I remember being a little girl when my father asked me this question. Well, Miss know-it-all had to come up with an answer one way or another. After simultaneously studying and researching, I furthered my knowledge about kamikazes and why they wore helmets.
A kamikaze is a Japanese aircraft loaded with bombs targeted to crash into an enemy vessel. An old school suicide bomber. They were mainly used during WWII when Japan realized hell was coming for them.
Like any normal person, we question who in their right mind would voluntarily accept this as a profession. But with WWII spiraling downward from Hitler’s and his allies' reign, desperation rose. All of Japan’s exceptional weapon and artillery vanished and they were left with horrible weaponry to defend their country and ruler, whom they devoted their life too.
With desperation came panic, so calming tactics of training pilots and building new aircrafts were simply unacceptable nor in the time crunch. Thus led to the rushed process of untrained, eager boys and outdated aircraft.
Only about 19% of pilots actually crashed into their target, while the other 81% were shot down or experienced technical difficulties in their 10-year-old fighter plane.
Well, the magical answer to this critical question resides with the fact it wasn’t a helmet. It was a leather cap that covered their heads and ears in case they got cold or to keep them from going deaf if their cockpits were open. Kamikaze pilots wore helmets so their ears didn't get cold.
