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Found this randomly on the internet, not sure what ship or unit.

How is this OT?

That is St Lo fourth from the bottom at Leyte

ORIGINAL: Terminus

How is this OT?

Because its not directly related to AE, didn't want people confusing with questions about the game.

To have your country to be in such a perilous place that it has to send its young men off to fly planes into ships makes one think about what they would do to protect their own country.
 
The little girls in the pictures waving the pilots off is very profound to me.

Profoundly cynnical on the part of higher-ups, agreed.

This is why Truman dropped the bomb. The invasion of the main islands would have been much worse.

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

Profoundly cynnical on the part of higher-ups, agreed.

This is why Truman dropped the bomb. The invasion of the main islands would have been much worse.

I know a decent amount of military history, probably not a LICK close to anyone from here, which AE really has opened my eyes to things like the little girls waving at young men going on a suicide mission.

I stood for an hour staring at the photo wondering how bad they feel remember that day, years later knowing young men are going to suicide for no cause what so ever.

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

That is St Lo fourth from the bottom at Leyte

Warspite1

Never seen that piccy before but I am guessing the one above St Lo is HMS Formidable off Sakishima Gunto.

I know a decent amount of military history, probably not a LICK close to anyone from here, which AE really has opened my eyes to things like the little girls waving at young men going on a suicide mission.

Er... not to be a killjoy, but that photo really looks faked: i.e., it appears the children in the foreground are not from the original photo as the planes in the background... notice the sharp edges around the outlines of the figures and the flag in the foreground... i would wager that this is quite literally a "cut and paste" job, when scissors and paste were still required.

EDIT: Also notice that the sun seems to be at around 1-2:00 position according to the shadows cast by the plane, yet the front of the at least one children is dark, when it should be the lightest part of the figure.

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

That is St Lo fourth from the bottom at Leyte

Warspite1

Never seen that piccy before but I am guessing the one above St Lo is HMS Formidable off Sakishima Gunto.

Agreed, that does not look like a USN carrier. The pic above that one, however, could be the Franklin or Bunker Hill.

interesting pics, thx.

If it isn't faked then it is most assuredly a propaganda picture in any case... Those kids appear to be holding cheery blossoms... A bit too emblematic to be real IMO.

On the other hand very similar scenes ( possibly minus the teenage girls ) were carried out when real kamikaze missions left.



To be fair though when conventional means won't succeed many nations/cultures etc etc embrace suicide strikes as a means of achieving disproportionate effects.


Judaism had its fair share of suicide/warrior cults in its time and the word Assassin owes its origin to a Muslim group from the Middle East who, legend has it, would impress visitors by showing the willingness of their men to die on order by ordering a few at random to walk off the battlements to their deaths as the prospective allies looked on. These guys then frequently took the hint and realised if the "assassins" would walk off a battlement to impress them they would surely be willing to die to kill said "prospective ally/prospective enemy" and thus they decided it was better to befriend the assassins than fight them.

Christianity has had the same albeit that those are more couched in "fighting to the death" terms but many of the fights that were entered into were plainly suicidal ones at times. Many of the Fighting Holy Orders in the Middle East would, IMO, have fallen into that category.

The third photo down is the USS Essex (CV-9) being struck by a kamikaze (Judy) during operations off Luzon on 25 November 1944.

SALUTE

ORIGINAL: rtrapasso

I know a decent amount of military history, probably not a LICK close to anyone from here, which AE really has opened my eyes to things like the little girls waving at young men going on a suicide mission.

Er... not to be a killjoy, but that photo really looks faked: i.e., it appears the children in the foreground are not from the original photo as the planes in the background... notice the sharp edges around the outlines of the figures and the flag in the foreground... i would wager that this is quite literally a "cut and paste" job, when scissors and paste were still required.

EDIT: Also notice that the sun seems to be at around 1-2:00 position according to the shadows cast by the plane, yet the front of the at least one children is dark, when it should be the lightest part of the figure.

Pretty good stuff, do you think it was modified during the war? or possibly someone modified the photo afterwards to glorify the kamikaze? There was no information on the photo, I was viewing a military website for videos called apachefilms.com which has a world war 2 section.

I apologize if the image is indeed fake, its possible it was just put together to give an idea of Kamikaze rather then be a real set of images, however I have no way of actually telling if an image is fake or not.

The bottom two photos show USS Columbia (CL 56) under attack on 6th January 1945 - when she was part of the Lingayen Fire Support and Bombardment Unit.

And the third photo from the bottom is USS Louisville (CA 28) being hit by a Kamikaze in Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945.

Would be surprised if the Oscar taxiing is faked, I have seen that one many many times.

I'm thinking the fourth is a British carrier, as someone else said. The openings above the fantail are very distinctive, with an otherwise enclosed stern deck, and it looks like it may have a hurricane bow, which would definitely make it a brit carrier.

ORIGINAL: Misconduct

ORIGINAL: rtrapasso

I know a decent amount of military history, probably not a LICK close to anyone from here, which AE really has opened my eyes to things like the little girls waving at young men going on a suicide mission.

Er... not to be a killjoy, but that photo really looks faked: i.e., it appears the children in the foreground are not from the original photo as the planes in the background... notice the sharp edges around the outlines of the figures and the flag in the foreground... i would wager that this is quite literally a "cut and paste" job, when scissors and paste were still required.

EDIT: Also notice that the sun seems to be at around 1-2:00 position according to the shadows cast by the plane, yet the front of the at least one children is dark, when it should be the lightest part of the figure.

Pretty good stuff, do you think it was modified during the war? or possibly someone modified the photo afterwards to glorify the kamikaze? There was no information on the photo, I was viewing a military website for videos called apachefilms.com which has a world war 2 section.

I apologize if the image is indeed fake, its possible it was just put together to give an idea of Kamikaze rather then be a real set of images, however I have no way of actually telling if an image is fake or not.

i suspect that the photo was faked during the war as part of a propaganda effort, but i have no proof...

EDIT: There have been several threads about Japanese wartime photos... it appears a large percentage of them were either staged or faked... i suspect that film was just in too short of supply to use for anything but the most pressing needs of the State.

Interesting site.  Related to the school girl photos.
http://www.k3.dion.ne.jp/~j-gunto/gunto_036.htm

Another one
http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/index.htm

Whether the photo was fake or staged, there are accounts of high school girls working as the Nadeshiko Unit in Chiran Base. They would prepare meals and clean the base. Sort of like big sisters for the young pilots as a morale boosters. The unit was very famous in Japan.
http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaz ... /index.htm