![Waga gun Hôôjô senryô su, Dai Nihon rikugun daishôri, banzai by Ikeda Terukata](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Waga_gun_H%C3%B4%C3%B4j%C3%B4_senry%C3%B4_su%2C_Dai_Nihon_rikugun_daish%C3%B4ri%2C_banzai_by_Ikeda_Terukata.jpg)
Banzai charge is the term that was used by the
Allied forces of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
to refer to Japanese
human wave attacks and
swarming staged by
infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...
units. This term came from the Japanese
battle cry
A battle cry or war cry is a yell or chant taken up in battle, usually by members of the same combatant group.
Battle cries are not necessarily articulate (e.g. "Eulaliaaaa!", "Alala"..), although they often aim to invoke patriotic or religious ...
, and was shortened to
banzai, specifically referring to the tactic used by the
Imperial Japanese Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emper ...
during the
Pacific War
The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vas ...
. This tactic was used when the Japanese commanders of infantry battalions foresaw that a battle was about to be lost, as a last ditch effort in thwarting Allied Forces.
Origin
![Saigo_Takamori](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Saigo_Takamori.jpg)
The banzai charge is considered to be one method of , a
suicide attack
A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...
, or suicide before being captured by the enemy such as ''
seppuku
, sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people ...
''. The origin of the term is a classical Chinese phrase in the 7th-century ''
Book of Northern Qi
The ''Book of Northern Qi'' (Chinese: 北齊書, pinyin Běi Qí Shū), was the official history of the Chinese dynasty Northern Qi. It was written by the Tang Dynasty historian Li Baiyao (李百藥) and was completed in 636. It is listed amon ...
'', which states "", "A true man would
atherbe the shattered jewel, ashamed to be the intact tile." Among the rules there existed a code of honor that was later used by Japanese military governments.
With the revolutionary change in the
Meiji Restoration
The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...
and frequent wars against
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
and
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
, the militarist government of Japan adopted the concepts of
Bushido
is a moral code concerning samurai attitudes, behavior and lifestyle. There are multiple bushido types which evolved significantly through history. Contemporary forms of bushido are still used in the social and economic organization of Japan. ...
to condition the country's population to be ideologically obedient to the emperor. Impressed with how
samurais
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the ''daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They ha ...
were trained to commit suicide when a great humiliation was about to befall them, the government taught troops that it was a greater humiliation to surrender to the enemy than to die. The suicide of
Saigō Takamori
was a Japanese samurai and nobleman. He was one of the most influential samurai in Japanese history and one of the three great nobles who led the Meiji Restoration. Living during the late Edo and early Meiji periods, he later led the Satsum ...
, the leader of old samurai during the Meiji Restoration, also inspired the nation to idealize and romanticize death in battle and to consider suicide an honorable final action.
During the
Siege of Port Arthur
The siege of Port Arthur ( ja, 旅順攻囲戦, ''Ryojun Kōisen''; russian: link=no, Оборона Порт-Артура, ''Oborona Port-Artura'', August 1, 1904 – January 2, 1905) was the longest and most violent land battle of the Russ ...
human wave attacks were conducted on Russian artillery and machine guns by the Japanese which ended up becoming suicidal.
Since the Japanese suffered massive casualties in the attacks,
one description of the aftermath was that "
thick, unbroken mass of corpses covered the cold earth like a coverlet".
In the 1930s, the Japanese found this type of attack to be effective in
China. It became an accepted military tactic in the Imperial Japanese Army, where numerically weaker Japanese forces, using their superior training and bayonets, were able to defeat larger
Chinese forces. The Japanese here did not face massed automatic weapons but rather the bolt-action rifle of the Chinese, which could not fire as rapidly as a machine gun.
World War II
![GuadTenaruSandbar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/GuadTenaruSandbar.jpg)
During the war period, the Japanese militarist government disseminated propaganda that romanticized suicide attacks, using one of the virtues of Bushido as the basis for the campaign. The Japanese government presented war as purifying, with death defined as a duty. By the end of 1944, the government announced the last protocol, unofficially named , implying the will of sacrificing the entire Japanese population of 100 million, if necessary, for the purpose of resisting opposition forces.
It was used extensively by the Japanese in
China, especially against Chinese soldiers without machine guns or automatic weapons, though it was less effective against those who had machine guns.
During the
U.S. raid on Makin Island, on August 17, 1942, the
U.S. Marine Raiders attacking the island initially spotted and then killed Japanese machine gunners. The Japanese defenders then launched a banzai charge with bayonets and swords, but were stopped by American firepower. The pattern was repeated in further attacks, with similar results.
During the
Guadalcanal campaign, on August 21, 1942, Colonel
Kiyonao Ichiki
was an officer in the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II. Ichiki commanded the 28th Infantry Regiment "Ichiki detachment" in the Battle of the Tenaru. The regiment was disastrously defeated by the 1st Marine Regiment and of the 917 soldiers ...
led 800 soldiers in a direct attack on the American line guarding
Henderson Field in the
Battle of the Tenaru
The Battle of the Tenaru, sometimes called the Battle of the Ilu River or the Battle of Alligator Creek, was a land battle between the Imperial Japanese Army and Allied ground forces that took place on 21 August 1942, on the island of Guada ...
