Mitsuo Fuchida
Mitsuo Fuchida (1902-1976) Captain, Imperial Japanese Navy, was a naval aviator who commanded the air groups of Carrier Division 1 from August 1941 to July 1942. This duty included leading the first strike at the attack on Pearl Harbor. Through WWII, except when hospitalized, he held increasingly responsible positions, and was considered among the most accurate historical sources by postwar interrogators. After the war, he became a Christian missionary.[1]
After being wounded in the Battle of Midway, he became, in n June 1943 senior staff officer, 1st Air Fleet at KANOYA, and, subsequently, when 1st Air Fleet moved to the Northern Mariana Islands, at Tinian. In April 1944, he transferred to IJN Oyodo as Staff Officer (Air Operations) of Combined Fleet. When Fleet Headquarters moved ashore to Hiyoshi in September 1944 he continued as Staff Officer (Air Operations) until the end of the war. [2] During Interrogation No. 6, he discussed the Pearl Harbor raid and the formation of the kamikaze corps in the Philippines and Okinawa.[3]
He coauthored a book on the Battle of Midway. [4] Its accuracy, however, has been challenged by a 2005 book. [5]
References
- ↑ "Mitsuo Fuchida: “From Pearl Harbor to Calvary"", The American Catholic
- ↑ FUCHIDA, Mitsuo, Captain, I.J.N., U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey
- ↑ THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR & THE KAMIKAZE CORPS IN PHILIPPINES AND OKINAWA, U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, 18 October 1945, INTERROGATION NAV NO. 6/USSBS NO. 40
- ↑ Mitsuo Fuchida, Masatake Okumiya, Clarke H. Kawakami (2000), Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy's Story, Naval Institute Press
- ↑ Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully (2005), Shattered Sword, Potomac Books, ISBN 1574889230