Motoori Norinaga
Vice Admiral Takijirō Ōnishi addressed the first kamikaze (suicide attack) unit, telling them that their nobility of spirit would keep the homeland from ruin even in defeat. The names of four sub-units within the "Kamikaze" Special Attack Force were "Unit Shikishima", "Unit Yamato", "Unit Asahi", and "Unit Yamazakura". These names were taken from a patriotic poem (waka or tanka), "Shikishima no Yamato-gokoro wo hito towaba, asahi ni niou yamazakura bana" by the Japanese classical scholar, Motoori Norinaga.