Matome Ugaki

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In this Japanese name, the surname is Ugaki.
Matome Ugaki
Vice Admiral
Commands heldYakumo, Hyūga, Naval Operations Bureau, 8th Squadron, 1st Squadron, 5th Air Fleet[2][3]
Battles/wars
Awardsribbon bar Order of the Rising Sun 1st Class, Grand Cordon (posthumous)

Matome Ugaki (宇垣 纏, Ugaki Matome, 15 February 1890 – 15 August 1945) was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II, remembered for his extensive and revealing war diary, role at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and kamikaze suicide hours after the announced surrender of Japan at the end of the war.

Biography

Early career

Born to a farming family in rural

Okayama prefecture), Ugaki entered the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy on 11 September 1909[4] and graduated in its 40th class on 17 July 1912.[4] He placed ninth out of 144 cadets in his class, and was good friends with his Naval Academy classmates Tamon Yamaguchi and Yoshio Suzuki, both of whom were killed in action during World War II. He served as a midshipman on the armored cruiser Azuma and made a training cruise to Australia aboard her.[4]

On 1 May 1913,

commissioned as ensign on 1 December 1913.[4] He was assigned to the battlecruiser Ibuki on 27 May 1914.[4]

World War I

Japan entered World War I on the side of the Allies on 23 August 1914. During the early weeks of the war, Ibuki, with Ugaki aboard, participated in the Allied search for the Imperial German Navy light cruiser SMS Emden in the Indian Ocean, joined the Royal Navy armoured cruiser HMS Minotaur and protected cruiser HMS Pyramus in escorting a convoy carrying the main body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force from New Zealand across the Tasman Sea and to Albany, Western Australia, and along with the Royal Australian Navy light cruiser HMAS Sydney escorted a convoy carrying the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps across the Indian Ocean from Australia to the Middle East. Ugaki was promoted to sub-lieutenant on 1 December 1915 while aboard Ibuki.[4]

Ugaki subsequently transferred to the battlecruiser Kongō on 1 December 1916.[4] Kongō experimented with handling airplanes and operated off China during his tour.[5] On 10 September 1917, he reported aboard the armored cruiser Iwate,[4] and aboard her made a training cruise in company with the armored cruiser Asama to the west coast of North America with the Japanese Naval Academy's 45th class aboard between 2 March and 6 July 1918.[4][6] He was reassigned to the destroyer Nara on 1 August 1918,[4] and was aboard her when the war ended on 11 November 1918.

Interwar

After his promotion to

Chinhae, Korea.[5]

On 1 December 1922, Ugaki entered the Japanese Naval War College (海軍大学校, Kaigun Daigakkō, short form: 海大 Kaidai).[4] In 1924, he graduated in its 22nd class, and on 1 December 1924 he was promoted to lieutenant commander[4] and began a stint as gunnery officer aboard the light cruiser Ōi.[4] On 1 December 1925, he became a staff officer on the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff[4] and served for nearly three years as a staff member of the Naval Gunnery School. On 15 November 1928 he was appointed as a resident officer in Germany,[4] and he was promoted to commander on 10 December 1928.[4]

Ugaki as captain 1932–38.

Ordered back to Japan on 1 November 1930,

Mediterranean under his command with the 64th class of the Japanese Naval Academy embarked.[7] On 1 December 1937, he took command of the battleship Hyūga,[4] which operated as part of the Japanese blockade of the southern coast of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War.[8]

Ugaki was promoted to

Chief-of-Staff of the Combined Fleet under Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
, a position he held until Yamamoto's death.

World War II

Yamamoto and Ugaki in the bridge of Combined Fleet flagship Nagato, August 1941 - February 1942

The

Petty Officer 2nd Class Hiroshi Hayashi, and the Combined Fleet's Paymaster, Captain Motoharu Kitamura. On 22 May 1943, the injured Ugaki was attached to the Naval General Staff for hospitalization.[9]

After recovering from his injuries, Ugaki took command of the 1st Battleship Division (consisting of

U.S. Navy carrier aircraft while defending Japanese aircraft carriers on 20 June 1944 and emerged unscathed except for a strafing attack on Nagato.[10][11][14]
Operation Kon was canceled.

