Chūichi Nagumo

File:NagumoSaeki1925.jpg in 1925]]

Nagumo was born in the city of Yonezawa, Yamagata Prefecture, in northern Japan in 1887. He graduated from the 36th class of the IJN Academy in 1908, with a ranking of 8 out of a class of 191 cadets. As a midshipman, he served in the protected cruisers {{Ship|Japanese cruiser|Soya||2}} and {{Ship|Japanese cruiser|Niitaka||2}} and the armored cruiser {{Ship|Japanese cruiser|Nisshin||2}}. After his promotion to ensign in 1910 he was assigned to cruiser {{Ship|Japanese cruiser|Asama||2}}.

After attending torpedo and naval artillery schools, he was promoted to sub-lieutenant and served in the battleship {{Ship|Japanese battleship|Aki||2}}, followed by the destroyer {{Ship|Japanese destroyer|Hatsuyuki|1906|2}}. In 1914, he was promoted to lieutenant and was assigned to the battlecruiser {{Ship|Japanese battleship|Kirishima||2}}, followed by the destroyer {{Ship|Japanese destroyer|Sugi|1915|2}}. He was assigned his first command, the destroyer {{Ship|Japanese destroyer|Kisaragi|1905|2}}, on 15 December 1917.

Nagumo graduated from the Naval War College and was promoted to lieutenant commander in 1920. His specialty was torpedo and destroyer tactics.

From 1920 to 1921, he was captain of the destroyer {{Ship|Japanese destroyer|Momi|1919|2}}, but was soon sent to shore duty with various assignments by the IJN General Staff. He became a commander in 1924. From 1925 to 1926, Nagumo accompanied a Japanese mission to study naval warfare strategy, tactics, and equipment in Western Europe and the United States.

File:Machida Shinichiro With Nagumo Chuichi (cropped).png

After his return to Japan, Nagumo was assigned to duties in Chinese territorial waters. He was appointed captain of the river gunboat {{ship|Japanese gunboat|Saga||2}} from 20 March 1926 to 15 October 1926, followed by the gunboat {{ship|Japanese gunboat|Uji|1903|2}} from 15 October 1926 to 15 November 1927. He then served as an instructor at the IJN Academy from 1927 to 1929. Nagumo was promoted to captain in November 1929 and assumed command of the light cruiser {{Ship|Japanese cruiser|Naka||2}} and from 1930 to 1931 was commander of the 11th Destroyer Division. After serving in administrative positions from 1931 to 1933, he assumed command of the heavy cruiser {{Ship|Japanese cruiser|Takao|1930|2}} from 1933 to 1934, and the battleship {{Ship|Japanese battleship|Yamashiro||2}} from 1934 to 1935. He was promoted to Rear Admiral on 1 November 1935.

As a Rear Admiral, Nagumo commanded the 8th Cruiser Division to support Imperial Japanese Army movements in China from the Yellow Sea. As a leading officer of the militaristic Fleet Faction, he also received a boost in his career from political forces.

From 1937 to 1938, he was commandant of the Torpedo School, and from 1938 to 1939, he was commander of the 3rd Cruiser Division. Nagumo was promoted to vice admiral on 15 November 1939. From November 1940 to April 1941, Nagumo was commandant of the Naval War College.

File:Chuichi Nagumo with the staff of the 1st Air Fleet.jpg

File:Chuichi Nagumo in the bridge of Akagi heading to attack Pearl Harbor.jpg

On 10 April 1941, Nagumo was appointed commander-in-chief of the 1st Air Fleet, the IJN's main carrier battle group, largely due to his seniority. Many contemporaries and historians have doubted his suitability for this command, given his lack of familiarity with naval aviation. Nagumo's friend and fellow admiral Nishizō Tsukahara would say that: "He (Nagumo) was wholly unfitted by background, training, experience, and interest for a major role in Japan’s naval air arm."{{Cite journal |last=Caravaggio |first=Angelo N. |date=2014 |title="WINNING" THE PACIFIC WAR: The Masterful Strategy of Commander Minoru Genda |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26397439 |journal=Naval War College Review |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=85–118 |jstor=26397439 |issn=0028-1484}} Nagumo was appointed by the Navy General Staff, rather than the Combined Fleet. Vice-admiral Jisaburō Ozawa was Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's choice for the command of First Air Fleet but Yamamoto did not have a strong enough case to remove Nagumo.

