World War II 1946 number 2

This continues the alternate history of World War II. This one deals with the kamikaze, and the Ohka. The Ohka was a rocket-propelled craft that was piloted. The craft would be dropped from a regular airplane when it got relatively near to its target. The engines would be turned on and the pilot would steer the craft towards an American ship. The things could be quite deadly.

However, their vulnerable spot was the plane carrying the Ohka, as these were called Bettys and they were a relatively slow, lumbering sort of craft. American fighter planes could shoot these down rather easily and thus they pretty much doomed the Ohka program. The Japanese were working on a type of Ohka that could launch from land and that would be used in the coming American invasion of Japan itself.

Then the story shows the firebombing of Tokyo by B-29s. At the time Japan had nothing that could stop such a flight of craft. They could shoot some B-29s down, and maybe ram one of them with one of their own planes, but such tactics only cut slightly into the number of bombers. The B-29's themselves carried firebombs. Most of Tokyo, and other Japanese cities, were still built of wood, so once the fire caught it would burn quickly, aided by the wind, and it would become a firestorm. Parts of the city destroyed would be measured in square miles it was such an effective technique.

The final part of the issue shows one of the Kamikaze with the girl he likes as he gets ready to take off for his final flight.



Main Index
Japan main page
Japanese-American Internment Camps index page
Japan and World War II index page