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In nearly every instance in the Pacific fighting where a Banzai attack occurred it came at or near the end of fighting and was simply the honorable way to die. This was the case, for instance, for the Orote Peninsula Banzai charge on Guam as well as the Tanapag charge on Saipan. When the Japanese realized that the situation was hopeless, that was when the Banzai charge was used, and often it came at the end of the ammunition and other weaponry. Many Japanese soldiers who participated in Banzai charges were unarmed or only armed with lances, swords, pikes, whatever they could put together o short notice, even shovels and other gardening tools. And also often they were staggering drunk at the time of the charge, not much of a stretch considering that the goal wasn't conquest but death with honor.
From Iwo Jima on, Banzai charges were forbidden by Japanese commanders, ordering instead that Japanese forces concentrate on attritting the enemy rather than going out with a flourish in a Banzai charge. That change in tactics caused Iwo to be the only battle where the Japanese forces inflicted more casualties than they took and also resulted in the World War I style carnage on Okinawa. |
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The Banzai attack was seldom used as a tactical device New 
BoaterTalk 
