page_title: Minoru Genda
section_title: Pearl Harbor and World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Minoru Genda / Pearl Harbor and World War II
caption_attribution_description: インド洋作戦のため、セレベス島スターリング湾を出港した赤城。艦橋前より後方を写した写真。後ろを航行しているのは左端より空母蒼龍・飛龍、戦艦比叡・霧島・榛名・金剛、空母瑞鶴・翔鶴 English: Aircraft carrier Akagi shortly after leaving Port Stirling, Celebes Island, for the Indian Ocean. Her island and forward flight deck (with parked B5N Kate torpedo bombers). Carriers and battleships from left to right: Soryu, Hiryu, Hiei, Kirishima, Haruna, Kongō, Zuikaku, and Shokaku. 26 March 1942.
context_page_description: Minoru Genda was a well-known Japanese military aviator and politician. He is best known for helping to plan the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was also the third Chief of Staff of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.
context_section_description: The Pearl Harbor attack plan was the brainchild of Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Yamamoto ordered a number of officers to study Pearl Harbor and to draw up an operational plan. Admiral Takijiro Onishi gathered together all the relevant facts that could be found about the area. Once this was done, the attack plan itself was written primarily by Rear Admiral Ryunosuke Kusaka with assistance from Captain Genda and Deputy Chief of Staff, Captain Kameto Kuroshima.
  Yamamoto had become acquainted with Genda in 1933 when he served aboard the carrier Ryūjō. Yamamoto initially conceived of a one-way attack on Pearl Harbor from 500 to 600 miles (800 to 970 km) away. In his scheme, returning aircraft would ditch in the ocean off Oahu and the pilots would be picked up by destroyers and submarines. Yamamoto was focused on smashing the U.S. Pacific Fleet and sinking as many battleships as possible. Conventional American and Japanese naval doctrine, reflecting the Mahan theory, held that battleships were the instrumental tool of naval supremacy, so it was believed that the destruction of several of these ships would shift the balance of naval power in Japan's favor.
  In summer 1940 at the age of 36, Genda was chosen by the Japanese Naval Department to travel abroad as a military attaché to obtain first-hand military accounts of German air offensives and British defensive measures during the Battle of Britain. His assessment of the Royal Air Force (RAF), Hawker Hurricane Mk I and Supermarine Spitfire Mk I fighters against the German Messerschmitt Bf 109E "Emil" later provided evidence that the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero Model 21 could easily outmaneuver these Western European aircraft. The carefully recorded details were secretly documented during his brief tour in London and were hand-carried by Genda during his return trip to Japan for naval department studies. His official trip was in accord with British-Japanese naval accords authorizing official military attaché visits to the war front to observe and document military operations. Genda's Western European trip provided added stimulus for Japanese strategic naval studies and exercises to discover weaknesses and formulate tactics that were later used against the U.S.
  On his return to Japan, he was assigned to the First Carrier Division and met with Yamamoto in early February 1941, during which time Yamamoto presented some ideas for attacking the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Genda warmed to his ideas. Genda had previously considered an attack on Pearl Harbor in 1934 and had discussed the possibility then with Takijirō Onishi. Genda emphasized to Yamamoto that "secrecy is the keynote and surprise the all-important factor." Genda felt that the task was "difficult, but not impossible" and began working on the details of the plan. Genda favored a three wave attack using six aircraft carriers for a successful air strike. Genda was responsible for much of the training, especially in the new tactics of shallow-water torpedo use, effective use of level-bombing by tactical aircraft, and coordinating several aircraft carriers simultaneously.  He played a key role in persuading IJN leaders to name Mitsuo Fuchida, his classmate at the Japanese Naval Academy, as the leader of the air attack.
  The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor resulted in the US declaring war on Japan, with 18 American warships sunk or damaged and over 180 American aircraft destroyed.  The main Japanese fleet suffered no ship losses and 29 aircraft lost (9 in the first wave and 20 in the second), losses that the Japanese considered acceptable. But this surprise attack eventually led to disaster for Japan. In the four months after the attack, the Imperial Japanese carrier units ranged across the Pacific and Indian oceans causing major damage to Allied forces and bases. Genda and Yamamoto were very disappointed that the three U.S. carriers were not at Pearl Harbor (the first time on a Sunday in 1941 that they were not).  Later, the Doolittle Raid brought this phase of the Pacific War to an end, as Japan was bombed for first time. The Pac
caption: As a staff officer of the 1st Air Fleet from April 1941, Genda assisted Admiral Nagumo on board the Akagi, until she was eventually sunk at the battle of Midway
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