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The Americans

USS CABOT
(CVL-28)

USS ESSEX
(CV-9)

USS HANCOCK
(CV-19)

USS INTREPID
(CV-11)

 

The Japanese

The Kamikazes

A6M Zero

D4Y SUISEI

IJN Kumano

IJN Yasoshima

 

Narrated By

Marvin Scott

 

Historical Advisor

Michael Marmé, PH.D.
Fordham University,
New YORK, NY

 

REcommended links

World War II
Multimedia Database

Nine Sisters

 

Lou Valenti, USS Intrepid (CV-11)

Lou Valenti was a signalman on Intrepid's bridge on November 25, 1944. He watched the first kamikaze come down through the flight deck, and was making a report to the officers when a second one hit. Grabbing a pair of binoculars, he watched for hours for enemy planes after the kamikaze attacks. He was deeply affected by the scenes of death and destruction he saw that day, like all Intrepid crewmen who survived.

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IN day of the Kamikaze

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“They were there just to kill themselves,”

Lou Valenti on Intrepid Sea•Air•Space Museum	Lou Valenti in 1944

“The first one comes down through the flight deck a little bit aft. And he probably had a general purpose bomb and the bomb went off just as it passed through the flight deck and went off in midair and killed about 32 radar men waiting to go on watch in the ready room back by the parachute loft.

“Our philosophy of life wasn’t kill yourself against the enemy, it was to kill them…and save yourself. But they were there just to kill themselves and give up their plane and the ship to try and hurt one of us.”