Tamon Yamaguchi
山口 多聞
“I have no words to apologize for what has happened. I only wish for a stronger Japanese Navy and revenge.”
Born on the 17th of August in the 25th year of the Meji Emperor 1892), Tamon Yamaguchu was a native of the Tokyo district of Koishikawa. The scion of a Samurai clan, he would show promise in school, and in 1912 graduated from the Imperial Naval Academy, and soon found hiself serving on the cruiser Tskuma when the Great War broke out.
In 1918 Yamaguchi and his shipmates were assigned as a component of the Imperial Japanese Navy task force sent to the Mediterranean to aid the British against the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Navies. By December of that year he had been promoted to Lieutenant, and returned to Japan, escorting captured German U-boats for examination.
Japanese destroyers entering Marseilles in 1917
The early 1920s saw a brief period of study in the United States, where Yamaguchi attended Princeton University for classes in history before returning to his homeland once again the following year. This was followed by a period on the Imperial General Staff, as well as serving as Japanese Naval Attaché to the United States for a period. During this tenure, he found himself aligned with Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in his opposition to the London Naval Treaty and the restrictions it imposed on the fleets of its signatories.
When the Second Sino-Japanese War began in 1937 Yamaguchi was commanding a cruiser, but a promotion to Rear Admiral the following year saw his status elevated, with the newly minted Admiral taking command of carrier operations for the first time. He would serve in this capacity for the next three years, eventually being posted as commander of the 2nd Carrier Division of the Combined Fleet in 1940, accordingly moving his flag to the carrier Hiryu. A favorite within the navy, it was generally assumed that he was next in line to Yamamoto as commander of the Combined Fleet, the most prestigious posting in the Imperial Navy.
The battleship USS Arizona explodes at Pearl Harbor
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In December of 1941 Yamaguchi’s division participated in the Attack on Pearl Harbor, before following up with attacks on Wake Island, Australia, the East Indies and finally participating in the Indian Ocean Raid. During and immediately following this time he set himself to drawing up plans for the future of Japanese naval operations for the war, favoring invasion and occupation of Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii within the next two years.
This was not to be, however, as he and his force was assigned to join Admiral Yamamoto’s assault on Midway Atoll in June of 1942. This operation was intended to secure the strategically positioned island near the midpoint of the Pacific Ocean, opening the door to invasion of Hawaii as well as to block the access to the US Navy into the central Pacific, and would be accomplished by the Combined Fleet. Yamaguchi and his compatriots were of the belief that they operated with complete superiority over an American fleet ravaged by Pearl Harbor and the Battle of the Coral Sea, and hoped that they could draw out and destroy what remained of the Pacific Fleet in the seas around the island.
The USS Lexington explodes during the Battle of the Coral Sea
The Americans, however, were not as crippled as the Japanese thought. The carrier USS Yorktown, although damaged at the Coral Sea, was under repair at Pearl Harbor, not lost as the IJN believed. It could be made ready on short notice to join the other two carriers in the theater if needed, and moreover, Admiral Chester Nimitz had another ace up his sleeve: his cryptographers had cracked the Japanese naval codes. The Americans knew where the next strike would fall, and could deploy their forces accordingly to ambush the Japanese.
Yamaguchi’s squadron of two carriers (Hiryu and Soryu) was a component of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo’s First Carrier Strike Group, or Kido Butai, which formed part of the core of fleet sailing for Midway. In addition to Yamaguchi’s two carriers, the Kido Butai mustered two more, the Kaga, Akagi, the latter serving as Nagumo’s flagship.
Yamaguchi’s flagship, the Hiryu, takes evasive action while under attack by USAAF bombers off Midway
American reconnaissance fights from Midway had located the Japanese on 4June, and attacks had commenced from the land based aircraft there immediately. Shortly afterward word reached the fleet that US carriers had been spotted by scout planes, and Yamaguchi requested permission to launch an immediate attack. This was denied by Nagumo, who instead opted to rearm the Kido Butai’s strike aircraft with torpedoes (they had been loaded with conventional bombs for attacking the base on Midway itself).
This would prove disastrous for the Japanese, as while their aircraft were being rearmed and refueled the first American wave, consisting of TBD Devastator torpedo bombers, arrived and engaged them. The torpedo bombers were set upon by the remaining Japanese patrol fighters as well as AA batteries, suffering nearly 100% losses with no results. Flush with this victory, the Japanese were unaware of the approach of three flights of SBD Dauntless dive bombers from high altitude, and unable to prevent their attack. Within minutes, Kaga, Akagi and Soryu were flaming wrecks, as American bombs detonated amongst the fueling planes and ordinance strewn among the flight decks and hangars. Yamaguchi’s flagship, the Hiryu, was now the only remaining operational carrier to the Kido Butai.
US Navy Dauntless dive bombers approach Japanese ships off Midway
As soon as orders arrived from the shell-shocked Nagumo to launch a counterattack, Yamaguchi lost no time. Following the retreating Americans, his strike force from Hiryu managed to locate the damaged USS Yorktown and set upon her, with several bomb and torpedo hits in two waves, crippling the carrier and forcing her abandonment.
Despite this retribution, Yamaguchi was still left with only one carrier at his command, and scouts from Yorktown had located it. At 1700 hours the dive bombers attacked once again, with survivors from Yorktown joining in with a flight from USS Enterprise to attack the Hiryu. Four 1,000 pound bombs found their mark, and Yamaguchi’s flagship was left burning and crippled.
By dusk it was obvious that Hiryu was beyond help, as the fires raged out of control. Yamaguchi summoned all the remaining crewmembers onto the shrapnel marked flight deck, and gave the order to abandon ship. Joined by the captain, Admiral Yamaguchi remained aboard, issuing orders for the destroyer Kazagumo to scuttle the burning carrier with torpedoes. Both men were last seen on the bridge of Hiryu by the evacuating crew, and both perished when the carrier foundered.
Yamaguchi’s flagship Hiryu burns after the American attack. Note the forward elevator, appearing almost like a smokestack after being launched into the air and landing just ahead of the command island.
Yamaguchi was upheld in propaganda after the defeat at Midway as a paragon of the Bushido Code, an aggressive commander who in the end gave his life to atone for failure. He was posthumously promoted to Vice Admiral by the Imperial General Staff, and also received the Order of the Golden Kite in the 1st Class for bravery. His desire to launch a strike against the carriers without waiting to rearm the planes is one that has fueled much speculation over the following years, but it is certain that by choosing to go down with his ship Yamaguchi deprived the IJN of one of its best carrier commanders.
