fleet makes a pass over the downed aircraft, strafing the floating debris. There’s a huge explosion.

Turns out the pilot got to die for his emperor after all.