Mitsuo Fuchida(1902-1976)
Born in Nara Prefecture, Japan, Mitsuo Fuchida was a clever, outspoken,
and personally fearless pilot during World War II. He entered the Naval
Academy in 1921 where he met and befriended classmate Minoru Genda and
discovered the love of flying airplanes. Specializing in horizontal
bombing, Fuchida gained such prowess that he was made an instructor. He
was shortly after promoted to lieutenant-commander and was accepted
into the Naval Staff College. Fuchida joined the aircraft carrier Akagi
in 1939 as a flight commander where he was now an experienced pilot
with over 3,000 hours of flight experience. He was the commander of the
Japanese attack force during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7,
1941. He then stayed on as the air officer of the Akagi's attack force
and personally led air raids against American and other allied bases in
New Guinea, Australia, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Fuchida was
sidelined during the naval battle of Midway on June 4, 1942 after an
sudden attack of appendicitis, where he was wounded when be broke both
of his ankles after he fell from a ladder during the fire fighting
after the Akagi was hit by U.S. bombers. After spending most of 1942 in
a naval hospital, he returned to active duty and was active as a staff
air officer and squadron leader until the end of the war in 1945.
During the late 1940's Fuchida became a minister and wrote about his
life, all about the Pearl Harbor attack and Midway in a book titled
"Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan." Mitsuo Fuchida died in 1976.