The Foreign Service Journal, September 2004

26 of the 64 warships in his fleet. Only on the final day of battle, Oct. 25, did the kamikazes score big with the sinking of their first U.S. ship— the escort carrier USS St. Lo, off Samar. When the American invasion fleet approached Lingayen Gulf on Jan. 4, 1945, kamikaze opera- tions entered a climactic phase. All-out kamikaze strikes greeted the U.S. fleet, with the familiar suicide dive followed by burning ships and bodies of sailors in open waters. Vice Admiral Charles R. Brown wrote: “We watched each plunging kamikaze with the detached horror of one witnessing a terrible spectacle rather than as the intended victim. … And dominating it all was a strange admixture of respect and pity.” The kamikazes probably also had Gen. MacArthur in their sights. As his invasion con- voy proceeded from Leyte Gulf to Lingayen Gulf in Luzon, a kamikaze took a nosedive into the heavy cruiser USS Nashville , damaging the invasion flagship that had carried MacArthur to Leyte two months earlier. MacArthur would have been on board this flagship, but luckily changed his plans at the last minute. MacArthur led the invasion on board the replacement flagship, USS Boise , a light cruiser. A Japanese submarine at Lingayen fired two tor- pedoes at the Boise . From the quarterdeck, MacArthur calmly watched their approach: both swished by, missing their target, thanks to the cruiser’s evasive action. Sometime later, a kamikaze plunged toward the Boise , but the plane was hit by flak and exploded seconds away F O C U S S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 53 “We watched each plunging kamikaze with the detached horror of one witnessing a terrible spectacle rather than as the intended victim…” — U.S. Vice Admiral Charles R. Brown