Onishi Takijiro (1891-1945)

Japanese Navy. Via Wikimedia Commons

Onishi Takijiro was born in Hyogo prefecture and graduated from the Naval Academy in 1912. He was an early advocate of air power and became an ace in China during the 1930s. Like his close associate, Yamamoto Isoroku, he enjoyed games of chance. He a reputation as a man of action rather than a thinker (though he had a genius for working out tactical plans), and once won a national mah-jongg competition under an assumed name. He flew every type of aircraft in the Japanese arsenal and had even taken paratrooper jump training. He was also fond of geisha houses. He was flunked out of the Navy War College for conduct unbecoming an officer (he had slapped a geisha) but, as perhaps the foremost Japanese authority on naval air power, he was able to overcome this seemingly fatal blow to his career through sheer driving determination. He sometimes make startling or even shocking statements in order to provoke his listeners into revealing their own private views.

In 1934, Captain Onishi wrote a memorandum calling for the scrapping of capital ships in favor of a massive fleet of aircraft. He was particularly scathing in his criticism of rumored plans to construct super battleships (Peattie 2001):

It is already dangerous for surface units to enter within the range of such a bomber group. Because battleships are fragile under enemy attack, it is wrong to make them the navy's main force. For our naval armament we should shift from battleships to land-based air power.

In July 1937 Onishi drafted a report opposing an independent air arm.

Onishi was a rear admiral on the Navy General Staff in 1941, where he helped plan the Pearl Harbor attack. Here he correctly predicted that the Americans would never accept a negotiated peace if the war began without a declaration of war. He was reassigned as chief of staff of 11 Air Fleet just prior to the outbreak of the Pacific war.

Onishi took command of 1 Air Fleet in the Philippines on 2 October 1944 as a vice admiral. It was here that he developed the idea of the Special Attack Corps, known to Westerners as the kamikazes: Though he initially disliked the concept, he found that there were only fifty aircraft left under his command, and concluded that no other tactics could be effective. His pilots credited him with providing the driving force that made it possible to sustain a prolonged suicide campaign (Inoguchi et al. 1958):

Even if we are defeated, the noble spirit of the kamikaze attack corps will keep our homeland from ruin. Without this spirit, ruin would certainly follow defeat.

However, the Emperor's reaction on hearing the first reports of kamikaze attacks ("Was it necessary to go to this extreme? They certainly did a magnificent job": Inoguchi et al. 1958) was interpreted by Onishi as a stinging rebuke.

Onishi became vice chief of the Navy General Staff in May 1945, and committed ritual suicide on the announcement of the Japanese surrender, to which he was deeply opposed. He was found on the morning of 16 August, having disemboweled himself but failed to successfully cut his throat; according to witnesses, he refused either medical aid or a coup de grâce and lingered on in agony for eighteen hours. His final note read (Inoguchi et al. 1958):

I wish to express my deep appreciation to the souls of the brave special attackers. They fought and died valiantly with faith in our ultimate victory. In death I wish to atone for my part in the failure to achieve that victory and I apologize to the souls of those dead fliers and their bereaved families.

I wish the young people of Japan to find a moral in my death. To be reckless is only to aid the enemy. You must abide by the spirit of the Emperor's decision with utmost perseverance. Do not forget your rightful pride in being Japanese.

You are the treasure of the nation. With all the fervor of spirit of the special attackers, strive for the welfare of Japan and for peace throughout the world.

Service record

References
Boatner (1996)

Craig (1967)

Dupuy et al. (1992)

Fuller (1992)

Inoguchi, Nakajima, and Pineau (1958)

Materials of IJN (accessed 2007-11-14)
Peattie (2001)

Prados (1995)

Prange (1981)

Roberts (2011)

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007-2009, 2011-2012, 2014 by Kent G. Budge. Index

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