Goichi Oie (died August 2, 1944) was a captain in the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and died during the Battle of Tinian.

Biography

Goichi Oie was the subordinate to Admiral

Kakuji Kakuta , was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. He is noted for his role in commanding Japanese naval aviation units in the Pacific War. Biography Kakuta was a native of rural Minamikanbara, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. He gra ...

, the commander of the Tinian garrison. He was responsible for the defenses of the four airfields on Tinian, as well as their anti-air weaponry and their artillery. He commanded 4,500 naval troops in total. Oie and

Kiyochi Ogata Kiyochi Ogata (died August 1, 1944) was a colonel in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. He committed ''seppuku'' after the Battle of Tinian. Biography Kiyochi Ogata was the commanding officer of Tinian, one of the Pacific Islands. H ...

, two of the Japanese commanders on the island, had their headquarters set up at Mt. Lasso, the highest point on the island. When the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

attacked Tinian in late 1944, he resisted them with his big guns, which inflicted severe casualties on the US troops and destroyed some of their LVTs before their troops could disembark. However, the US troops that landed broke through to Mt. Lasso, which endangered Japanese control of the island. Kakuta, Ogata, and Oie committed suicide in the traditional fashion of ''

seppuku , sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people ...

'', where they stabbed themselves with swords and disemboweled themselves. The knife that Goichi Oie used to commit seppuku was retrieved by a US Marine named Fred Osgood and sent home to the US in 1944.

References

* Brooks, Victor: "''Hell is Upon Us: D-Day in the Pacific, June–August 1944''", 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Oya, Goichi 1944 deaths Japanese military personnel of World War II Imperial Japanese Navy officers Japanese military personnel who committed suicide Japanese military personnel killed in World War II 1897 births