Editing Kamikaze (section)

===First unit===
[[File:72nd Shinbu 1945 Kamikaze.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|26 May 1945. Corporal [[Yukio Araki]], holding a puppy, with four other pilots of the 72nd ''Shinbu'' Squadron at [[Kaseda, Kagoshima|Bansei]], [[Kagoshima]]. Araki died the following day, at the age of 17, in a suicide attack on ships near Okinawa.]]

[[Commander]] [[Asaichi Tamai]] asked a group of 23 talented student pilots, all of whom he had trained, to volunteer for the special attack force. All of the pilots raised both of their hands, volunteering to join the operation. Later, Tamai asked Lieutenant [[Yukio Seki]] to command the special attack force. Seki is said to have closed his eyes, lowered his head, and thought for ten seconds before saying: "Please do appoint me to the post." Seki became the 24th ''kamikaze'' pilot to be chosen. He later said: "Japan's future is bleak if it is forced to kill one of its best pilots" and "I am not going on this mission for the Emperor or for the Empire&nbsp;... I am going because I was ordered to."<ref>Axell, p. 16</ref>

The names of the four subunits within the ''Kamikaze'' Special Attack Force were ''Unit Shikishima'', ''Unit Yamato'', ''Unit Asahi'' and ''Unit Yamazakura''.<ref>[[Ivan Morris]], ''The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan'', p. 289 Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975</ref> These names were taken from a patriotic [[death poem]], ''Shikishima no Yamato-gokoro wo hito towaba, asahi ni niou yamazakura bana'' by the Japanese classical scholar, [[Motoori Norinaga]].<ref>Ivan Morris, ''The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan'', pp. 289–290 Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975</ref> The poem reads:

{{blockquote|If someone asks about the ''[[Yamato-damashii|Yamato spirit]]'' [Spirit of Old/True Japan] of ''Shikishima'' [a poetic name for Japan]{{snd}}it is the flowers of ''yamazakura'' [mountain [[cherry blossom]]] that are fragrant in the ''Asahi'' [rising sun].}}

A less literal translation<ref>[http://www.norinagakinenkan.com/norinaga/shiryo/about.html "Motoori Norinaga: A scholar-physician who loved cherry blossoms"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100212101814/http://www.norinagakinenkan.com/norinaga/shiryo/about.html |date=12 February 2010 }}, [http://www.theeast.co.jp/English/index.htm ''The East''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090111220602/http://www.theeast.co.jp/English/index.htm |date=11 January 2009 }}, Vol. XXVI No, 1</ref> is:
{{poemquote|
Asked about the soul of Japan,
I would say
That it is
Like wild cherry blossoms
Glowing in the morning sun.
}}

Ōnishi, addressing this unit, told them that their nobility of spirit would keep the homeland from ruin even in defeat.<ref>Ivan Morris, ''The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan'', p. 284 Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975</ref>