Near the end of World War II, Vice Admiral Onishi Takijiro recommended that the Japanese navy form special groups of men and aircraft to attack the American warships gathering to conduct amphibious landings in the Philippines. The Japanese used the word Tokko-tai (Special Attack) to describe these units. To the Allies, they became known as the kamikaze. By war's end, some 5,000 pilots died making Tokko attacks.
The Ohka (Cherry Blossom) was designed to allow a pilot with minimal training to drop from a Japanese "Betty" bomber at high altitude and guide his aircraft with its warhead at high speed into an Allied warship. While several rocket-powered Ohka 11s still exist, this Ohka 22 is the only surviving "Campini" jet-powered version of the aircraft. It was captured in Japan in 1945. Unlike the Ohka 11, the Ohka 22 never became operational.
The Ohka (Cherry Blossom) was designed to allow a pilot with minimal training to drop from a Japanese "Betty" bomber at high altitude and guide his aircraft with its warhead at high speed into an Allied warship. While several rocket-powered Ohka 11s still exist, this Ohka 22 is the only surviving "Campini" jet-powered version of the aircraft. It was captured in Japan in 1945. Unlike the Ohka 11, the Ohka 22 never became operational.
The OKA Bomb was a small wooden and metal constructed aircraft. It had room pilot and the nose warhead contained 2645 pounds of explosives. The OKA was usually carried under the belly of a twin engine "Betty" Bomber, although other types of twin engine Japanese bombers could be used with modifications. It was attached and partially hung in the bomb bay by one mounting lug and slings fastened under the wing and empennage.
The OKA was generally launched 25-50 miles from target. lt's range was determined by the altitude at which it could be released. As air-to-air fighting progressed, two additional rocket motors were fitted, one under each wing, to enable the OKA to pull away from prowling Navy Hellcat Fighters. These rocket units could be fixed singly or simultaneously at the Kamikaze pilot's discretion. The OKA had a conventional pilot stick and rudder bar arrangement.
The pilot had at his disposal a selector switch for firing the propulsion rocket charges pull type arming handle for the nose bomb base fuse, a compass, an altimeter, airspeed indicator, rocket temp. gauge and an inclinometer. All control surfaces were dynamically balanced to eliminate flutter at the high speeds the OKA operated. The nose warhead had five fuses, one in the nose and four in the base. The nose fuse was straight impact fuse and was vane armed. Two of the base fuses were straight impact and the other two were of the "all way" type. All four of the base fuses were armed manually by the pilots from the cockpit.'
Few actually reached the ships they were intended to hit, however; the launch vehicle, 16 Mitsubishi G4M2e twin-engine Bettys, tended to be destroyed by U.S. fighters before nearing the targets. They still released the Ohka, which usually nosed into the ocean. One did make it to a ship: the destroyer USS Mannert L. Abele, which sunk as a result of a direct hit in April 1945. By then production had ceased on the suicide plane; the Japanese deemed the converted bomber too slow to near the targets.
