Tags: tom freeman (7 pics) Mitsuo Fuchida (淵田美津雄) (3 dec. 1902-30 May 1976 (36 years ago)) was a Captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and a bomber pilot in the Imperial Japanese Navy before and during World War II. He is perhaps best known for leading the first air wave attacks on Pearl Harbor on 7 dec. 1941 (71 years ago). Fuchida was responsible for the coordination of the entire aerial attack working under the overall fleet commander Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo. After World War II ended, Fuchida became a Christian and an evangelist preacher. In 1960 (52 years ago), he became an American citizen. Service in World War II On Sunday, 7 dec. 1941 (71 years ago), a Japanese attack force under the command of Admiral Chūichi Nagumo consisting of six carriers with 423 aircraft was poised to attack the United States base at Pearl Harbor, Oahu. At 06:00, the first wave of 183 Japanese dive bombers, torpedo bombers and fighters took off from the carriers located 370 km (230 mi) north of Oahu, and headed for the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. At 07:20, Fuchida, commanding the air group, led the way down the island's eastern side then banked west and flew along the southern coast past the city of Honolulu. He believed his approach had not been detected by the U.S. Army radar station on Oahu. However, two U.S. soldiers manning the radar installation notified a superior officer of the discovery of a large incoming air formation, but the officer chose to ignore it believing the blips to be U.S. bombers arriving from California. Meanwhile Fuchida had ordered "Tenkai" ("take attack position"). At 07:40 Hawaiian Standard Time, seeing all peaceful at Pearl Harbor, Fuchida slid back the canopy of his Nakajima B5N2 Type 97 Model 3 "Kate" torpedo bomber and fired a green flare, the signal to attack. At 07:49, Fuchida instructed his radio operator, Petty Officer 1st Class Norinobu Mizuki, to send the coded signal "To, To, To" (Totsugeskiseyo, or "charge!") to his aircraft. Fuchida’s pilot Lieutenant Mitsuo Matsuzaki guided the B5N in a sweep around Barber’s Point, Oahu. At 07:53, Fuchida ordered Mizuki to send back to the carrier Akagi, the flag ship of 1st Air Fleet, the code words "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (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"). The three word message meant that complete surprise had been achieved in the attack. Due to favorable atmospheric conditions the transmission of the 'Tora Tora Tora' code words from the moderately powered airplane's transmitter were heard over the ship's radio in Japan by Admiral Yamamoto and his staff, who were sitting up through the night awaiting word on the attack. The first Japanese assault wave, with 51 Aichi D3A "Val" dive bombers, 40 "Kate" carrying torpedoes, 50 "Kates" carrying bombs for high-level attacks and 43 A6M Zero fighters, commenced the attack. As the first wave of the attack made its way back to its carriers, Fuchida remained over the target in order to assess damage and to observe the second wave attack. He returned to his carrier after the second wave successfully completed its mission. With great pride, he announced that the U.S. battleship fleet had been destroyed; USS Arizona, Oklahoma, West Virginia, California and Nevada were sunk. Upon returning from Pearl Harbor Fuchida inspected his "Kate" and found 20 large anti-aircraft holes and the main control wire barely held together by a thread. The successful attack against the United States made Fuchida a national hero earning him an audience with Emperor Hirohito himself. On 19 Feb. 1942 (70 years ago), 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 the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), which was the headquarters of the British Eastern Fleet, in what Winston Churchill described as "the most dangerous moment" of World War II. In June, Fuchida was wounded at the Battle of Midway while onboard Akagi. Unable to fly while recovering from an emergency shipboard appendectomy a few days before the battle, he was present on the ship's bridge during the morning attacks. After Akagi was hit by U.S. bombers, a chain reaction from burning fuel and live bombs began the self-destruction of the ship. When flames blocked the doorway out of the bridge, the officers evacuated down a rope and as Fuchida climbed down, an explosion threw him to the deck breaking both of his ankles. After recuperation, he spent the rest of the war as a staff officer. Fuchida was in Hiroshima the day before the atom bomb was dropped, attending a week-long military conference with the Army. He had received a long distance call from Navy Headquarters asking him to return to Tokyo and returned to Hiroshima the day after the bombing on a party sent to examine and assess the damage of the bomb. Later, all members of Fuchida's search party died from radiation poisoning but Fuchida suffered no symptoms.

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