Tamon Yamaguchi

Japan state institutions Counter-revolutionary forces 1892–1942 ✕ Killed in action

Carrier admiral who urged an immediate strike at Midway and went down with Hiryū

Born in Koishikawa, Tokyo, he graduated from the naval academy in 1912, served on a destroyer sent to the Mediterranean in the First World War and, after the war with China, joined the attack on Pearl Harbor as commander of Carrier Division 2. At Midway on 4 June 1942, when an American carrier was reported, he urged Nagumo to strike at once with the dive bombers at hand. After Akagi, Kaga and Sōryū were hit he launched two strikes from Hiryū that crippled Yorktown, but Hiryū was hit that afternoon. The next morning he and her captain, Tomeo Kaku, chose to go down with the ship.