During the Battle of Okinawa in the Pacific War, the Giretsu Airborne Unit, launched from a single Japanese bomber that carried out a kamikaze attack from the air on Yomitan Village Airfield, was repelled by U.S. forces on May 24, 1945, and was completely annihilated.

 　During the Battle of Okinawa in the Pacific War, the Giretsu Airborne Unit, launched from a single Japanese bomber that carried out a kamikaze attack from the air on Yomitan Village Airfield, was repelled and annihilated by American forces on May 24, 1945. American Marines gazed upon the corpses of the Japanese soldiers. From May 24 to May 25, 1945, the Japanese military launched kamikaze attacks on Yomitan Airfield in Okinawa. The bodies of the Giretsu Special Attack Unit members lay beside the downed bomber.

　　From 8:00 PM on May 24 until the air raid alert was lifted at midnight, the Japanese military launched seven air raids. The seventh attack was the surprise kamikaze operation by the Giretsu Airborne Unit. The Giretsu Airborne Unit was formed in December 1944 from kamikaze members selected from the 1st Airborne Brigade, a parachute unit. Assigned to the 6th Air Army in Kumamoto Prefecture, they coordinated with the Navy for Operation Gigo. The plan was for the Giretsu Airborne Unit to launch surprise attacks on the northern and central airfields, rendering the American runways unusable, while both naval and air forces launched a full-scale attack on the American fleet near Okinawa.

　　The Giretsu Airborne Unit boarded twelve Type 97 Heavy Bombers, which were no longer serviceable as bombers, with members of the 3rd Independent Flight Squadron also aboard. The Giretsu special attack members planned to make belly landings at the North and Central Airfields, deploy their special attack members, and destroy as many American aircraft as possible. The Giretsu Unit encountered problems from the outset. Four of the twelve aircraft returned to Kyushu due to mechanical failure. The others did sortie, but before reaching the Kita and Naka airfields, they were detected by American radar. Two were shot down instantly, their crews wiped out. Three more were shot down by American anti-aircraft fire. Only one of the twelve aircraft successfully executed a belly landing at Yomitan Airfield at 8:37 PM on May 24, 1945. Twelve members of the bomber crew and three aircrew members who had bailed out destroyed seven U.S. aircraft near the runway using grenades and caused damage to 20 others. That night and the following day, May 25th, temporarily crippled the airfield's operations, but all the paratroopers who had stormed the airfield were killed.