After the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Imperial Japanese Navy was close to decimation, and was no longer in a position to challenge the United States-led Allied fleet.

On 20 March 1945, the Imperial General Headquarters commenced Operation Ten-Go to defend Okinawa against the impending Allied invasion.

US Navy anti-air radar picket destroyers deployed in the waters off Okinawa bore the brunt of the attack.

During Operation Kikusui I, the Surface Special Attack Force, consisting of the battleship Yamato, the light cruiser Yahagi, and 8 destroyers, under the command of Vice-Admiral Seiichi Itō, left for Okinawa to support ground defense operations there, but were repulsed by over 300 carrier aircraft belonging to Admiral Mitscher's Task Force 58 at Bou-no-Misaki, between Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands, on 7 April; this came to be known in Japan as the Naval Battle of Bou-no-Misaki.

Due to Japanese kamikaze attacks in April 1945, US Navy losses in the seas around Okinawa began to climb.

The most significant achievement in these attacks was major damage to Mitscher's flagship, the aircraft carrier Bunker Hill: 2 kamikaze aircraft; the first piloted by Sub Lieutenant Seizō Yasunori, the second by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa struck Bunker Hill and triggered large explosions, but did not sink her as a result of improved damage control capabilities on part of US Navy personnel; however, the damage was severe enough that Bunker Hill did not return to the battlefield before the end of the war.

On 14 May, Mitscher's flagship, Enterprise, was heavily damaged by one kamikaze pilot, Lt. Shunsuke Tomiyasu, resulting in 13 deaths and 68 people wounded.

Due to reduced airstrike capabilities on part of the Japanese military, achievements were small, only sinking 1 destroyer, the USS Drexler and damaging several ships.

Operation Kikusui X consisted of 271 Navy planes (of which 67 were kamikazes); it achieved only 1 destroyer sunk; and one escort carrier ship damaged.

[citation needed] On the Allied side, 36 ships were sunk (but no cruisers or larger were sunk), 218 ships were damaged (including 8 aircraft carriers, 3 battleships, 2 cruisers and 33 destroyers), and 763 carrier aircraft were lost; US Navy kamikaze casualties throughout the war include over 4,900 sailors killed or missing, and 4,824 wounded.

[2] However, historian Steven Zaloga puts the total number of US, Australian, and British naval casualties at more than 7,000 killed.

[citation needed] Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki, the officer in charge of Operation Kikusui, performed one "final kamikaze attack" after hearing of Japan's surrender, piloting a Suisei, and was shot down and killed in the seas around Okinawa.