page_title: Vehicle explosion
section_title: Kamikaze
hierarchical_section_title: Vehicle explosion / Use as a weapon / Kamikaze
caption_attribution_description: English: A Japanese Kamikaze aircraft diving on the U.S. Navy light cruiser USS Columbia (CL-56) at 1729 hrs on 6 January 1945, during the Lingayen Gulf operation. This plane hit the main deck by the after gun turret, causing extensive damage and casualties. The plane and its bomb penetrated two decks before exploding, killing 13 and wounding 44.
context_page_description: A vehicle explosion is the destruction of, or damage to, a vehicle caused by an explosion. They may be caused by an accident or be used as a weapon.
context_section_description: Kamikaze is a word of Japanese origin, which in the English language usually refers to suicide attacks carried out by Imperial Japan's military aviators against Allied ships towards the end of the Pacific campaign of World War II, by crashing their explosive-filled planes into warships to stop and block the advancement of Allied shipping towards the Japanese archipelago.  Air attacks were the predominant and best-known aspect of a wider use of – or plans for – suicide attacks by Japanese personnel, including soldiers carrying explosives, and boat crews, in WW2 Japan thought Suicide was the honorable way to die. (see Japanese Special Attack Units). 
  Since the end of the war, in 1945, the word kamikaze has sometimes been used as a pars pro toto for other kinds of attack in which an attacker is deliberately sacrificed. These include a variety of suicide attacks, in other historical contexts, such as the proposed use of Selbstopfer aircraft by Nazi Germany and various suicide bombings by terrorist organisations around the world, such as the September 11, 2001 attacks.
caption: USS Columbia is attacked by a kamikaze off Lingayen Gulf, 6 January 1945.
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