The reports made Tokyo’s earlier flights of hyperbole seem picayune by comparison. Ugaki’s second-in-command, Admiral Toshiyuki Yokoi, later explained that air commanders in Kyushu felt pressure from down the ranks to certify the grossly exaggerated claims. When Yokoi cast doubt on one such report, a kamikaze squadron commander told him: “If the results achieved are going to be so underestimated, there is no justification for the deaths of my men.
