Kamikaze or Tokkō (short for Tokubetsu Kōgekitai, "Special Attack Units") was Japan's organized campaign of deliberate suicide attacks during the final phase of the Second World War (1939–1945). Emerging amid Japan's deteriorating strategic position in 1944, the program reflected severe shortages of trained pilots, fuel, and modern aircraft, as well as the growing inability of the Imperial Japanese armed forces to contest Allied naval and air superiority. The first officially organized Tokkō operations were initiated under Vice Admiral Takijirō Ōnishi (1881–1945) during the Battle of Leyte Gulf (October 1944), where expendable aircraft were deliberately crashed into Allied warships in an effort to inflict disproportionate losses and delay the Allied advance toward the Japanese home islands.
