Why did Kamikaze pilots wear seat belts?

Answer 1

So they could be disected in two when they crashed :)

Answer 2

I assume you mean the WW2 Japanese Kamikaze pilots. They would have to out fly the Allied pilots so would be "throwing" their plane around the sky before the final attack. If they were not strapped in they would not be able to fly the plane properly due to the G force. Suppose they had to do a loop to avoid an Allied aircraft and were not belted in, they would fall out of the seat.

If you ever go to Japan there is a museum about WW2, and the last exhibit is about Kamikaze pilots. One could not be such a pilot if one was married and had a family. One wife killed her two children and herself just so her husband could become a kamikaze pilot!

Answer 3

To keep them in their seat during manoevers, typically 40% of kamikaze pilots died on any given mission. with 60% having tech problems and returning, sadly losses of 60% were often recorded among the escorting fighters.
Kamakazi pilots were normally detailed to die, Ok they Volunteered but would have been outcasts had they not.
The real heroes were not these scum but the Lads in Fairey Battles who attacked the Meuse bridges in WW2 with 98%casualties and Eugene Esmond and his squadron who crippled Bismark in their Swordfish then attacked Scharnhorst, Guisenau and Prinz Eugene in the Channel, all were shot down few survived. That was true courage.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

they performed negative G maneuver -violent push of the stick to change the level flight into the vertical. it is simpler than positive g half roll. negative G has the disadvantage of pushing you out of the seat. thus they had the seat belts-for not falling from the aircraft.

Answer 6

Despite popular belief Kamikaze pilots did not take off just to die. That is an old myth as are the stories that they were bolted in, not given parachutes or their families wwere locked up and executed if the pilots refused to fly.

To understand Kamikaze (Japanese for 'Divine Wind') you have to realise that the Japanes mentality is far different than that of Westerners. At that time the Japanese were instilled with the rules of Bushido with the emporere worshipped as a god. Implicit obedience was expected and given. The war in 1944 was entering the stage where Japan could be invaded and the pre-emptive strikes prior to any invasion would be made by air. For a task force necessary to invade Japan to be assembled would be a major task needing hundreds of ships and thousands of men so in order to make an invasion possible the Americans would need to destroy many instillations in Japan including railway lines, roads and military establisments, airfields and shipping. As Japan is too far from any allied airfields the only way to do this was to use fighter bombers launched from aircraft carriers. From Japan's point of view all they had to do was to sink allied aircraft carriers and the invasion could not happen.

In order to do this they came up with the concept of Kamikaze and to ensure speed they selected about 3,000 university students to become pilots on the assumption that they could learn how to fly a plane quickly and by using them the Japanese would not need to waste their valuable regular pilots. To be selected as a Kamikaze pilot was a great honour bringing much 'face' to the chosen one's family. Most 'volunteers' accepted their fate with dignity and were well prepared to die for ther emporer and country. Their instructions were simpkle. Whenever an enemy convoy was sighted they were to attack any aircraft carrier withing the convoy by crashing into the control tower thus killing the captain and officers and making the carrier useless. Conventional bombers could then sink it. If no suitable ships were found they could drop their bombs on any other and return to base. The U S carriers weere particularly vuklbnerable as they had wooden flight decks that easily burned unlike the British ones which had steel decks.

Bearing in mind that there were young and inexperience pilots with no combat duty they were easy pickings for the far superior U S pilots and gunners so most were shot down before reaching their target. Some actually landed on enemy teritory and surrendered and some deliberately parachuted out and let their planes crash. Those who did attacke were told to shout 'Hissatu' just before they hit their target meaning 'sink without fail' and had to keepc their eyes open all the way so as not to miss.

Those pilots who were unwilling to fly against the enemy were told that if they didn't their families would be dishonoured and they would be sent as soldiers to the most dangerous front lines where they would surely die anyway.

So you can see that such pilots would have full facilities in their planes, seat belts, oxygen masks, radios and so on. Planes were expensive and needed to be brought back if they could not damage enemy shipping effectively. That way they could be used again.

By the end of World War II, the Japanese naval air service had sacrificed 2,525 kamikaze pilots and the army air force had lost 1,387. According to an official Japanese announcement, the missions sank 81 ships and damaged 195, and according to a Japanese tally, suicide attacks accounted for up to 80 percent of US losses in the final phase of the war in the Pacific.

According to a U.S. Air Force source:

Approximately 2,800 Kamikaze attackers sunk 34 Navy ships, damaged 368 others, killed 4,900 sailors, and wounded over 4,800. Despite radar detection and cuing, airborne interception and attrition, and massive anti-aircraft barrages, a distressing 14 percent of Kamikazes survived to score a hit on a ship; nearly 8.5 percent of all ships hit by Kamikazes sank.

Answer 7

Flying bombs and the Divine wind. They did not have parachutes but they could fly upside down. Seat belt would help in inverted flight.

Answer 8

If they were intercepted before they got to their target and had to fight, the pilot did not want to be falling out of his seat.
Also, it was possible to be thrown clear of the impact if they werent strapped in. They dodnt want that lol

Answer 9

If seat belts are fitted you must wear them thats the law

Answer 10

They fastened the seat belt so the seat belt warning light and buzzer did not put them off their mission.

Answer 11

How else would they be sure that they would be in the plane when it dives? It won't be kamikaze unless the pilot is on board, won't it?