The Japanese destroyed the entire Russian Baltic Fleet at Tsushima (Battle of the Sea of Japan).
This was the first ever use of naval radio in combat, giving rise to the resurgence of the "divine wind" moniker kamikaze for the Japanese Fleet.
Really? Kamikaze's fought the Russians to a draw in 1905? 1905? When airplanes were backyard toys they had the payload to sink anything bigger than the U.S.S. Minnow?
The "kamikazi" is translated to divine wind in Japanese. It refers to a typhoon that sank a mongrel hoards fleet that came to take Japan. About 900 years earlier.
The Japanese destroyed the entire Russian Baltic Fleet at Tsushima (Battle of the Sea of Japan).
This was the first ever use of naval radio in combat, giving rise to the resurgence of the "divine wind" moniker kamikaze for the Japanese Fleet.
"Really? Kamikaze's fought the Russians to a draw in 1905? 1905? When airplanes were backyard toys they had the payload to sink anything bigger than the U.S.S. Minnow?
The "kamikazi" is translated to divine wind in Japanese. It refers to a typhoon that sank a mongrel hoards fleet that came to take Japan. About 900 years earlier."
The term kamikaze does in fact translate to the "divine wind" and is most often associated with aircraft being purposely crashed into ships and such in an effort to kill the enemy. It was also applied to those who drove specially-equipped mini submarines (Kaiten), motor boats full of explosives, ricket-powered half-airplane/half-bombs, or men who strapped landmines to their chest and hurled themselves at enemy tanks. Let's not also forget the infamous "banzai" charges.
However, suicide as a military tactic was part of the Samurai tradition for centuries prior to 1905 or even 1945. In fact, Japanese soldiers had at least ten sperate terms for committing suicide in the attempt to take an enemy with them.
In this regard, the word "kamikaze" in relation to 1905 is an expedient. There might have been no "kamikaze" as we (in 2006) would understand the term, but the principle of sacrficing the individual for the greater good of the army (or to atone for failure on the battlefield) was a well-established fact of Japanese culture.
And yes, there were "kamikazes" in 1905, only without airplanes.
As for the Russians "being fought to a standtill" in 1905, nothing of the sort occurred. The Russians were defeated by a smaller, more modern, more tactically an dpolitically astute Japan. There was no stalemate at all -- it was a Japanese victory, not two armies hopelessly deadlocked --- that finished the Russo-Japanese War.