Event Detail

Danger's Hour - Navy Author Event

Danger's Hour: The Story of the USS Bunker Hill

and the Kamikaze Pilot Who Crippled Her

In the closing months of World War II, Americans found themselves facing a new and terrifying weapon: kamikazes — the first men to use airplanes as suicide weapons. On the morning of May 11, 1945, the USS Bunker Hill — a magnificent vessel that held thousands of crewmen and the most sophisticated naval technology available — was holding at the Pacific Theater, 70 miles off the coast of Okinawa. At 10:02.30 a.m., Kiyoshi Ogawa hovered above the Bunker Hill, hidden in a mass of clouds, Kiyoshi spoke his last words: "Now, I am nose-diving into the ship." The attack killed 393 Americans and was the worst suicide attack against America until September 11. Juxtaposing Kiyoshi's story with the stories of untold heroism of the men aboard the Bunker Hill, Maxwell Taylor Kennedy details how American sailors and airmen worked together, risking their own lives to save their fellows and ultimately triumphing in their efforts to save their ship.