On April 16, 1945 at 0939 off Okinawa, USS Bowers was attacked by two kamikaze Japanese aircraft. The USS Bowers chart is just one snapshot of the Operation Kikusui chart pattern. Other American ships and groups of Japanese kamikaze attacks replicate the base elements.
The USS Bowers attack was witnessed by other American naval ships (USS Swearer and USS Connolly), the main attack horoscope places the event between USS Bowers and twin kamikaze airplanes. USS Bowers is represented by Jupiter, Venus and the Moon. The thwarted airplane is Mercury and the successful airplane is the Sun and Uranus. The 500 lb bomb is Pluto and the attack is represented by Mars. While it is beyond the scope of this article, USS Connolly and USS Swearer do not show the same close aspects to Saturn and Neptune and deeper connections to the event than USS Bowers.
The kamikaze attacks are represented by the Pisces (divine) Mars (warrior) in the 10th house (organized operation) and this attack is opposed by Virgo (working) Jupiter (foreign ships) in the 4th house (home waters). From this statement, you can tell this horoscope is about Japanese initiative and their perspective. The foreign American ships are in Japanese home waters. The kamikaze are not lone warriors but organized in groups. Some planes will fail and others will be successful. This opposition in the horoscope shows the exchange of gunfire between ship and planes. For the pilots, they are engaged in a trial (10th house) of spiritual (Pisces) courage (Mars).
In the 4th, the Virgo Jupiter ship describes a crew that has a great deal of internal dialogue and relative overconfidence. In one account of a survivor from USS Bowers, he stated “I didn’t have enough sense to be scared.” It was probably a sentiment of many of the crew at this moment. They had been attacked by kamikaze before and successfully fended all of them off, even on that morning. They had been in battles that they won. Just a little over a week before, the Japanese had sacrificed their greatest battleship, Yamato, to no effect. At this moment, America’s navy is rolling the Japanese forces back. Pallas who holds Nike (victory) is conjunct the Virgo Jupiter ships. Victory is coming with the Americans.
But it is a dangerous moment, the Japanese are afraid (Saturn) their home (Cancer) will be attacked (1st house), the entire Japanese imperial forces from the highest commander to the most junior man know (10th house, public) their strength (Mars) is dissolving (Pisces), and foreign American ships are closing in on the Japanese home islands. Saturn (duty) is connected to the attacking pilots and bomb. There in the 4th house is also the Virgo Chiron (this would be the wounded American crewmen) and Libra Neptune which is seen in the unclear duel, the loss of command of the ship, and the immediate indecisive action to contain and fight the fire.
Description of the Attack
Two planes move in low over the water to attack the USS Bowers who happens to have an unusual hybrid camouflage (Aries) paint job which may make it an attractive (Venus) target, the ship started radical maneuvers, the planes (Aries Mercury & Aries Sun) split to attack from two directions, the forward guns hit the first airplane (Aries Mercury), the forward gunners are strafed by the second airplane (Aries Sun) as the first airplane crashes into the sea, the second plane’s attack on the forward gunners probably cause it to miss USS Bowers and it passes over with the rear guns shooting at it, that second plane regains altitude and hits the ship on the second attack (25° Aries). The ship now is uncontrolled and starts moving in a circle that ended up posing a threat to the other warships in the area until control was reestablished by the crew inside the ship. The 11th house holds the most detailed attack information. It has an association with unusual events or places. The elements related to unusual, radical moves, misses and accidents are descriptive of the event occuring in the 11th. The planets there are connected by aspect to the 4th and 12th houses and this gives details of the attack.
Jupiter in the 4th has a quincunx to the Aries (war) Mercury (vehicle) in the 11th. Sue Tompkins describes this aspect as “some kind of additional irritation or stress”. In any event, the forward gunners shot down this plane before it could do damage but they are wounded before it crashes. The sabian symbol for this plane is “a pugilist enters the ring” and is shot down by USS Bowers.
Now to the last description of the trial in the 12th house. Mars in the 10th aspects Gemini Uranus (the 2nd pass of the 2nd Kamikaze plane) and Gemini Moon (the USS Bowers) in the 12th. The accounts of the survivors differ, it was unclear (12th) what was occurring exactly. One surviving gunner who was shooting at the plane thought there were 3 planes instead of two attacks by one plane. Another survivor thought the bomb hit the bridge and rolled out an open door instead of it being released and dropped prior to the collision with the bridge.