. After small-scale combat engagement in the jungle, Ichiki's army mounted a banzai charge on the enemy; however, against an organized American defense line, most of the Japanese soldiers were killed and Ichiki subsequently committed suicide.
On May 29, 1943, during the
Battle of Attu
The Battle of Attu (codenamed Operation Landcrab), which took place on 11–30 May 1943, was a battle fought between forces of the United States, aided by Canadian reconnaissance and fighter-bomber support, and Japan on Attu Island off the coas ...
, the beleaguered Japanese soldiers led by Colonel
Yasuyo Yamasaki
Colonel was a Japanese Army officer who commanded the Japanese forces on Attu during the Battle of Attu in World War II.
Yamasaki was a native of what is now part of Tsuru, Yamanashi, where his father was a Buddhist priest. He graduated from th ...
on
Attu Island,
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...
, launched a massive banzai charge through American lines near
Massacre Bay. Despite intense fighting, the Japanese force was quickly wiped out. At the end of the battle, only 28 remained of the Japanese force which had originally numbered roughly 2,600, while the Americans lost 549 combatants out of 15,000.
[US National Park Service](_blank)
/ref>
The largest banzai charge of the war took place during the Battle of Saipan
The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June to 9 July 1944 as part of Operation Forager. It has been referred to as the "Pacific D-Day" with the ...
. General Yoshitsugu Saitō gathered almost 4,300 Japanese soldiers, walking wounded and some civilians, many unarmed, and ordered the charge. On July 7, 1944, it slammed directly into the Army's 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 105th Infantry Regiment, which lost almost 2,000 men in the 15-hour pitched battle. The attack was ultimately repulsed, and almost all the Japanese soldiers taking part in the charge were killed.
During the Soviet invasion of Manchuria
The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian strategic offensive operation (russian: Манчжурская стратегическая наступательная операция, Manchzhurskaya Strategicheskaya Nastu ...
, as the 1st Red Banner Army
The 1st Red Banner Army () was a Red Army field army of World War II that served in the Soviet Far East.
Before 1941
The 1st Army was created in July 1938 under the name of the 1st Coastal Army (or, depending on translation, 1st Maritime Army) i ...
invaded Mutanchiang, the Soviet 5th Army to the south continued its advance westward, enveloping and destroying the Japanese 278th Infantry Regiment, the survivors of which mounted a last-ditch banzai charge rather than surrender. By the end of the day, all of Mutanchiang had fallen into Soviet hands, and the battle for the city was over. Shortly afterward, the main strength of the Kwantung Army laid down its arms in surrender as per the Emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...
's broadcast. The Battle of Mutanchiang, and World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, had come to an end.
Some Japanese commanders, such as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi
General was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, part-time writer, haiku poet, diplomat, and commanding officer of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff. He is best known for having been the commander of the Japanese garrison at the batt ...
, forbade their men from carrying out Banzai charges. Indeed, the Americans were surprised that the Japanese did not employ banzai charges at the Battle of Iwo Jima.[According to military historian Shigetoki Hosoki, "This writer was stunned to find the following comments in the 'Iwo Jima Report,' a collection of ]memoir
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...
s by Iwo Jima survivors. 'The men we saw weighed no more than thirty kilos
Kilo is a decimal unit prefix in the metric system denoting multiplication by one thousand (103). It is used in the International System of Units, where it has the symbol k, in lowercase.
The prefix ''kilo'' is derived from the Greek word () ...
and did not look human. Nonetheless, these emaciated soldiers who looked like they came from Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
faced the enemy with a force that could not be believed. I sensed a high morale
Morale, also known as esprit de corps (), is the capacity of a group's members to maintain belief in an institution or goal, particularly in the face of opposition or hardship. Morale is often referenced by authority figures as a generic value ...
.' Even under such circumstances, the underground shelters that the Japanese built proved advantageous for a while. Enemy mortar and bombing could not reach them ten meters underground. It was then that the Americans began to dig holes and poured yellow phosphorus
Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...
gas into the ground. Their infantry was also burning its way through passages, slowly but surely, at the rate of ten meters per hour. A telegram has been preserved which says, 'This is like killing cockroach
Cockroaches (or roaches) are a Paraphyly, paraphyletic group of insects belonging to Blattodea, containing all members of the group except termites. About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are we ...
es.' American troops made daily advances to the north. On the evening of 16 March, they reported that they had completely occupied the island of Iwo Jima."''Picture Letters from the Commander-in-Chief'', page 237.
See also
* '' Wansui, Banzai''
* Banzai Cliff
* Suicide Cliff
* ''Kamikaze
, officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending t ...
'' – aerial suicide attacks used by the Japanese in WWII
* '' Jibakutai''
* Human wave attack
The human wave attack, also known as the human sea attack, is an offensive infantry tactic in which an attacker conducts an unprotected frontal assault with densely concentrated infantry formations against the enemy line, intended to overrun an ...
References
Sources
* {{cite book , last1=Glantz , first1=David , title=August Storm: Soviet Tactical and Operational Combat in Manchuria, 1945 , date=June 1983 , publisher=Combat Studies Institute, US Army Command and General Staff College , location=Fort Leavenworth , ref=CITEREFGlantzJune_1983
Military history of Japan
Imperial Japanese Army
World War II suicide weapons of Japan
Pacific theatre of World War II
Aleutian Islands campaign
Assault tactics