Tamon Yamaguchi
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| Tamon Yamaguchi | |
|---|---|
 Japanese Vice Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi |
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| Born | August 17, 1892 Shimane Prefecture, Japan |
| Died | June 4, 1942 (aged 49)[1] Pacific Ocean near Midway Island |
| Allegiance | Empire of Japan |
| Service/branch |  Imperial Japanese Navy |
| Years of service | 1912-1942 |
| Rank | Vice Admiral |
| Commands held | Isuzu, Ise IJN 5th Fleet, 2nd Carrier Division |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards | Order of the Rising Sun (4th class) Order of the Sacred Treasure (2nd class) [2] Order of the Golden Kite (1st class) |
Tamon Yamaguchi (山口 多聞 Yamaguchi Tamon, 17 August 1892 – 4 June 1942) was a Japanese admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II and an alumnus of Princeton University (1921–1923).
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[edit] Biography
Born in Koishikawa Tokyo, Yamaguchi graduated from the 40th class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1912, ranked second out of 144 cadets. As a midshipman, he served on the cruiser Soya and battleship Settsu. After his commissioning as an ensign, he was assigned to the cruiser Chikuma and battleship Aki.
Yamaguchi attended naval artillery and torpedo school in 1915–1916, and was then assigned to the destroyer Kashi.
By 1918, Yamaguchi had been promoted to lieutenant and was assigned to a navigation unit with the naval squadron escorting Imperial German Navy submarines received by the Japanese government as part of reparation payments from Germany at the end of World War I. He then traveled to the United States and attended Princeton University from 1921-1923. On his return to Japan the following year, he served on the battleship Nagato for six months, before graduating from the Naval Staff College with honors in 1924. Yamaguchi was promoted to lieutenant commander in 1924.
A member of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff in 1927, Yamaguchi was promoted commander the next year and later assigned to the Japanese delegation at the London Naval Conference in 1929-1930. On his return to Japan, he was assigned as executive officer on the cruiser Yura.
Promoted to captain in 1932, Yamaguchi was the naval attaché to Washington, DC from 1934-1937. On his return to Japan, he was assigned as captain to the cruiser Isuzu (from 1936–1937), followed by the battleship Ise (from 1937–1938).
Promoted to rear admiral on 15 November 1938, he was commander of the First Combined Air Group during the early stages of the Second Sino-Japanese War. As Chief of Staff for the IJN 5th Fleet from the end of 1938 he directed the saturation bombing campaign in central China, until his appointment as commander of the 2nd Carrier Division, consisting of the aircraft carriers Sōryū and Hiryū in 1940.[3]
Yamaguchi′s carrier force was part of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and subsequently participated in the Indian Ocean Raid. During the Battle of Midway, Yamaguchi sparred with his superior officer, Admiral Chūichi Nagumo, upon a reconnaissance plane discovering an American aircraft carrier (USS Yorktown) near Midway. At the time, the Japanese carriers′ planes were armed with bombs. Nagumo wished to switch the armament to torpedoes. Yamaguchi demanded that no time be wasted and that the planes be launched to attack the American carrier with bombs. Nagumo rejected this; shortly afterward, American carrier aircraft destroyed all the Japanese carriers except Yamaguchi′s flagship Hiryū. Yamaguchi quickly ordered two successive attacks on Yorktown which crippled it. Shortly afterward, another carrier air strike against Hiryū resulted in hits by aircraft from USS Enterprise. Yamaguchi was killed in action, choosing to go down with the sinking aircraft carrier. Legend has it that he and the captain of Hiryū went down with the stricken carrier while calmly admiring the moon. He was posthumously promoted to the rank of vice admiral.
[edit] Promotions
- Midshipman - 17 July 1912
- Ensign - 1 December 1913
- Sublieutenant - 13 December 1915
- Lieutenant - 1 December 1918
- Lieutenant Commander - 1 December 1924
- Commander - 10 December 1928
- Captain - 1 December 1932
- Rear Admiral - 15 November 1938
- Vice Admiral - 5 June 1942 (Posthumous)[4]
[edit] References
[edit] Books
- Fuchida, Mitsuo (with C.H. Kawakami and Roger Pineau), Midway - The Battle that Doomed Japan: The Japanese Navy's Story, Annapolis, 1955.
- Fuller, Richard (1992). Shokan: Hirohito's Samurai. London: Arms and Armour Press. ISBN 1854091514.
- Peattie, Mark R., Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909-1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001, ISBN 1-55750-432-6
He appears in Drifters as he was first seen sending knights to attack the otre forices.
[edit] External links
- Nishida, Hiroshi. "Imperial Japanese Navy". http://homepage2.nifty.com/nishidah/e/px40.htm#v030. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
- Chen, Peter. "WW2DB: Yamaguchi, Tamon". http://www.ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=39. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
- "Combinedfleet.com, Yamaguchi, Tamon". http://combinedfleet.com/officers/Tamon_Yamaguchi. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
- Kita Renzo's famous painting of Yamaguchi's Last Moments
[edit] Notes
- ^ Nishida, Imperial Japanese Navy.
- ^ Yamaguchi Tamon at navalhistory.flixco.info
- ^ Peattie, page 219
- ^ Nishida, Imperial Japanese Navy
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