Kakuta Kakuji

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Kakuji Kakuta as rear admiral

Kakuta Kakuji ( Japanese 角 田 覚 治 ; * September 23, 1890 in Niigata Prefecture ; † around August 2, 1944 in Tinian ) was a Vice Admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy . He commanded an aircraft carrier division in the first half of the Pacific War and was later commander of the 1st Navy Air Fleet in the Pacific.

Life

Kakuta graduated from the Naval Academy in 1911 and completed his time as a midshipman on the armored cruisers Aso and Ibuki . As an ensign , he was transferred to the protected cruiser Chiyoda and then served, during the First World War , as a lieutenant on the battleship Settsu and the cruiser Azuma .

After further assignments to the battleship Kirishima and a destroyer, he finally became an artillery officer on the protected cruiser Suma and later on the light cruiser Tenryū . Before he attended the staff course at the Naval College in 1924 , he had a command on the cruiser Yūbari .

After completing his staff training in 1926, promoted to corvette captain, he became an artillery officer on the recently completed heavy cruiser Furutaka . In 1934 he got his first command of his own and became the commander of the light cruiser Kiso . After taking command of the cruiser Furutaka , the liner Iwate and the battleships Yamashiro and Nagato , he held a number of administrative positions, including that of a vice-rector of the Naval Academy.

Kakuta was promoted to Rear Admiral in November 1939 and served as commander in the fairly new Japanese aircraft carrier fleet. He commanded a carrier division and was in command of the aircraft carriers Ryūjō and Shōhō .

In the Pacific War , from December 1941, Kakuta had command of the 4th carrier division, consisting of the Ryūjō and the escort aircraft carrier Kasuga Maru . His fleet supported the landings of Japanese soldiers in the Philippines .

He took part in the attack in the Indian Ocean in April 1942 and commanded the Japanese units around the aircraft carriers Ryūjō and Jun'yō , which carried out a diversionary attack on Dutch Harbor in early June 1942 . On July 14, 1942, his 4th Carrier Division was transformed into the 2nd Carrier Division.

The last use of aircraft carriers in which Kakuta was in command was the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October 1942 , in which he commanded the Jun'yō and the Zuikaku , their planes for the sinking , in the second part of the battle USS Hornet were responsible. However, both carriers lost more than half of their aircraft in use.

Kakuta was promoted to Vice Admiral on November 1, 1942 , and as part of the reorganization of the remaining Japanese aircraft carrier associations from July 1, 1943, appointed commander of the 1st Navy Air Fleet. This new unit comprised all land-based aircraft of the Navy , which were distributed on the numerous Japanese-occupied islands in the Pacific. Kakuta initially led its units from its headquarters near Manila . He sent the units subordinate to him into combat without adequate training and they suffered so heavy losses from attacks by American carrier aircraft in the spring and summer of 1944 that they could no longer play a decisive role. After the war, Kakuta was criticized for not telling his superior, Admiral Ozawa , the true extent of these losses and the fact that the operations of his aircraft against the American aircraft carriers had been largely ineffective.

On February 22, 1944, he moved the headquarters of the 1st Air Fleet to Tinian . There he was surprised by the American landing on the island and could not leave it. Several attempts to row small boats to a waiting submarine failed. Ultimately, he withdrew with his staff to a cave on the Tinian coast. However, he did not exercise any command over the army troops on the island, and the navy troops were not under his direct command either. E probably committed seppuku around August 2, 1944 . His body was never found and was probably buried by his soldiers somewhere on the island.

Vice Admiral Teraoka Masuo assumed his position as commander of the 1st Air Fleet .

Evidence and references

literature

  • Tameichi Hara: Japanese Destroyer Captain. US Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 2007, ISBN 1591143543 .
  • Gordon William Prange, Donald M. Goldstein, Katherine V. Dillon: God's samurai: lead pilot at Pearl Harbor. Free Press, Washington, DC 2003, ISBN 1574886959 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Abe Zenji: The Emperor's sea eagle. A memoir of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the war in the Pacific. Arizona Memorial Museum Association, 2006, ISBN 0-9778183-0-6 , p. 99
  2. ↑ God's samurai: lead pilot at Pearl Harbor. P. 22 ff.
  3. ^ First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign: Naval Fighter Combat from August to November 1942. US Naval Institute Press, 2005, ISBN 1-59114-472-8 , page 93
  4. ^ First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign: Naval Fighter Combat from August to November 1942. US Naval Institute Press, 2005, ISBN 1-59114-472-8 , p. 449
  5. ↑ Saipan & Tinian 1944: Piercing the Japanese Empire. Osprey Publishing, 2004, ISBN 1-84176-804-9 , p. 31
  6. ↑ z. B. in: HP Willmott: June 1944. ISBN 0-7137-1446-8 , p. 209
  7. ↑ God's samurai: lead pilot at Pearl Harbor. P. 109
  8. ^ Carl Boyd, Akihiko Yoshida: The Japanese submarine force and World War II. US Naval Institute Press, 2002, ISBN 1-55750-015-0 , p. 150

Web links

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Kakuta is the family name, Kakuji the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Kakuta, Kakuji
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 角 田 覚 治 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Vice Admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy
DATE OF BIRTH September 23, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Niigata prefecture
DATE OF DEATH around August 2, 1944
Place of death Tinian