Kusaka Ryūnosuke

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Kusaka Ryūnosuke

Kusaka Ryūnosuke ( Japanese 草 鹿 龍之介 ; born September 25, 1893 in Tokyo , Japan ; † November 23, 1971 ) was a Japanese admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II and served as chief of staff of the combined fleet . He was also the 4th head of the Ittō Shōden Mutō-ryū Kenjutsu, a renowned school for sword fighting, which was founded by the samurai Yamaoka Tesshū . The Japanese admiral Kusaka Jin'ichi was his cousin.

Career

Photos with Ryūnosuke Kusaka

Kusaka Ryūnosuke, son of a director of the Sumitomo Corporation ( Zaibatsu ), was born in Tokyo in 1893. According to the family register, he lived in Ishikawa Prefecture and attended school in Osaka .

He attended the 41st year of the Naval Academy . His class consisted of 118 men. In 1917 he graduated as 14th best. He then went to the Naval Gunnery School, where he graduated in 1920. Kusaka served as a midshipman on the cruisers Azuma and Otowa . After being promoted to lieutenant at sea ( Kaigun-Shōi ), he served on board the battleship Kawachi and the cruiser Yakumo . He later served on the battleship Kongo and the destroyer Kuwa . On December 1, 1919 he was promoted to lieutenant captain ( Kaigun-Daii ). In the following years he served on the battleships Mutsu and Yamashiro , the destroyer Susuki and the workshop ship Kanto . His promotion to corvette captain ( Kaigun-Shōsa ) took place in 1925. In the same year he graduated from the naval college , specializing in naval aviation . He then led a naval aviation group which was stationed in Kasumigaura ( Ibaraki Prefecture ). During this time he also held several staff positions.

On September 1, 1933, he was appointed first officer aboard the cruiser Iwate . After his promotion to sea captain ( Kaigun-Daisa ) on November 16, 1936, he was given command of the aircraft carrier Hōshō . In 1939 he was given command of the aircraft carrier Akagi .

On November 15, 1940, he was promoted to Rear Admiral ( Kaigun-Shōshō ). He was the commander of the 24th Air Squadron before he was appointed Chief of Staff of the 1st Navy Air Fleet under Admiral Nagumo Chūichi in April 1941 . He was responsible for strategic and tactical planning and execution, which included the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway . After the Japanese defeat at the Battle of Midway, Kusaka was able to prevent the fleet commander and senior officers from committing seppuku . Kusaka severely sprained and burned both ankles while the critically damaged Akagi withdrew from battle.

Kusaka stayed with the fleet until November 1942. After that he held several staff positions. On May 1, 1944 he was promoted to Vice Admiral ( Kaigun-Chūjhō ) and in November 1944 assigned to the combined fleet as Chief of Staff under Supreme Commander Admiral Toyoda Soemu . He took over his last command of the 5th Naval Air Fleet after Vice Admiral Ugaki Matome's suicide , which took place exactly one day after Japan's surrender .

Movies

Kusaka was introduced in 1970 by the actor Ryūzaki Ichirō in the US-Japanese war film Tora! Torah! Torah! embodied in 1976 by the actor Pat Morita in the US war film Battle for Midway , in 1981 by the actor Mihashi Tatsuya in the Japanese war film Rengō Kantai (broadcast in the United States under The Imperial Navy ) and in 2005 by Hayashi Ryūzō in the Japanese war film Yamato - The Last battle .

literature

  • D'Albas, Andrieu: Death of a Navy: Japanese Naval Action in World War II, Devin-Adair Pub, 1965, ISBN 0-8159-5302-X
  • Dull, Paul S .: A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941-1945, Naval Institute Press, 1978, ISBN 0-87021-097-1
  • Parrish, Thomas: The Simon and Schuster Encyclopedia of World War II, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978, ISBN 0-671-24277-6
  • Peattie, Mark R .: Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909-1941, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2001, ISBN 1-55750-432-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Parshall, Jonathan; Tully, Anthony: Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway, Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books, 2005, ISBN 1-57488-923-0 , p. 260
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Kusaka is the family name, Ryūnosuke the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Kusaka, Ryūnosuke
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 草 鹿 龍之介 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese admiral
DATE OF BIRTH September 25, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Tokyo , Japan
DATE OF DEATH November 23, 1971