Mitsuo Fuchida - wikipedia Mitsuo Fuchida Mitsuo Fuchida 淵田 美津雄 Captain Mitsuo Fuchida 3 December 1902 Nara Prefecture, Japan 30 May 1976 ( 1976 - 05 - 31 ) ( aged 73 ) Kashiwara, near Osaka, Japan Allegiance Empire of Japan Service / branch Imperial Japanese Navy Years of service 1924 -- 45 Rank Captain Unit 1st Air Fleet Commands held Akagi : 1st ( flag ), 2nd and 3rd air squadrons Battles / wars World War II : China Attack on Pearl Harbor Bombing of Darwin Indian Ocean raid Battle of Midway Other work Christian evangelist Author Fuchida in training for the attack on Pearl Harbor Mitsuo Fuchida ( 淵田 美津雄, Fuchida Mitsuo, 3 December 1902 -- 30 May 1976 ) was a Japanese captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and a bomber aviator in the Japanese navy before and during World War II. He is perhaps best known for leading the first wave of air attacks on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Working under the overall fleet commander, Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo, Fuchida was responsible for the coordination of the entire aerial attack. After the war ended, Fuchida became a Christian evangelist and traveled through the United States and Europe to tell his story. He settled permanently in the United States but never became a U.S. citizen. Contents 1 Early life 2 World War II 2.1 Pearl Harbor 2.2 Other actions 2.3 Staff officer 3 Postwar activities 4 Published works 5 Historical controversy 6 Portrayals 7 Auction 8 References 8.1 Notes 8.2 Citations 8.3 Bibliography 9 External links Early life Mitsuo Fuchida was born in what is now part of Katsuragi, Nara Prefecture, Japan to Yazo and Shika Fuchida on 3 December 1902. He entered the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy at Etajima, Hiroshima, in 1921, where he befriended classmate Minoru Genda and discovered an interest in flying. He graduated as a midshipman on 24 July 1924, and was promoted to ensign on 1 December 1925 and to sub-lieutenant on 1 December 1927. He was promoted to lieutenant on 1 December 1930. Specializing in horizontal bombing, Fuchida was made an instructor in that technique in 1936. He gained combat experience during the Second Sino - Japanese War, when he was assigned to the aircraft carrier Kaga in 1929 and then to the Sasebo Air Group, He was promoted to lieutenant commander on 1 December 1936 and was accepted into the Naval Staff College. Fuchida joined the aircraft carrier Akagi in 1939 as the commander of the air group. Fuchida was made commander in October 1941. World War II Pearl Harbor This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( July 2013 ) On Sunday, 7 December 1941, a Japanese force under the command of Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo -- consisting of six carriers with 423 aircraft -- was ready to attack the United States base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. At 06 : 00, the first wave of 183 dive bombers, torpedo bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters took off from carriers 250 mi ( 400 km ) north of Oahu and headed for the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. At 07 : 40 Hawaiian Standard Time, Mitsuo Fuchida, who by this time had achieved the rank of commander, arrived with the first attack wave on Oahu 's north shore near Kahuku Point. The first attack wave then banked west and flew along the northwest coast. Fuchida ordered `` Tenkai '' ( Take attack position ), and upon seeing no U.S. activity at Pearl Harbor, Fuchida slid back the canopy of his Nakajima B5N 2 torpedo bomber, tailcode AI - 301, and fired a single dark blue flare known as a `` black dragon '', the signal to attack. Passing Waimea Bay at 07 : 49, Fuchida instructed his radio operator, Petty Officer 1st Class Norinobu Mizuki, to send the coded signal `` To, To, To '' ( totsugekiseyo -- `` to charge '' ) to the other aircraft. Fuchida, thinking Lt Cmdr Shigeru Itaya 's Zeroes had missed the signal, fired a second