The reconstructed account says the forward gunners had already been wounded by the second plane, the pilot did narrowly miss the ship on his first pass and the remaining gunners and crew were shooting the second plane which was visibly being impacted. The plane almost went into the sea but climbed again, circled in a counter clockwise fashion, and on the second attempt hit the bridge killing all but one of the officers on the deck and killing or wounding almost half the crew. The successful kamikaze, represented by the Aries Sun, and attractive target ship, represented by the Aries Venus, were both on the “gain experience” degree of Aries in the 11th house. The kamikaze did complete his trial on his second attempt. In the wreckage, one survivor says they found a scarf with a rising sun (Sun) and a sword (Aries) that they cut into pieces.
The Trial & The Bomb
The horoscope can shed light on one more detail of this account. The survivor accounts suggest the bomb (Leo Pluto) was fortunately ripped loose of the plane before it hit the bridge keeping the ship from sinking. It is only unfortunate that it hit the searchlight and went to the port side where the men had run, exploding and raking the deck, killing or wounding all but one officer in the bridge and on the deck as well as many of the crew. They had run to port because the plane was hitting starboard.
The Master of the trial says differently. Saturn is in the first house (represents the Japanese’s military personnel and materiel). Saturn is at 5° Cancer whose sabian symbol is “at a railroad crossing, an automobile is wreaked by a train”. In the picture of the USS Bowers, the wrecked airplane is still visible embedded in the ship. The trial was successful for the kamikaze, the reward for him was the bomb. The kamikaze (10° Gemini Uranus) “an airplane performing a nosedive” was locked in the 12th house representing a dissolution of boundaries between the plane and ship. The USS Bowers (14° Gemini Moon) “bridging physical space and social distinctions, two men communicate telepathically”. The boundaries dissolved (Saturn boundaries, Neptune dissolution). Saturn and Neptune (square aspect) were blocking each other and upon passing the trial Saturn confirmed (semi-sextile) the pilot’s choice to target his bomb. The pilot most likely chose (Uranus sextile Pluto) to drop the bomb before crashing into the bridge. He was inexperienced but he did complete Saturn’s trial.
This bomb released the trial between Saturn and Neptune (square aspect) and a Thor’s Hammer chart aspect could be completed at 19° Aquarius whose sabian symbol is “a forest fire is being subdued by the use of water, chemicals and sheer muscular energy.” A fire did occur that took 45 min to extinguish. The trigger for a Thor’s Hammer lay exactly at the south node of USS Bowers Keel Laying horoscope. USS Connolly’s Moon possibly lay at 19° Aquarius and USS Swearer’s Sun lay at 19° Leo, on the north and south node of USS Bowers. If you are interested in reincarnation, this looks very much like a karmic replay of a past event. Two crewman were also named as working to extinguish the fire. An examination of their birth horoscopes might provide more details. This is a question for another day.
Gunners
USS Bowers has long since been scrapped but I know about this event because a nephew of one of the gunners mentioned it to me. Of all of the men who died, only two gunners did not survive the attack. One was Killed in Action and the other was Missing in Action. Although I do not know their birth times, I can look at their planetary placements in comparison to the event. This tells us how they impacted the event.
The gunner who was Killed in Action is the uncle. His 18° Pisces Uranus opposes the event Virgo Jupiter ship and this planet lies close by the Pisces Mars combined air attack. The other gunner that died has this connection with a 16° Pisces Uranus. This is read simply that they used their Pisces Uranus to break up the attack in preparation to dissolve it completely. The 18° Pisces suggests this moment was a “spectacular performance”. The uncle has a direct connection to the Aries Mercury (the thwarted airplane). His Aries Mars lies close. He engaged the airplane. His Aries Chiron also lies close and it seems he likely was wounded when the second plane strafed the forward gunners.
In the event 11th house, he does not have a direct impact on the second plane but he does have 29° Aries Ceres after the kamikaze strike. Ceres, as goddess of the seasons and agriculture, grapples with issues of death and rebirth. She oversees the initiation of the young through the death of the seed or child state into the mature state. The sabian symbol for 29° Aries is “music of the spheres”. Aries as the first sign is often mistaken as selfish, showing showing excessive concern for oneself over others, when in reality they are self centered, only interested in oneself and one’s own activities. This self orientation is actually a lack of awareness of anything outside the self. This comes from stepping forward as an independent entity separate from the sea of Pisces. Hearing the musica universalis at the end of Aries is recognition of not only something outside the self but a recognition of all of the things outside the self. It is the beginning of the change from Aries to the next zodiac sign Taurus.
The final piece of information is his personal Pluto (death) is conjunct the event north node. This indicates he was acting as Pluto during the attack and likely gave the death blow to the first pilot and his plane.