Nagumo Chuichi, Vice-Admiral

Nagumo Chuichi, Vice-Admiral (1887–1944),Japanese naval officer who commanded the Combined Fleet's élite carrier striking force (kido butai) that attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941. He was a torpedo, not an air, specialist and, despite his peacetime reputation for daring, he was too cautious to launch a third attack on the harbour's installations which could have destroyed it as a base. During the first half of 1942 he also took part in the capture of the Netherlands East Indies, and commanded the highly successful raids on Darwin and into the Indian Ocean. But his fortunes then changed, for he was decisively defeated at Midway in June 1942, and though he won tactical victories in the waters around Guadalcanal (see Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz), the battle strength of his forces, and perhaps his own confidence, were steadily eroded, and in 1943 he was relieved of his command and posted to the Mariana Islands. Put in charge of the defences of Saipan, he committed suicide just before the US invasion of the island in July 1944.

Bibliography

Matsushima Keizō , Higeki no Nagumo Chūjū (‘The Tragedy of Vice Admiral Nagumo’, Tokyo, 1967).