Ugaki subsequently commanded Battleship Division 1 during the disastrous

Battle of the Sibuyan Sea on 24 October 1944, in which U.S. aircraft sank Musashi, and the Battle off Samar
on 25 October 1944. In the latter action, Yamato and Nagato, the largest battleships in the Imperial Japanese Navy, inflicted only modest damage on U.S. Navy forces despite their own tremendous firepower advantage.

On 15 November 1944, Ugaki was recalled to Japan and ordered to duty with the Naval General Staff.

Okinawa during April 1945. Though such air attacks continued throughout the Okinawa campaign and caused fearsome superficial damage and crew casualties to a great number of Allied
vessels, no Allied warship larger than a destroyer were sunk directly by kamikazes during the spring of 1945.

Meanwhile, Ugaki gathered more aircraft and hid them from Allied attack in Kyushu, planning to use them in kamikaze attacks during the

Operation Ketsu-Go (Decisive Operation).[15]

Suicide

Ugaki on 15 August 1945 before his final kamikaze mission.

On 15 August 1945,

Warrant Officer Akiyoshi Endo—whose place in the kamikaze roster Ugaki had usurped—climbed into the same space that the admiral had already occupied. Thus, the aircraft containing Ugaki took off with three men (piloted by Lieutenant Nakatsuru, reconnaissance by Warrant Officer Endo, and Ugaki), as opposed to two each in the remaining ten aircraft. Prior to boarding his aircraft, Ugaki posed for pictures and removed his rank insignia from his dark green uniform, taking only a ceremonial short sword given to him by Admiral Yamamoto.[16]

Elements of this last flight most likely followed the Ryukyu flyway southwest to the many small islands north of Okinawa, where U.S. forces were still on alert at the potential end of hostilities. Endo served as radioman during the mission, sending Ugaki's final messages, the last of which at 19:24 reported that the plane had begun its dive onto an American vessel. However, U.S. Navy records do not indicate any successful kamikaze attack on that day, and it is likely that all aircraft on the mission (with the exception of three that returned due to engine problems) crashed into the ocean, struck down by American anti-aircraft fire. Although there are no precise accounts of an intercept made by Navy or Marine fighters or Pacific Fleet surface units against enemy aircraft in this vicinity at the time of surrender, it is possible further research may reveal more detail as to which ships (if any) were attacked.[citation needed]

The next morning, the crew of LST-926 claimed to have found the still smoldering remains of a "cockpit" (implying a shootdown or violent ditching of some sort, but not the exact cause) with three bodies on the beach of Iheyajima Island. The third man, his head crushed and right arm missing, wore a dark green uniform and a short sword was found nearby. The sailors buried the bodies in the sand.[17] He was posthumously awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.

Honors and awards

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Nishida, Imperial Japanese Navy
  2. ^ "Ugaki Matome".
  3. ^ Ugaki, pp. 669–670.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac Ugaki, p. 669.
  5. ^ a b Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander; Ahlberg, Lars (4 May 2018). "IJN Battleship KONGO: Tabular Record of Movement". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  6. ^ Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander (4 May 2018). "IJN IWATE: Tabular Record of Movement". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  7. ^ Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander (15 January 2021). "IJN YAKUMO: Tabular Record of Movement". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  8. ^ Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander (11 January 2017). "IJN HYUGA: Tabular Record of Movement". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Ugaki, p. 670.
  10. ^ a b c d e Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander; Ahlberg, Lars (1 November 2016). "IJN Battleship NAGATO: Tabular Record of Movement". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  11. ^ a b c d e Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander (1 November 2016). "IJN Battleship YAMATO: Tabular Record of Movement". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  12. ^ Ugaki, p. 333.
  13. ^ a b Ugaki, p. 378.
  14. ^ a b c d Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander (1 December 2017). "IJN Battleship MUSASHI: Tabular Record of Movement". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  15. ^ Ugaki, Fading Victory
  16. ^ Hoyt, The Last Kamikaze
  17. ^ "D4Y Judy Manufacture Number ???? Tail Code 701-122". Pacific Wrecks. 24 July 2020. Retrieved 26 December 2020.

Bibliography

External links
Military offices
Preceded by Combined Fleet
Chief-of-staff
11 August 1941 – 22 May 1943 		Succeeded by
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