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Mabalacat, there was jubilation. Seki’s mission had succeeded beyond their dreams. Not only did all five of the
tokko
planes succeed in hitting enemy ships, but some of the fighter escorts had chosen to join them. A Japanese ace named Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, who witnessed the attacks, thought it was Seki who had dived on the
St. Lo
. If so, Yukio Seki would enter history as the first kamikaze to sink a major enemy ship.
    The
tokko
warriors provided the only bright moment in a disastrous week. In the four engagements that became known as the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Imperial Japanese Navy lost three battleships, ten cruisers, thirteen destroyers, and five submarines. U.S. losses amounted to one light carrier, USS
Princeton
, the Jeep carriers
St. Lo
and
Gambier Bay
, and two destroyers and a destroyer escort. For the Americans, whose fleet now commanded the Pacific, it was a pinprick. For the Japanese, it was a blow from which they would never recover.
    But the success of Seki’s kamikazes sent a thrill of pride through the demoralized Japanese forces. In the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the little cadre of
tokko
warriors—Ohnishi’s young gods—had caused more destruction to the enemy than all the navy’s battleships and cruisers.
    Now, more than ever, they wanted to continue the hunt. Waiting for them off the eastern shore of the Philippines were the real trophies—the big Essex-class aircraft carriers.
    T he bullhorn blared in every compartment aboard
Intrepid:
“General quarters! All hands man your battle stations!”
    The announcement was becoming routine. Since midmorning on November 25, Japanese snooper planes had been probing the carrier group’s defenses. Each time the ship’s crew had gone running to general quarters.
    Intrepid
was the flagship of Task Group 38.2, under Rear Adm. Gerald Bogan. In the group were
Intrepid
’s sister ship
Hancock
, the light carriers
Cabot
and
Independence
, the battleships
Iowa
and
New Jersey
, the light cruisers
Biloxi, Miami
, and
Vincennes
, and seventeen destroyers.
    The antiaircraft guns were firing again. On the flight deck, pilots waiting to take off were peering nervously into the sky. They had become unwilling spectators to the show over their heads.
    A kamikaze was diving on
Intrepid
. The Japanese fighter took a hit from a 40-millimeter round and crashed into the sea off
Intrepid
’s starboard side. Behind it came another, a Zero fighter-bomber, weaving through the tracers and mushroom bursts of gunfire, coming almost straight down. Less than a mile away was
Hancock. Hancock
’s pilots, just like those on
Intrepid
, were watching the descending apparition.
Which carrier is he going for?
In a few seconds, they had the answer.
    At the last instant, the Zero disintegrated, but its flaming hulk crashed onto
Hancock
’s flight deck. Amazingly, the only casualty was the kamikaze pilot, Flying Petty Officer 1st Class Isamu Kamitake, whose remains were still in the wreckage of his airplane.
    More kamikazes were inbound. The antiaircraft bursts closed in on a low-flying Zero, exploding it 1,500 yards astern. Another appeared, and it too went into the water close to the stern.
    Then came a third Zero, flying low from astern. Every aft and starboard gun on
Intrepid
was blazing away, tracers converging on the low-flying Zero. Somehow the Zero kept coming. The sky behind
Intrepid
roiled with black smoke and explosions. The surface of the sea frothed from the hail of spent ordnance.
    As he came closer, the kamikaze pilot pulled up in a steep climb, then rolled over and dove toward
Intrepid
. By now every eye on
Intrepid
’s topside area, including the admiral’s, was riveted on the incoming Zero.The kamikaze and its bomb exploded into the flight deck aft of the island, a few feet forward of the mid-deck number three elevator. The mass of the wrecked fighter punched through the wooden deck, penetrating the gallery deck suspended beneath the flight deck, spewing flame and shrapnel