In Masao Kanai’s final letter to his family he wrote: "I don't know where to begin. Rain is falling softly. A song is playing quietly on the radio. It’s a peaceful evening. We'll wait for the weather to clear up and fly on our mission. If it hadn't been for this rain, I'd be long gone by now." [Source: Yuri Kageyama, Associated Press, June 17, 2015 +++]

Parshall, Jonathan B., Tully, Anthony P. (2005). Shattered Sword. Washington: Potomac Books. ISBN 978-1574889239 Toei also produced a biographical film about Takijirō Ōnishi in 1974 called Ā Kessen Kōkūtai [89] (あゝ決戦航空隊, Father of the Kamikaze in English), directed by Kōsaku Yamashita. Toland, John (1970). The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936–1945. New York: Random House. OCLC 105915. https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2005/april/hellish-prelude-okinawa . Retrieved 30 August 2023.

Kiyoshi Ogawa (left), 22, and Seizō Yasunori, 21, the pilots who flew their aircraft into Bunker Hill https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1945/battle-of-okinawa/spruance-letter.html . Retrieved 30 August 2023. It is said that young pilots on kamikaze missions often flew southwest from Japan over the 922m (3,025ft) Mount Kaimon. The mountain is also called "Satsuma Fuji" (meaning a mountain like Mount Fuji but located in the Satsuma Province region). Suicide-mission pilots looked over their shoulders to see the mountain, the southernmost on the Japanese mainland, said farewell to their country and saluted the mountain. Residents on Kikaishima Island, east of Amami Ōshima, say that pilots from suicide-mission units dropped flowers from the air as they departed on their final missions. O'Neill, Richard (1988). Suicide Squads (in Japanese). Translated by Yoshio Masuda. Kasumi Publishing. ISBN 978-4876022045.

Ena “was sent to join a squadron of pilots in Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island, in April 1945, when the kamikaze were at their most active. He was to pilot a crew of three aboard a plane with an 800kg [1,763-pound] bomb strapped to its undercarriage. The aircraft would have fuel only for a one-way flight. They were part of Operation Kikusui (floating chrysanthemum), an ambitious suicide-bombing mission against the allied ships bombarding Japanese forces in the Battle of Okinawa, one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific theatre.”a b c King, Dan (July 2012). "4 Imaizumi". The Last Zero Fighter: Firsthand Accounts from WWII Japanese Naval Pilots. As an aside, at war's end, the Japanese had, by actual count, a total of 16,397 aircraft still available for service, including 6,374 operational fighters and bombers, and if they had used only the fighters and bombers for On 11 March, the U.S. carrier USS Randolph was hit and moderately damaged at Ulithi Atoll, in the Caroline Islands, by a kamikaze that had flown almost 4,000km (2,500mi) from Japan, in a mission called Operation Tan No. 2. On 20 March, the submarine USS Devilfish survived a hit from an aircraft just off Japan. Yet, although acutely conscious of how little time we had, I saw in your eyes and in your gaze all you wanted to say but couldn’t.

After the war, Hayashi joined the military, called the Self-Defense Forces, and attended memorials for the dead pilots. He consoled families and told everyone how gentle the men had been. They smiled right up to their deaths, he said, because they didn't want anyone to mourn or worry. "Every day, 365 days a year, whenever I remember those who died, tears start coming. I have to run into the bathroom and weep. While I'm there weeping, I feel they're vibrantly alive within my heart, just the way they were long ago," he wrote in his essay "The Suicidal Drive." The Manual also explained a Kamikaze pilot’s mission: “ Transcend life and death. When you eliminate all thoughts about life and death, you will be able to totally disregard your earthly life. This will also enable you to concentrate your attention on eradicating the enemy with unwavering determination, meanwhile reinforcing your excellence in flight skills.” King, Dan (2012). The Last Zero Fighter Firsthand Accounts from WWII Japanese Naval Pilots. California: Pacific Press. ISBN 978-1468178807. whatdoes1know (12 May 2007). "Ore wa, kimi no tame ni koso shini ni iku (2007) – IMDb". IMDb. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list ( link) Honorable Mother, even if I was never able to fully accept the love you gave me, I received so much wisdom from you. And Father, your silent words are carved deeply into my heart. With this I will be able to fight together with you both. Even if I should die, it will be with a peaceful spirit.Willmott, H. P.; Cross, Robin; Messenger, Charles (2004). World War II. London: Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 0756605210. Sydney David Waters, 1956, The Royal New Zealand Navy, Historical Publications Branch, Wellington. pp. 383–384 Access date: 1 December 2007. Australian journalists Denis and Peggy Warner, in a 1982 book with Japanese naval historian Sadao Seno ( The Sacred Warriors: Japan's Suicide Legions), arrived at a total of 57 ships sunk by kamikazes. Bill Gordon, an American Japanologist who specializes in kamikazes, lists in a 2007 article 47 ships known to have been sunk by kamikaze aircraft. Gordon says that the Warners and Seno included ten ships that did not sink. He lists: If someone asks about the Yamato spirit [Spirit of Old/True Japan] of Shikishima [a poetic name for Japan]–it is the flowers of yamazakura [mountain cherry blossom] that are fragrant in the Asahi [rising sun].

Peattie, Mark R. (2001). Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909–1941. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1591146643 The difficulty of the journey you made to see me was clearly evident in your disheveled hair and in the hollows under your eyes-it made me want to bend my knees and worship before you. In the wrinkles on your brows was vivid testimony of the pains you took to raise me. Words could not express my feelings, and what little I did say was superficial in the extreme.https://www.history.navy.mil/about-us/leadership/director/directors-corner/h-grams/h-gram-048/h-048-1.html . Retrieved 30 August 2023. Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko (2007). Kamikaze Diaries: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers. University of Chicago Press. p.10. ISBN 978-0226620923 . Retrieved 2 June 2021.