flare. Lt Cmdr Kakuichi Takahashi, overall leader of the first wave dive bombers, saw both flares and misunderstood the signal. Thinking the dive bombers were to attack, he led his dive bombers into immediate attack position. Lt Cmdr Shigeharu Murata, overall leader of the torpedo bombers, observed both flares and saw Takahashi 's planes gliding into attack formation. He knew there was a misunderstanding which could not be rectified, so he led his torpedo bombers into attack positions. At this point, Cmdr Fuchida 's pilot, Lieutenant Mitsuo Matsuzaki, guided their bomber along with the remaining horizontal bombers in a formation sweep around Keana Point and headed down the western coast of Oahu. At 07 : 53, Fuchida ordered Mizuki to send the code words `` Tora ! Tora ! Tora ! '' back to the carrier Akagi, the flagship of 1st Air Fleet. The message meant that complete surprise had been achieved. Due to favorable atmospheric conditions, the transmission of the `` Tora ! Tora ! Tora ! '' code words from the moderately powered transmitter were heard over a ship 's radio in Japan by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the wartime naval commander, and his staff, who were sitting up through the night awaiting word on the attack. As the first wave returned to the carriers, Fuchida remained over the target to assess damage and observe the second - wave attack. He returned to his carrier only after the second wave had completed its mission. With great pride, he announced that the U.S. battleship fleet had been destroyed. Fuchida inspected his craft and found 21 large flak holes : the main control wires were barely holding together. The successful attack made Fuchida a national hero who was granted a personal audience with Emperor Hirohito. Other actions On 19 February 1942, Fuchida led the first of two waves of 188 aircraft in a devastating air raid on Darwin, Australia. On 5 April, he led another series of air attacks by carrier - based Japanese aircraft against Royal Navy bases in Ceylon, which was the headquarters of the British Eastern Fleet, in what Winston Churchill described as `` the most dangerous moment '' of World War II. On 4 June 1942, while onboard Akagi, Fuchida was wounded at the Battle of Midway. Unable to fly while recovering from an emergency shipboard appendectomy a few days before the battle, he was on the ship 's bridge during the morning attacks by U.S. aircraft. After Akagi was hit, a chain reaction from burning fuel and live bombs began the destruction of the ship. When flames blocked the exit from the bridge, the officers evacuated down a rope, and as Fuchida slid down, an explosion threw him to the deck and broke both his ankles. Staff officer After spending several months recuperating, Fuchida spent the rest of the war in Japan as a staff officer. In October 1944, he was promoted to captain. The day before the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, he was in that city to attend a week - long military conference with Japanese army officers. Fuchida received a long - distance phone call from Navy Headquarters asking him to return to Tokyo. The day after the bombing, he returned to Hiroshima with a party sent to assess the damage. All members of Fuchida 's party later died of radiation poisoning, but Fuchida exhibited no symptoms. Fuchida 's military career ended with his demobilization in November 1945. Postwar activities This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( July 2013 ) After the war, Fuchida was called on to testify at the trials of some of the Japanese military for Japanese war crimes. This infuriated him as he believed this was little more than `` victors ' justice ''. In the spring of 1947, convinced that the Americans had treated the Japanese the same way and determined to bring that evidence to the next trial, Fuchida went to Uraga Harbor near Yokosuka to meet a group of returning Japanese prisoners of war. He was surprised to find his former flight