Most people in Western culture believe the word "kamikaze" was the name used by the Japanese military for pilots, but that is not true. Their correct name was "tokubetsu kōgeki tai" (特別攻撃隊), which literally means ""special attack team."" This is usually abbreviated "tokkōtai" (特攻隊) in a shortened form. The suicide attacks made by Navy pilots were called "shinpū tokubetsu kōgeki tai" (神風特別攻撃隊, ""divine wind special attack team""). The American translators used a different style of pronunciation of the Japanese language by mistake, and read the word "shinpū" (""divine wind"") as "kamikaze", as those Japanese characters can be read both ways. The name became so well known after the war that Japanese also started using it.