File:ChuichiNagumoPDJapan.jpg

By this time, he had visibly aged, physically and mentally. Physically, he suffered from arthritis, possibly from his younger days as a kendoka. Mentally, he had become a cautious officer who carefully worked over the tactical plans of every operation in which he was involved; his inflexibility in command decisions became more apparent. {{Citation needed|date=June 2011}}

Admiral Tsukahara had doubts about Nagumo's appointment, and commented, "Nagumo was an officer of the old school, a specialist of torpedo and surface maneuvers.... He did not have any idea of the capability and potential of naval aviation." One son of Nagumo described him as a brooding father, obsessed with and later regretful about pressuring his sons into joining the IJN. In contrast, Nagumo's junior naval officers thought of him as a father figure.[http://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=N11 World War II Database page on Nagumo].

Despite his limited experience, he was a strong advocate of combining sea and air power, although he was opposed to Admiral Yamamoto's plan to attack the United States Navy Naval Station Pearl Harbor.{{sfn|Evans|1979|p=529}} While commanding the First Air Fleet, Nagumo oversaw the attack on Pearl Harbor, but he was later criticized for his failure to launch a third attack,{{cite book |last=Blair |first=Clay Jr. |title=Silent Victory |publisher=Lippincott |year=1975}}Willmott, H. P. Barrier and the Javelin (United States Naval Institute Press, 1983){{cite book |last=Holmes |first=W. J. |title=Double-Edged Secrets |publisher=United States Naval Institute Press |year=1979}} which might have destroyed the fuel oil storage and repair facilities. This could have rendered the most important U.S. naval base in the Pacific useless, especially as the continued operation of the submarine base and the use of the intelligence station at the installation were critical factors in Japan's defeat in the Pacific War.{{sfnm|Blair|1975|1loc=passim|Holmes|1979|2loc=passim}}

Nagumo was surrounded by able lieutenants such as Minoru Genda and Mitsuo Fuchida. He also fought well in the early 1942 campaigns, obtaining success as a fleet commander at the Bombing of Darwin and at the Indian Ocean raid on the Eastern Fleet, the latter of which sank an aircraft carrier, two cruisers, and two destroyers, and caused Admiral Sir James Somerville to retreat to East Africa.

The Battle of Midway, in June 1942, brought Nagumo's streak of victories to an end. During the battle, a Martin B-26 Marauder, seriously damaged by anti-aircraft fire, flew directly at the bridge of the aircraft carrier {{ship|Japanese aircraft carrier|Akagi||2}}. The aircraft, either attempting a suicide ramming, or out of control, narrowly missed striking the carrier's bridge, which could have killed Nagumo, before it crashed into the ocean.{{sfn|Parshall|Tully|2005|pp=151–152}}Lundstrom, p. 337

Nagumo soon prepared to launch another attack on Midway, in direct violation of Yamamoto's order to keep the reserve strike force armed for anti-ship operations.{{Harvnb|Prange|Goldstein|Dillon|1982|pp=207–212}}; {{Harvnb|Parshall|Tully|2005|pp=149–152}}; {{cite web |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-CN-Midway/USN-CN-Midway-6.html |title=Office of Naval Intelligence Combat Narrative: "Midway's Attack on the Enemy Carriers" |access-date=28 January 2012}} That change in plans required arming the available planes with bombs, suitable for attacking land targets, rather than torpedoes, designed for anti-ship actions.

However, when Nagumo received scouting reports that American ships were in the area, he changed plans and ordered his planes be rearmed with torpedoes to attack American ships.[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-battle-midway-180973516/ The True Story of the Battle of Midway], Smithsonian magazine, Meilan Solly, Nov. 8, 2019. This article focuses on how accurate the 2019 Hollywood movie is. The situation caught his aircraft in-between, with half his planes armed with torpedoes and the other half with bombs and no time to switch everything back to torpedoes.

