in the spring of 1944 Prime Minister Tojo ordered the first official kamikaze attack

Their first combat sortie was at Leyte in the Philippines on 5 Nov 1944, making three strikes. Altogether, 210 army planes were used as tokkotai (Special Attack}in the Philippines campaign. In the Okinawa campaign, 954 army planes and 1,440 navy planes were lost in tokkotai sorties.

See
http://www.danford.net/kamikaze.htm

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"Let justice be done though heaven should fall." - - Lucius Calpurnius