"Kikusui = Kamikaze pilot badge". Seriously?!
Yes, believe it or not this is another popular naïve attribution of this badge.
Indeed, when somebody hears Kikusui that spring immediately to mind Operation Kikusui (菊水作戦, Kikusui sakusen) - a series of suicidal air attacks by Imperial Japanese forces during the Battle of Okinawa against Allied fleets. However, even for person with vivid imagination it will be difficult to explain how and why these badges were made in such a large numbers (they definitely couldn't be labeled as "rare") at the very end of the war (we are talking about approximate 6 April, 1945 to 22 June, 22. 1945) and in pure silver.
Naturally the sellers (certainly not confused by above considerations) of these badges actively use this naïve association.
Typical example.
This is an authentic and very rare campaign badge, the Kikusui strategy was the name of the last big campaign effort to fight the allied forces (mostly American) from taking Okinawa which turned out to be a very bloody battle. The Kikusui name and symbol used for this last effort campaign came from the family crest (mon) of Masashige Kusunoki's who was famous 14th Century Samurai and great battle tactician. This will make an outstanding addition to any Vintage WWII or antique medal and badge collection.
Another popular "kamikaze trail" - submarines involved in kaiten operations.
Submarine cabin of I-47.
On 8 November 1944, the Kikusui-tai Kaiten Group - made up of I-47 and the submarines I-36 and I-37 - got underway from Otsujima to conduct the first kaiten operation.
But all these kamikaze speculations are fruitless since Kikusui emblem wasn`t used only by kamikaze units.
For example Kikusui emblem was used by 22nd Sentai.
But even more often this crest was used (and not only by military) as a symbol of devotion and self-sacrifice.
Factory girl with pseudo "Kamikaze" headband with inscription "
神風 - Kamikaze + Kikusui crest".
en.wikipedia.org
asiamedals.info
