陸軍特攻隊　Army Kamikaze

At the time of World War II, there was no independent air force, and the navy and army  had each aviation units. In November 1944, following the Navy, the Army also launched a special attack by plane in the Philippines. The Army's first special attack unit is said to be the Bandatai (Many branches of flower) corps, headed by Captain Masumi Iwamoto. Almost at the same time, Fugaku ( Corps of Mt.Fuji) had also another sortie. Iwamoto was in the 53rd term of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, and at that time he continued to develop and train a new bombing method called skip bombing, and was critical against the special attack. In the end, Captain Iwamoto was appointed as Captain of the Banda Corps, but he was ordered to fly to the headquarters in Singapore  and was shot down by a U.S. military aircraft on the verge of arriving in Manila on a single aircraft. He got married in December 1943 and it was less than a year when he was shot down. 

On November 12, the Kamikaze Corps Bandatai, which lost its captain, launched a special attack. Regarding the battle, the Imperial Headquarters announced as follows. 

Imperial headquarters announcement (November 13, 1945, 2:00 pm) 

Our special attack corps, Banda Squadron, attacked an enemy ship in Leyte Bay on November 12, with the support of fighter planes, and sank one battleship and one transport ship with a desperate crush. 

 Banda Squadron members to participate in this attack are: 

Master Sergeant Tanaka Itsuo 

Same: Ryuo Ikuta 

Army Sergeant Masaaki Kubo 

Corporal of the Army Yuji Sasaki 

In this attack, a member of the protection fighter plane, Corporal of the Army, Shiro Watanabe, and the enemy ship were rammed. 

Captain Iwamoto, Captain of the Manda Squadron, Lieutenant Yoshimi Sonoda, Lieutenant of the Army, Hiroshi Ando, ​​Takashi Kawashima, and Ensign Nakagawa Katsumi died in battle with an enemy aircraft a few days before the attack and could not participate in the attack. 

This was the first Imperial headquarters announcement about the Army Special Attack Corps. However, in this announcement, Corporal Sasaki was neither rammed nor killed in action. It was a mistake of the Army and the Imperial Headquarters, and even after this, Sasaki survived while repeating sorties many times, and finally the war ended. 

Captain Iwamoto and Vanda Corps.    At the time when they arrived at Phillippines.

Vanda Corps just before they departed to the Philippines. Captain Iwamoto third from left on front line.