Tamon Yamaguchi

Tamon Yamaguchi was born in Tokyo, Japan, on August 17, 1892. He was the third son of a former samurai retainer of Matsue Domain. He attended the Kaisei Academy and graduated from the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1912, ranked 21st out of 144 cadets. He served on various ships and submarines during World War I and was dispatched to the Mediterranean with the Japanese fleet as part of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. He also studied at Princeton University in the United States from 1921 to 1923. He then attended the Naval Staff College and graduated with honors in 1926. He was promoted to captain in 1932 and served as the naval attaché to Washington, DC from 1934 to 1937. He commanded the cruiser Isuzu and the battleship Ise before becoming a rear admiral in 1938. He was the commander of the First Combined Air Group during the early stages of the Second Sino-Japanese War and directed the saturation bombing campaign in central China. He was then appointed as the commander of the 2nd Carrier Division, consisting of the aircraft carriers Sōryū and Hiryū, in 1940. He participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Wake Island, the Indian Ocean Raid, and the Battle of Midway during the Pacific War. He was known for his tactical skills, his charismatic leadership, and his willingness to challenge his superiors. He was also a devout Buddhist and a lover of poetry and literature. He was married to Yoshiko Yamaguchi, a niece of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, and had a son and a daughter. He died on June 5, 1942, when he chose to go down with his flagship Hiryū after it was crippled by American aircraft. He was posthumously promoted to vice admiral and awarded the Order of the Golden Kite. He is regarded as one of the most respected and admired naval officers in Japanese history.