Why did kamikazes wear helmets?

Answer 1

For the same reason they wore helmets and goggles and all the rest of the protective gear.

If the pilot was unable to attack an enemy ship due to weather, being unable to find them, engine failure or any other factor, the Japanese wanted them back. While they were only semi-trained pilots, the Japanese had spent money training them on how to fly, and if they could get them safely back it would give the pilot the opportunity to try again.

While I was in junior high school, a small travel trailer was brought around to dif-

ferent towns and displayed what the kamikaze pilots wore and what was in their plane. So many folks are mis-informed about the kamikaze pilot. He wore weighted

boots, was chained in his plane, wore a leather cap like the first football helmets we

had here. He was on a suicide mission but the Japanese had put in safeguards so he had no choice. I'm sorry about the statement that folks believe that he could get back to base if he didn't have a good mission because he wasn't given enough gasoline.

Answer 2

This is sort of a trick question, as they technically didn't wear "helmets," but leather "flight caps" that covered the head and ears. These kept the pilots from getting too cold or going deaf while flying with their cockpit canopies open, which they sometimes did to get a better view when taking off, landing, or looking for landmarks.

Even if the kamikazes had access to the helmets of modern aviation, though, wearing them wouldn't be a pointless endeavor on a mission to crash their planes into American warships. If you're familiar with aviation or even gravity, you know that a pilot's helmet is not going to do much good in most crashes. A plane meeting another solid object abruptly normally results in death, no matter what the pilot has on his or her head. What a helmet, or even a softer leather flight cap, is good for is protecting a pilot's head from getting knocked by the cockpit canopy during high-speed, mid-air maneuvering, like the kind you have to do to avoid gunfire while nosediving into a ship.

Couple this with the fact that kamikazes sometimes had to abort their missions before the explosive finale due to turbulence, weather or visibility issues, and the pilots' protective headgear becomes much more apparent as an aid to help them complete their mission, not necessarily survive it.

Answer 3

I found the answer.

This is sort of a trick question, as they technically didn't wear "helmets," but leather "flight caps" that covered the head and ears. These kept the pilots from getting too cold or going deaf while flying with their cockpit canopies open, which they sometimes did to get a better view when taking off, landing, or looking for landmarks.

Even if the kamikazes had access to the helmets of modern aviation, though, wearing them wouldn't be a pointless endeavor on a mission to crash their planes into American warships. If you're familiar with aviation or even gravity, you know that a pilot's helmet is not going to do much good in most crashes. A plane meeting another solid object abruptly normally results in death, no matter what the pilot has on his or her head. What a helmet, or even a softer leather flight cap, is good for is protecting a pilot's head from getting knocked by the cockpit canopy during high-speed, mid-air maneuvering, like the kind you have to do to avoid gunfire while nosediving into a ship.

Couple this with the fact that kamikazes sometimes had to abort their missions before the explosive finale due to turbulence, weather or visibility issues, and the pilots' protective headgear becomes much more apparent as an aid to help them complete their mission, not necessarily survive it.

Answer 4

An aircraft hitting a ship causes a lot of damage and they were desperate to win the war