American dive-bombers attacked Akagi, {{ship|Japanese aircraft carrier|Kaga||2}} and {{ship|Japanese aircraft carrier|Sōryū||2}}, resulting in fires and further explosions due to unsecured ordinance, crippling all three. After the attack, Nagumo appeared to have gone into a state of shock;{{cite book|first=Winston |last=Groom|title=1942: The Year That Tried Men's Souls|year=2005 |page=238 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sDVUcuAUCUwC&q=thorpe&pg=PA36|publisher=Grove Press|isbn=9780802142504}} he stood near the ship's compass looking out at the flames on his ship and two other carriers, and despite being asked to shift his flag to another vessel, Nagumo was reluctant, muttering, “It's not time yet”. Nagumo's chief of staff, Rear Admiral Ryūnosuke Kusaka, was able to persuade him; Nagumo nodded, with tears in his eyes.{{sfnm|Lord|1967|1pp=183|2a1=Parshall|2a2=Tully|2y=2005|2p=[https://archive.org/details/shatteredswordun0000pars/page/260 260]}} Nagumo and his staff were forced to evacuate through the forward windows of the bridge by rope. An expert in judo, Nagumo landed lightly, whereas Kusaka badly sprained both ankles and was burned during the evacuation.{{sfnm|Dull|1978|1p=161|2a1=Parshall|2a2=Tully|2y=2005|p=260}}

The First Air Fleet lost four carriers during the turning point of the Pacific War, and the massive losses of carrier aircraft maintenance personnel would prove detrimental to the performance of the IJN in later engagements. The loss of the four carriers, their aircraft, and their maintenance crews, plus the loss of 120 experienced pilots, resulted in Japan losing the strategic initiative in the Pacific.{{Cite book|title=The Turn of the Tide in the Pacific War|last=Judge|first=Sean M.|publisher=University Press of Kansas|year=2018|editor-last=House|editor-first=Jonathan M.|pages=143}}

In the aftermath of the battle, Kusaka found a downcast Nagumo, seemingly contemplating suicide; Kusaka eventually talked him out of it. Following the battle, Nagumo appeared to have lost his aggressiveness and effectiveness; he teared up when talking about the events of Midway to his two sons in 1944.{{sfn|Parshall|Tully|2005|p=352}}

Afterwards, Nagumo was reassigned as commander-in-chief of the Third Fleet and commanded aircraft carriers in the Guadalcanal campaign in the battles of the Eastern Solomons and the Santa Cruz Islands. Despite the Japanese victory at the Santa Cruz{{cite book | last = Prados | first = John | title = Islands of Destiny: The Solomons Campaign and the Eclipse of the Rising Sun | year = 2012 | publisher = NAL | isbn = 978-0451238047 | page = 158}} Nagumo himself acknowledged that the attrition imposed to the Japanese Imperial Navy in these actions, especially with the loss of experienced pilots, was "shattering strategic loss for Japan", nowithstanding the tactical success.{{Cite book |last=Hara |first=Tameichi |url=https://www.google.com.ar/books/edition/Japanese_Destroyer_Captain/gm4s025ApT0C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=japanese+destroyer+captain+book&printsec=frontcover |title=Japanese Destroyer Captain: Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Midway —The Great Naval Battles as Seen Through Japanese Eyes |date=2011-08-15 |publisher=Naval Institute Press|page=125|isbn=978-1-61251-374-4 |language=en}}

On 11 November 1942, Nagumo was reassigned to Japan, where he was given command of the Sasebo Naval District. He then transferred to the Kure Naval District on 21 June 1943. From October 1943 to February 1944, Nagumo was once again made commander-in-chief of First Fleet, which was by that time largely involved in only training duties to conserve what little remained of Japan's air force. {{Citation needed|date=April 2014}}

As Japan's military situation deteriorated, Nagumo was deployed on 4 March 1944 for the short-lived command of the 14th Air Fleet and the Central Pacific Area Fleet in the Mariana Islands.

