What did some US aircraft carriers do to stop the kamikaze?

The "big blue blanket" was an air defense system devised by John Thach during the Second World War to protect American warships from Japanese kamikaze attacks. The system used Hellcats and Corsairs painted blue, tasked with intercepting Japanese aircraft long before they could reach the main American ships. This was reinforced by dawn-to-dusk fighter sweeps over Japanese airfields.

The defense included a line of destroyers and destroyer escorts stationed 50 miles or more from the main body of the fleet to achieve earlier radar interceptions. At Okinawa, destroyers and destroyer escorts were pulled from the fleet's immediate screens and lined up well north of the carriers, across the path of the kamikaze aircraft. The system left the picket ships exposed to suicide attacks, but gave greater protection to the carriers and troop transports.

The suicide attack was by far the most difficult antiaircraft problem the fleet had ever faced. Combat air patrols and antiaircraft fire, both aided by radar, were excellent, averaging around 90% success in destroying enemy aircraft. The Navy's standard short-range automatic weapon, the 20mm gun, proved ineffective against kamikaze attacks: its rate of fire was too slow and its gyroscopic computing sight could not keep up with such fast suicide attacks.