engineer, Kazuo Kanegasaki, who all had believed had died in the Battle of Midway. When questioned, Kanegasaki told Fuchida that they were not tortured or abused, much to Fuchida 's surprise, and then went on to tell him of a young lady, Peggy Covell, who served them with the deepest love and respect, but whose parents, missionaries, had been killed by Japanese soldiers on the island of Panay in the Philippines. For Fuchida, this was inexplicable, as in the Bushido code revenge was not only permitted, it was `` a responsibility '' for an offended party to carry out revenge to restore honor. The murderer of one 's parents would be a sworn enemy for life. He became almost obsessed trying to understand why anyone would treat their enemies with love and forgiveness. In the fall of 1948, Fuchida was passing by the bronze statue of Hachikō at the Shibuya Station when he was handed a pamphlet about the life of Jacob DeShazer, a member of the Doolittle Raid who was captured by the Japanese after his B - 25 bomber ran out of fuel over occupied China. In the pamphlet, `` I Was a Prisoner of Japan '' DeShazer, a former U.S. Army Air Forces staff sergeant and bombardier, told his story of imprisonment, torture and his account of an `` awakening to God. '' This experience increased Fuchida 's curiosity of the Christian faith. In September 1949, after reading the Bible for himself, he became a Christian. In May 1950, Fuchida and DeShazer met for the first time. Fuchida created the Captain Fuchida Evangelistical Association based in Seattle, Washington and spoke full - time of his conversion to the Christian faith in presentations titled `` From Pearl Harbor To Calvary ''. In 1951, Fuchida, along with a colleague, published an account of the Battle of Midway from the Japanese side. In 1952, he toured the United States as a member of the Worldwide Christian Missionary Army of Sky Pilots. Fuchida remained dedicated to a similar initiative as the group for the remainder of his life. In February 1954, Reader 's Digest published Fuchida 's story of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fuchida also wrote and co-wrote books, including From Pearl Harbor to Golgotha, a.k.a. From Pearl Harbor to Calvary, and a 1955 expansion of his 1951 book Midway, a.k.a. Midway : The Battle that Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy 's Story. His autobiography, titled `` Shinjuwan Kogeki no Sotaicho no Kaiso '', was published in Japan in 2007. This was translated into English by Douglas Shinsato and Tadanori Urabe and published in 2011 under the title, `` For That One Day : The Memoirs of Mitsuo Fuchida, Commander of the Attack on Pearl Harbor ''. Fuchida 's story is also recounted in God 's Samurai : Lead Pilot at Pearl Harbor by Donald Goldstein, Katherine V. Dillon and Gordon W. Prange. According to Fuchida 's son, his father had a green card allowing permanent residence in the U.S. but he never obtained U.S. citizenship. This is contrary to the assertions of several authors. Fuchida died of complications caused by diabetes in Kashiwara, near Osaka on 30 May 1976 at the age of 73. Published works Fuchida was the author of three books, one on the Battle of Midway, one a memoir, and one on his conversion to Christianity. Midway : The Battle that Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy 's Story was coauthored with Masatake Okumiya. In a section entitled `` Five Fateful Minutes '', Fuchida ( as translated ) writes `` Five minutes ! Who would have believed that the tide of battle would shift in that brief interval of time ?... We had been caught flatfooted in the most vulnerable condition possible -- decks loaded with planes armed and fueled for attack. '' Later scholarship ( Parshall et al. ) dispute Fuchida 's description. For That One Day : The Memoirs of Mitsuo Fuchida, the Commander of the Attack on Pearl Harbor was his memoir. In it, Fuchida makes a claim that has not been corroborated by others : `` In my role