The Battle of Saipan began on 15 June 1944. The IJN, under Vice Admiral Jisaburō Ozawa, was overwhelmed within days by the U.S. 5th Fleet in the decisive Battle of the Philippine Sea, where Japan lost three fleet carriers and about 600 aircraft, none of which could be replaced. Nagumo and his Army peer Lieutenant General Yoshitsugu Saito were now on their own to keep control of Saipan.

File:NagumoSaipan.jpg

On 6 July 1944, Nagumo, unable to defend his position any longer and refusing to be taken captive, killed himself with a pistol shot to his temple. Defeated commanders were expected to perform seppuku in accordance with bushido, but he may not have had the time for such a complex ritual. His remains were recovered by U.S. Marines in a remote cave where he had been forced to maintain his headquarters due to extensive bombardment.[http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/USMC-C-Saipan/index.html Breaching the Marianas: The Battle for Saipan] He was posthumously made a full admiral and awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Golden Kite.Image:NagumoFamily1943.jpg

Nagumo's grave is located at the Ōbai-in sub-temple of Engaku-ji in Kamakura, next to the grave of his son, Susumu Nagumo, who was killed in battle aboard the destroyer {{ship|Japanese destroyer|Kishinami||2}} on 4 December 1944.

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Dull|first=Paul S.|year=1978|title=A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941–1945|publisher=Naval Institute Press|isbn=0-87021-097-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/battlehistoryofi0000dull}}
• {{cite book|last=Evans|first=David|year=1979|title=Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941|publisher=US Naval Institute Press|isbn=0-87021-192-7}}
• {{cite web |first= Klemen |last= L |date= 2000 |title= Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941–1942 |url= https://warfare.gq/dutcheastindies/index.html |access-date= March 30, 2021 |archive-date= July 26, 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110726053035/http://www.dutcheastindies.webs.com/index.html |url-status= dead }}
• {{Cite book| last = Lord | first = Walter | author-link = Walter Lord | year = 1967 | title = Incredible Victory | publisher = Harper and Row |location=New York |isbn = 1-58080-059-9}}
• {{cite book | last1=Parshall | first1=Jonathan | first2=Anthony | last2=Tully | year=2005 | title=Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway | publisher=Potomac Books | location=Dulles, Virginia | isbn=1-57488-923-0 | url=https://archive.org/details/shatteredswordun0000pars }}
• {{Cite book |last1=Prange |first1=Gordon W. |author-link=Gordon W. Prange |last2=Goldstein |first2=Donald M. |last3=Dillon |first3=Katherine V. |year=1982 |title=Miracle at Midway |publisher=McGraw-Hill |location=New York |isbn=0-07-050672-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/miracleatmidway00pran }}

• {{cite book|last=D'Albas|first=Andrieu|year=1965|title=Death of a Navy: Japanese Naval Action in World War II|publisher=Devin-Adair Pub|isbn=0-8159-5302-X}}
• {{cite book|last=Denfeld|first=D. Colt|year=1997|title=Hold the Marianas: The Japanese Defense of the Mariana Islands|publisher=White Mane Pub|isbn=1-57249-014-4}}
• {{cite book|last=Goldberg|first=Harold J.|year=2007|title=D-day in the Pacific: The Battle of Saipan|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-34869-2}}
• {{cite book|last=Jones|first=Don|year=1986|title=Oba, The Last Samurai| publisher=Presidio Press|isbn=0-89141-245-X}}
• {{cite book|last=Morison|first=Samuel Eliot|author-link=Samuel Eliot Morison|year=2001|edition=reissue|title=New Guinea and the Marianas, March 1944–August 1944, vol. 8 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Champaign, Illinois, US|isbn=0-252-07038-0}}
• {{cite web |last=Nishida |first=Hiroshi |title=Materials of IJN: Nagumo, Chuichi |work=Imperial Japanese Navy |url=http://homepage2.nifty.com/nishidah/e/px36.htm#a003 |access-date=2007-08-03 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140314231329/http://homepage2.nifty.com/nishidah/e/px36.htm#a003 |archive-date=2014-03-14 |url-status=dead }}

