FUKUOKA, Japan -- Japan's kamikaze dive bomb assaults on U.S. battleships in the closing days of World War II produced long-lasting historical and cultural repercussions. The word "kamikaze" itself has become a metaphor for extreme attack strategies involving suicide missions.
Originally, the word refers to the kamikaze air attack corps, formally known in Japan as the Tokubetsu Kogekitai, or "special attack unit," abbreviated as tokkotai. But it is sometimes used in Western and other media to refer to suicide bombings by terrorists.
