And wasn't it [suicide tactics] controversial among the Japanese high command even [when the war had dramatically turned against Japan]?
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Yes, I think so.
Ivan Morris' The Nobility of Failure ("tragic heroes in the history of Japan") devotes a lengthy chapter to the Special Attack Pilot program. This book provided my first serious introduction to the topic and is the source of many of my impressions of that period.
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As part of its late war propaganda effort, the Japanese high command crafted a new word, *gyokusai* (which roughly translates as shattered jewels) to prettify the situation's grim truth. Prettify, as in, our mass death is like the shattering of precious jewels against rock. This didn't fool the most level-headed members of the Japanese military who insisted that Tokyo forgo such obviously and desperately nihilistic methods in favor of a standard redeployment of their (still formidable) remaining forces in preparation for an American assault upon the home islands.
But, with the US Navy harassing and/or controlling the best supply routes and the US Army Air Corps dominating the skies, this was far easier said than done. Also, suicide tactics proved to be very effective in many engagements. For example, during the battle of Iwo Jima special attack units heavily damaged or sunk nearly 300 USN vessels.
See:
<http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-042.htm>
So, although there were objections, the severe logistical challenges and battle tested lethality of the kamikaze tipped general opinion towards those who favored suicide tactics.
Regarding suicide tactics more generally, Michael Pollak wrote:
And one can go one more step beyond the kamikazes into the everyday "suicide" mission of which there were hundreds on all sides during that massive war, all with perfectly rational motives. And all with the participants probably muttering something more or less religious to themselves at the crisis point whether for condolence or an appeal to primitive luck.
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Yes, this is an excellent point.
My grandfather, who served as a tank man in the Euro theater, told me several stories about engagements which, in all but official name, were understood to be suicidal. One such involved a Waffen SS detachment, a contested bridge and my youthful grandfather (in of course, his pre-grandpa days) squeezing a trigger and advancing on a fortified, Panzerschreck equipped position.
He fully expected to die and was shocked to find himself alive at the other end of it.
.d.