{{Commons category|Chūichi Nagumo}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• [http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/prs-for/japan/japrs-n/c-nagmo.htm Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, IJN, (1886-1944)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111028211345/http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/prs-for/japan/japrs-n/c-nagmo.htm |date=October 28, 2011 }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080207162551/http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor/ngbeyond/people/people10.html Beyond the Movie: Pearl Harbor]
• [http://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=N11 WW2DB: Chuichi Nagumo]
• [http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/USMC-C-Saipan/index.html Breaching the Marianas: The Battle for Saipan] (Marines in World War II Commemorative Series)

{{s-start}}

{{s-mil}}

{{s-bef|before=Ban Jirō}}

{{s-ttl|title={{ship|Japanese cruiser|Naka||2}}
Commanding Officer|years=30 November 1929 – 1 December 1930}}

{{s-aft|after=Yamada Sadao}}

{{s-bef|before=Sawamoto Yorio}}

{{s-ttl|title={{ship|Japanese cruiser|Takao|1930|2}}
Commanding Officer|years=15 November 1933 – 15 November 1934}}

{{s-aft|after=Gotō Eiji}}

{{s-bef|before=Kojima Kentarō}}

{{s-ttl|title={{ship|Japanese battleship|Yamashiro||2}}
Commanding Officer|years=15 November 1934 – 15 November 1935}}

{{s-aft|after=Ookuma Masakichi}}

{{s-bef|before=Sawamoto Yorio}}

{{s-ttl|title=Naval War College
Headmaster|years=1 November 1940 – 10 April 1941}}

{{s-aft|after=Acting Headmaster
Abe Kasuke
Headmaster
Ozawa Jisaburō}}

{{s-non|reason=Fleet created}}

{{s-ttl|title=1st Air Fleet
Commander-in-chief|years=10 April 1941 – 14 July 1942}}

{{s-aft|after={{small|Fleet reorganized as 3rd Fleet}}
Himself
{{small|Fleet dissolved, post next held by}}
Kakuji Kakuta}}

{{s-bef|before={{small|Fleet reorganized from 1st Air Fleet}}
Himself
{{small|Fleet recreated, post last held by}}
Takahashi Ibō}}

{{s-ttl|title=3rd Fleet
Commander-in-chief|years=14 July 1942 – 11 November 1942}}

{{s-aft|after=Ozawa Jisaburō}}

{{s-bef|before=Tanimoto Matarō}}

{{s-ttl|title=Sasebo Naval District
Commander-in-chief|years=11 November 1942 – 21 June 1943}}

{{s-aft|after=Komatsu Teruhisa}}

{{s-bef|before=Takahashi Ibō}}

{{s-ttl|title=Kure Naval District
Commander-in-chief|years=21 June 1943 – 20 October 1943}}

{{s-aft|after=Nomura Naokuni}}

{{s-bef|before=Shimizu Mitsumi}}

{{s-ttl|title=1st Fleet
Commander-in-chief|years=20 October 1943 – 25 February 1944}}

{{s-non|reason=Fleet dissolved}}

{{s-break}}

{{s-non|reason=Fleet created}}

{{s-ttl|title=Central Pacific Area Fleet & 14th Air Fleet
Commander-in-chief|years=4 March 1944 – 8 July 1944}}

{{s-non|reason={{small|Post left vacant following Nagumo's death}}
Fleet dissolved
{{small|18 July 1944}}}}

{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagumo, Chuichi}}

Category:1887 births

Category:1944 deaths

Category:People from Yamagata Prefecture

Category:Attack on Pearl Harbor

Category:Battle of Midway

Category:Japanese admirals of World War II

Category:Imperial Japanese Navy admirals

Category:Japanese military personnel who died by suicide

Category:Suicides by firearm in the Northern Mariana Islands