Banzai charge Banzai charge is the term used by the Allied forces to refer to Japanese human wave attack s mounted by infantry units . This term came from the Japanese cry , shortened to banzai , and it specifically refers to a tactic used by Japanese soldiers during the Pacific War . Banzai charge had made some successes at the end of the battle by assaulting the American soldiers that were unprepared for such types of attack . The banzai charge can be considered one of the least efficient strategies used in the Pacific War in terms of Japanese - to - American casualty ratios . Origin . Banzai charge is considered to be one method of . It is a word used to describe the suicide attack , or the suicide before being captured by the enemy such as . The origin of such belief is the Classical Chinese text in 7th century called " Book of Northern Qi " , which states " 大丈夫寧可玉砕何能瓦全 " , literally translated as " A man would rather be a shattered jade than be a complete roof tile " . In Japan , since the Sengoku period , samurai made the rule called " bushido " to set their behaviors and keep them loyal and honourable . Among the rules samurai needed to follow , there existed an that was later misused by Japanese military governments . With the revolutionary change in the Meiji Restoration and frequent wars against China and Russia , the militarist government of Japan adopted the concepts of Bushido to condition the country ' s population to be ideologically obedient to the emperor . Impressed with how samurai were trained to commit suicide when a great humiliation was about to befall them , the government educated troops that it was a greater humiliation to surrender to the enemy than to die . The suicide of , the leader of old samurai during the Meiji Restoration , also inspired the nation to idealize and romanticize death in battle and to consider suicide an honorable final action . In World War II . It was first reported during the invasion of China where banzai charges worked extremely well , possibly because the Chinese had slow - loading bolt action rifles and were unable to put up enough firepower to stop the charges . However , during the U . S . raid on Makin island , on August 17 , 1942 , the U . S . Marine Raiders attacking the island initially spotted and then killed Japanese machine gunners . The Japanese defenders then launched a banzai attack with rifles and swords but were stopped by rapid and accurate American fire from M1 Garand rifles , Thompsons , and BAR s that left dozens of Japanese dead . Following this defeat , the Japanese mounted a second banzai attack but once again , superior American firepower made the difference as the charge was stopped by the same previously mentioned weapons . The Japanese Army had never heard of the M1 Garand semi - automatic rifle as according to their field manuals , the Americans were only armed with M1903 Springfield bolt - action rifles . Being that the bolt needs to be manually cycled after each shot , the Japanese felt it would be safe to attempt to locate the shooter after a shot was heard . But with the Garand , 8 rounds could be fired as fast as the shooter could manage . As such , the Marines would fire a single shot , prompting the Japanese to investigate , in which case the Marines would fire on now exposed targets . Finally , the Japanese staged a third and final attack , which was also unsuccessful . During the war period , the Japanese militarist government began disseminating propaganda that romanticized suicide attack , using one of the virtues of Bushido as the basis for the campaign . The Japanese government presented war as purifying , with death defined as a duty . By the end of 1944 , the government announced the last protocol , unofficially named , for the purpose of resisting opposition forces until August , 1945 . There are accounts from Malaya , Burma , Hong Kong and the Philippines of Japanese commanders throwing everything they had at a British or American key point , especially if it put up fierce resistance , to overrun the position by sheer brute force . During the Battle of Guadalcanal , on 21 August 1942 , Colonel Kiyonao Ichiki led 800 soldiers to launch a direct attack against the American line guarding Henderson Field in the Battle of the Tenaru . After small - scale combat engagement in the jungle , Ichiki ' s army launched its banzai charge on the enemy ; however , with an organized American defense line already in place , most of the Japanese soldiers were killed before the commencement of fighting and Ichiki subsequently committed suicide during the battle . The last and largest Banzai attack of the war took place in the Battle of Saipan in 1944 where , at the cost of almost 4 , 300 dead Japanese soldiers , it almost destroyed the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 105th U . S . Infantry who lost almost 650 men .