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"Banzai charge" (or "banzai attack", from the Japanese Banzai totsugeki) (万歳突撃; literally, longevity sudden strike^?) was a term applied during World War II by the Allied forces to human wave attacks mounted by infantry forces of the Imperial Japanese Army. The name Gyokusai (Japanese: 玉砕, honorable suicide; literally "jade shards") was however used by the Naikaku Johōkyoku (Cabinet Information Bureau) and the media of the Imperial Japanese regime. These attacks were usually launched as a suicide attack to avoid surrender and dishonor or as a final attempt at maximizing the odds of success in the face of usually numerically superior Allied forces.

Contents 1 Etymology 2 History 3 See also 4 References 4.1 Books 4.2 Web 4.3 Notes

[edit] Etymology

Gyokusai (玉砕^?), literally "shattered jade", is a Japanese euphemism for suicide attack, or suicide in the face of defeat (seppuku). It is based on a quote of the 7th century Classical Chinese text Book of Northern Qi, 大丈夫寧可玉砕何能瓦全 "a great man should die as a shattered jewel rather than live as an intact tile." It was applied to a conception of honorable death in defeat by Saigō Takamori (1827–1877), and employed as a slogan ichioku gyokusai (一億玉砕^?) "one hundred million broken jewels" by the Japanese government during the last months of the Pacific War, when Japan faced invasion by the Allies. Some of the precepts for this belief also came from misinterpretations of a key line in Tsunetomo Yamamoto's Hagakure, a well-known 18th-century treatise on bushido.

Allied troops during WWII called massed infantry attacks by the Imperial Japanese Army, "banzai charges" or "banzai attacks" because the assaulting Japanese infantrymen yelled "Banzai!" as they charged the Allied soldiers. The "banzai" was, a battle cry to the fighting unit making the charge, a gesture of esprit de corps and courage to follow the attack through. In the Japanese language "Banzai" (万歳^?), literally "ten thousand years", is a common exhortation of long life or celebration in Japan, essentially wishing for something or someone to persevere for eternity. During World War II, Tennōheika banzai! (天皇陛下万歳！^?), literally "Ten thousand years to the Emperor" became a Japanese battle cry during charges, and was thus taken up by their Allied opponents.^[1] The term was seldom used in this way by the Japanese.^[2]

[edit] History

At the start of World War II, the Japanese Army still relied on the mass infantry assault tactics that were widely used during World War I,^{[citation needed]} despite the fact that many of the Allied troops were armed with semi-automatic and automatic firearms that can deliver higher firepower than World War I infantry weapons. These firepower often stopped mass attacks in their tracks, and in the end, mass infantry charges proved to be too costly for the Japanese despite having a chance for success. Its use was largely discontinued towards the end of WWII, except as a final act of defiance, when surrender or death were the only options.

Colonel Yasugo Yamazaki of the Special Naval Landing Force (Marines), who led troops occupying Attu Island, Alaska, in 1943, was determined to die rather than surrender to US forces attempting to recapture Attu. A medical officer subordinate to him wrote the last entry in his diary shortly before the attack: "only 33 years of living and I am to die here... I have no regrets. Banzai to the Emperor... Goodbye my beloved wife."^[3] On May 29, 1943, Yamazaki gathered the remaining 1,000 Japanese troops and personally led a Banzai charge, ceremonial katana (Japanese long sword) in hand. Yamazaki and almost all of his men in the charge died. The attack penetrated American lines far enough to encounter shocked rear-echelon units of the American force. After a furious, brutal, close-quarter, and often hand-to-hand combat, the assault force was destroyed almost to a man: only 28 prisoners were taken, none of whom were officers.

[edit] See also

• Bushido
• Imperial Japanese Army
• Kamikaze

Battles:

• Battle of the Tenaru
• Battle of Attu
• Battle of Saipan
• Battle of Iwo Jima
• Battle of Okinawa

[edit] References

[edit] Books

• Bergerud, Eric M. (1997). Touched with Fire : The Land War in the South Pacific. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-024696-7. 
• Harries, Meirion; Susie Harries (1994). Soldiers of the Sun : The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-75303-6. 
• Stephenson, Neal (1999). Cryptonomicon. Avon. ISBN 0-380-97346-4. 

[edit] Web

• (Japanese) Banzai charge in Saipan Gyokusai

[edit] Notes