as Staff of General Navy Headquarters, I was assigned miscellaneous tasks to help the Japanese side 's preparations. Since I was not an official attaché, I was watching the signing ceremony from the upper deck along with the crews of the USS Missouri. '' From Pearl Harbor to Calvary, originally published as From Pearl Harbor to Golgotha, is the story of Fuchida 's Christian conversion. Historical controversy Fuchida was an important figure in the early portion of the Pacific War, and his written accounts, translated into English and published in America, were highly influential. However, the veracity of Fuchida 's statements on a variety of topics has been subsequently called into question. This process began in Japan in 1971, with the publication of the Japanese official war history volume on the Battle of Midway, which explicitly contradicted Fuchida 's version of events. In 2001, historians H.P. Willmott and Haruo Tohmatsu in their Pearl Harbor, dismissed Fuchida 's rendition of having demanded a third - wave against Pearl Harbor 's fuel tanks as `` blatant and shameless self - advertisement '' regarding `` an episode which never took place. '' These criticisms were repeated by historian Jonathan Parshall and Mark Stille 's Tora ! Tora ! Tora ! Pearl Harbor 1941. Alan Zimm 's 2011 Attack on Pearl Harbor : Strategy, Combat, Myths, Deceptions, reinforced and enlarged these earlier criticisms and added new charges, including Fuchida having fabricated a battle damage assessment that was presented to Emperor Hirohito. Zimm subsequently accused Fuchida of lying about important decisions and signals he made as strike leader immediately prior to the attack, while blaming others for his own errors. With respect to the Battle of Midway, Fuchida 's account of the readiness of the Japanese counterstrike aircraft during the American dive - bomber attack has been disputed by historians Parshall and Anthony Tully in their 2005 work Shattered Sword, as well as Dallas Isom 's Midway Inquest, and Craig Symonds The Battle of Midway. Parshall also disputed Fuchida 's uncorroborated claims of attendance on the battleship USS Missouri during the Japanese surrender ceremony in 1945, these criticisms being later amplified by Zimm. Fuchida 's version of some of these events has, however, been defended by writer Martin Bennett. When asked what his views of the Hiroshima bombing are, Fuchida stated that although `` it was a disaster '', it was his belief that `` it saved half a million lives ''. Portrayals In the 1970 film Tora ! Tora ! Tora !, Fuchida was portrayed by Japanese actor Takahiro Tamura. Auction Fuchida 's hand - drawn map showing the post-Pearl Harbor attack destruction sold at auction for $425,000 in New York City on 6 December 2013. The map had previously been owned by Malcolm Forbes. References Notes Jump up ^ ( 虎 tora is Japanese for `` tiger '' but in this case `` To '' is the initial syllable of the Japanese word 突撃 totsugeki meaning `` charge '' or `` attack '' and `` ra '' is the initial syllable of 雷撃 raigeki meaning `` torpedo attack ''. Citations Jump up ^ National Geographic Society. Jump up ^ Shinsato & Urabe2011, p.. Jump up ^ Goldstein, Dillon & Prange 2003, p. 5. ^ Jump up to : Goldstein, Dillon & Prange 2003, p. 14. Jump up ^ Goldstein, Dillon & Prange 2003, p. 9. Jump up ^ Goldstein, Dillon & Prange 2003, p. 11. Jump up ^ Goldstein, Dillon & Prange 2003, p. 21. Jump up ^ Agawa 2000, p. 267. Jump up ^ Prange 1982, p. 515. Jump up ^ Smith, Aaron On this day : Darwin under attack February 19, 2011 Australian Geographic Retrieved February 21, 2017 Jump up ^ Goldstein, Dillon & Prange 2003, pp. 178 -- 179. Jump up ^ DeShazer 1950. Jump up ^ Fuchida 1953. Jump up ^ Coffman 2008. Jump up ^ Fuchida 1954. Jump up ^ Shinsato & Urabe 2011, p. 11. Jump up ^ Fuchida & Okumiya 1976, p. 177 - 178. Jump up ^ Fuchida 2011, p. 204. Jump up ^ Nofi, A.A. `` The Japanese Navy in World War II, in the Words of Former Japanese Naval