[central_va]

Some Kamikaze pilots survived. Not every mission did a “worthy” target avail itself and the pilot would RTB. Kamikazes would only attack worthy vessels and some would not attack destroyers, I think one of them wrote a book.

[depenzz]

Your right, I have the book here somewhere. It was quite interesting. the guy that wrote it was going to the base they flew them out of and the plane he was on developed a problem causing enough delay that the war was declared over and he lucked out. (if I remember right)

[Texas Fossil]

I had read that they had a belly fuse, so if they decided to land without ramming a ship it would explode.

[GeronL]

I do not think these particular planes could return to base.

[tanknetter]

Kamikazes would only attack worthy vessels and some would not attack destroyers,

There was a great story, I think in USNI Proceedings years ago, about a radar picket destroyer in the Pacific near the end of WWII that happened to have someone fluent in Japanese aboard.

Painted on the top of the ship's turrets in Japanese was the phrase "Insignificant Destroyer, Press on for Glorious Carrier".

[elcid1970]

Every kamikaze formation had at least ONE aircraft with the mission of witnessing the effectiveness of those who did the final death dive. Somebody had to survive to make an after action report.

Maybe that one drew the short straw.

[muir_redwoods]

I know. It was a joke.