Seiichi Itō

Seiichi Itō
Seiichi Itō
	Okinawa
Allegiance	Empire of Japan
Service/branch	Imperial Japanese Navy
Years of service	1911–1945
Rank	Admiral (posthumous)
Commands held	Kiso, Mogami, Atago, Haruna, Naval Personnel Bureau, 8th Squadron, Vice-chief of Navy General Staff, Naval War College, 2nd Fleet
Battles/wars	World War II Pacific War Battle of the East China Sea †; ; ;

Seiichi Itō (伊藤整一, Itō Seiichi, July 26, 1890 – April 7, 1945) was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy and the flag officer of the task force centered around the battleship Yamato on her final mission towards the end of World War II.

Biography

Early career

Born in

Miike County Takada Town (present day Miyama City, Fukuoka Prefecture), Itō graduated from the 39th class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1911. He was 15th in a class of 148 cadets, and served as midshipman on the cruiser Aso and battleship Aki

.

His rise through the ranks was regular and rapid: ensign on December 1, 1912, sub-lieutenant on December 1, 1914, and lieutenant on December 1, 1917.

Itō returned to the

naval attaché to Manchukuo from March 1932-November 1933. Along with Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

, Itō, well aware of the disparity in resources and industrial strength between the United States and Japan, was an outspoken proponent of maintaining good relations with the United States.

Later career

In November 1933, Itō was given his first command as captain of the light cruiser Kiso. In November 1935, he was reassigned to command the newly commissioned heavy cruiser Mogami. In April 1936, he was given command of the heavy cruiser Atago. In December 1936, Itō was assigned command of the battleship Haruna.

On December 1, 1937, Itō became a

Chief of Staff to the 2nd Fleet. The following year, he was named chief of the Navy Ministry's Personnel Bureau. After serving for two years, Itō commanded Cruiser Division 8 (CruDiv 8) in November 1940 until his appointment as Chief of Staff of the Combined Fleet

in April 1941.

In September of that year, Itō became Vice Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff and was promoted to vice admiral a month later on October 15, 1941. He held this post until December 1944, when he was placed in command of the 2nd Fleet, based on the Inland Sea.

2nd Fleet Staff in *Yamato*. The third person from left in front is Itō

In early April 1945, Ito commanded the last major offensive by the

Okinawa and subsequently several hundred American carrier aircraft attacked them. With no Japanese air support available, the Japanese ships were overwhelmed, and Yamato, Yahagi, and four of the destroyers were sunk by multiple bomb and torpedo hits. After ordering the mission cancelled and for the remaining escorts to rescue survivors, Itō chose to go down with the Yamato.^[3]

Itō was posthumously promoted to full admiral. Ten days after his death, his only son died taking part in a kamikaze attack near Okinawa.

In film

In Toei's 2005 war film Yamato (男たちの大和 Otokotachi no Yamato), Itō was portrayed by Japanese actor Tetsuya Watari.
In Shūe Matsubayashi's 1981 film Rengō Kantai 連合艦隊 (lit. "Combined Fleet", later released in the United States as The Imperial Navy), Itō was portrayed by Kōji Tsuruta.^[4]
In Shūe Matsubayashi's 1963 film Taiheiyo no tsubasa 太平洋の翼 (lit. "Wings Over the Pacific", later released in the United States under the titles Attack Squadron! and Kamikaze), Itō was portrayed by Susumu Fujita.^[5]
In Yutaka Abe's 1953 film Senkan Yamato 戦艦大和 (lit. "Battleship Yamato"), Itō was portrayed by Minoru Takada.^[6]^[7]