Officers Book Reviews ''. StrategyWorld.com. Retrieved September 3, 2017. Originally published in 1969, The Japanese Navy in World War II was virtually the only thing available that looked at the Pacific war as experienced by the Japanese officers who helped plan, command, and fight it. As such, the book quickly becoming an essential read for anyone interested in the naval war in the Pacific, and a revised and expanded second edition appeared in 1986, which is the edition under review here, available in paperback for the first time. Jump up ^ Senshi Sosho 1971, pp. 372 - 378. Jump up ^ H.P. Willmott, Pearl Harbor, pp. 156 - 157. ^ Jump up to : Parshall 2010. Jump up ^ Stille pp. 73 - 75. Jump up ^ Zimm, pp. 301 - 308. Jump up ^ Zimm, pp. 255 - 258 ; 361 - 365. Jump up ^ Zimm 2016, pp. 19 - 22. Jump up ^ ParshallTully 2005, p. 437 -- 442. Jump up ^ Dallas Isom, Midway Inquest, pp. 204 -- 206. Jump up ^ Craig Symonds, The Battle of Midway, p. 304. Jump up ^ Zimm, pp. 260 - 263. Jump up ^ Bennett 2013. Jump up ^ The Merv Griffin Show. Season 2. 1965. Syndication. Jump up ^ The Associated Press ( 6 December 2013 ). `` Japanese map of Pearl Harbor damage, drawn by attack 's lead pilot, sells for $425 K at auction ''. The Republic. Columbus, Indiana. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2013. Bibliography Agawa, Hiroyuki ( 2000 ). The Reluctant Admiral : Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy. Tokyo : Kodansha International. ISBN 4 - 7700 - 2539 - 4. Bennett, Martin ( Winter 2013 ). `` Parshall 's ' Whoppers ' Examined : Fact - Checking the Various Claims and Conclusions of Jonathan Parshall ''. Naval War College Review. Newport, Rhode Island : US Naval War College. 66 ( 1 ) : 110 -- 125. Archived from the original on 31 March 2013. Retrieved 13 July 2013. Bennett, Martin ( Summer 2013 ). `` Fireside Chats and Chasing Rabbits ''. Naval War College Review. Newport, Rhode Island : US Naval War College. 66 ( 3 ) : 155 -- 157. Archived from the original on 10 October 2013. Retrieved 13 July 2013. `` Capt. Mitsuo Fuchida ( 1902 -- 1976 ) ''. Beyond the Movie : Pearl Harbor. National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 13 October 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2013. Coffman, Elesha ( 8 August 2008 ). `` Beyond Pearl Harbor ''. Christian History. Christianity Today. Retrieved 13 July 2013. DeShazer, Jacob ( 1950 ). `` I Was a Prisoner of Japan ''. personal.georgiasouthern.edu. Georgia Southern University. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 13 July 2013. Fuchida, Mitsuo ( 1953 ). `` From Pearl Harbor to Calvary ''. biblebelievers.com. Retrieved 13 July 2013. Fuchida, Mitsuo ( February 1954 ). `` I Led the Attack on Pearl Harbor ''. Reader 's Digest. 64 ( 382 ). Fuchida, Mitsuo ; Okumiya, Masatake ( 1955 ). Midway : The Battle That Doomed Japan, The Japanese Navy 's Story. Annapolis, Maryland : Naval Institute Press. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 55 - 9027. Fuchida, Mitsuo ; Okumiya, Masatake ( 1976 ) ( 1955 ). Clark K. Kawakami, ed. Midway : The Battle that Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy 's Story. Annapolis, Maryland : Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0 - 87021 - 372 - 5. Fuchida, Mitsuo ( 2011 ). For That One Day : The Memoirs of Mitsuo Fuchida, Commander of the Attack on Pearl Harbor ( ebook ) format = requires url = ( help ). Translated by Douglas T. Shinsato ; Tadanori Urabe. Waimea, Hawaii : eXperience, Inc. ISBN 978 - 0 - 9846745 - 0 - 3. Fuchida, Mitsuo ( 2011 ). For That One Day : The Memoirs of Mitsuo Fuchida, Commander of the Attack on Pearl Harbor ( ebook ) format = requires url = ( help ). Translated by Douglas T. Shinsato ; Tadanori Urabe. Waimea, Hawaii : eXperience, Inc. ISBN 0 - 9846745 - 0 - 0. Goldstein, Donald ; Dillon, Katherine V. ; Prange, Gordon W. ( 2003 ). God 's Samurai : Lead Pilot at Pearl Harbor. The Warriors. Washington, D.C. : Potomac. ISBN 1 - 57488 - 695 - 9. Isom, Dallas ( 2007 ). Midway Inquest. Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press. ISBN 978 - 0 - 253 - 34904 - 0. Japan ( 1971 ). Boeicho Boeikenshujo Senshibu ( originally, `` Boeicho Boeikenshujo Senshishitsu '' ), also referred to as `` Senshi Sosho '' ( War History ) series. Midowei Kaisen ( Midway Naval Battle ). Vol. 43. Tokyo : Asagumo Shimbunsha. Karpicky, Gregory ( 17 December 2005 ). `` Pearl Harbor -- `` Tiger, Tiger, Tiger '' ``. Military History Online.com. Retrieved 13 July 2013. Parshall, Jonathan ; Tully, Anthony ( 2005 ). Shattered Sword : The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway. Dulles, Virginia : Potomac. ISBN 978 - 1 - 57488 - 924 - 6. Parshall, Jonathan ( Spring 2010 ). `` Reflecting on Fuchida, or `` A Tale of Three Whoppers '' ``. Naval War College Review. Newport, Rhode Island : US Naval War College. 63 ( 2 ) : 127 -- 138. Archived from the original on 27 November 2011. Retrieved 13 July 2013. Peattie, Mark R. ( 2001 ). Sunburst : The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power 1909 -- 1941. Annapolis, Maryland : Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1 - 55750 - 432 - 6. Prange, Gordon W. ( 1982 ). At Dawn We Slept : The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. New York : Penguin. ISBN 978 - 0 - 14 - 015734 - 5. Stille, Mark ( 2011 ). Tora ! Tora ! Tora ! Pearl Harbor 1941. Oxford, England : Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978 - 1 - 84908 - 509 - 0. Symonds, Craig ( 2013 ). The Battle of Midway. Oxford, England : Oxford University Press. ISBN 978 - 0 - 19 - 931598 - 7. Willmott, H.P. ( 2001 ). Pearl Harbor. London, England : Cassell & Co. ISBN 978 - 0 - 304 - 35884 - 7. Wright, Mike ( 1998 ). What They Did n't Teach You About World War II. New York : Presidio Press. ISBN 0 - 89141 - 649 - 8. Zimm, Alan ( December 2016 ). `` Commander Fuchida 's Decision ''. Naval History. Annapolis, Virginia : U.S. Naval Institute. 30 ( 6 ) : 16 -- 23. Zimm, Alan ( 2011 ). The Attack on Pearl Harbor : Strategy, Combat, Myths, Deceptions. Haverton, Pennsylvania : Casemate Publishing. ISBN 978 - 1 - 61200 - 010 - 7. External links Wikiquote has quotations related to : Mitsuo Fuchida Film project in development on the life of Fuchida Capt. Mitsuo Fuchida -- Architect of Pearl Harbor bombing ( Merv Griffin Show 1965 ) on YouTube, video of interview between Fuchida and Griffin Road to Redemption ( NHK documentary in English on Mitsuo Fuchida and Jacob DeShazer ) WorldCat Identities BNF : cb12810516s ( data ) GND : 118693921 ISNI : 0000 0001 0918 4860 LCCN : n82108796 NDL : 00015150 SELIBR : 328417 SNAC : w6q24j3h SUDOC : 156591812 VIAF : 78822557 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mitsuo_Fuchida&oldid=851703348 '' Categories : 1902 births 1976 deaths Military personnel from Nara Prefecture Japanese naval aviators Imperial Japanese Navy officers Attack on Pearl Harbor Japanese emigrants to the United States Japanese military personnel of World War II Converts to Protestantism from Buddhism Japanese Protestants Hidden categories : Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from December 2017 Articles containing Japanese - language text All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from August 2013 Articles needing additional references from July 2013 All articles needing additional references Articles with unsourced statements from July 2013 Pages using citations with format and no URL Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC - ID identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Català Dansk Deutsch Ελληνικά Español فارسی Français 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Italiano Magyar 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Suomi Türkçe Tiếng Việt 中文 10 more Edit links This page was last edited on 24 July 2018, at 01 : 54 ( UTC ). About Wikipedia

Question: who commanded the japanese at the attack on pearl harbor
Answer: Mitsuo Fuchida