was an admiral 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 surrend ...
in
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 opposing ...
. An experienced aviator, he is sometimes credited with being the first to use the ''
kamikaze
, officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending t ...
'' attack, although official accounts may have been invented for
propaganda purposes. Arima personally led an air attack against
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
Task Force 38
The Fast Carrier Task Force (TF 38 when assigned to Third Fleet, TF 58 when assigned to Fifth Fleet), was the main striking force of the United States Navy in the Pacific War from January 1944 through the end of the war in August 1945. The tas ...
in the
Formosa Air Battle
The Formosa Air Battle ( ja, 台湾沖航空戦, translation=Battle of the Taiwan Sea, ), 12–16 October 1944, was a series of large-scale aerial engagements between carrier air groups of the United States Navy Fast Carrier Task Force (TF38) an ...
and was killed in action.
Biography
Arima was born in Ijuin village (present day
Hioki city),
Kagoshima prefecture. He graduated from the 43rd class of the
Imperial Japanese Naval Academy The was a school established to train line officers for the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was originally located in Nagasaki, moved to Yokohama in 1866, and was relocated to Tsukiji, Tokyo in 1869. It moved to Etajima, Hiroshima in 1888. Students st ...
in 1915. He was ranked 33rd in a class of 96 cadets. As a
midshipman, he was assigned to the
cruiser on its 1915 long distance navigational training voyage from
Sasebo
is a core city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. It is also the second largest city in Nagasaki Prefecture, after its capital, Nagasaki. On 1 June 2019, the city had an estimated population of 247,739 and a population density of 581 persons p ...
to
Chemulpo
Incheon (; ; or Inch'ŏn; literally "kind river"), formerly Jemulpo or Chemulp'o (제물포) until the period after 1910, officially the Incheon Metropolitan City (인천광역시, 仁川廣域市), is a city located in northwestern South Kore ...
,
Dairen
Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on the ...
,
Chinkai,
Maizuru
is a city in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 78,644 in 34817 households and a population density of 230 persons per km². The total area of the city is .
Geography
Maizuru is located in northern Kyoto Pref ...
and
Toba Toba may refer to:
Languages
* Toba Sur language, spoken in South America
* Batak Toba, spoken in Indonesia
People
* Toba people, indigenous peoples of the Gran Chaco in South America
* Toba Batak people, a sub-ethnic group of Batak people from N ...
. He stayed with ''Iwate'' on its cruise the following year to
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
,
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
,
Fremantle,
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
,
Sydney,
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...
,
Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...
,
Jaluit Atoll
Jaluit Atoll ( Marshallese: , , or , ) is a large coral atoll of 91 islands in the Pacific Ocean and forms a legislative district of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is , and it encloses a lagoon with an area of . Mos ...
,
Ponape, and
Truk. On his return, he was commissioned as an
ensign
An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...
assigned to the
battleship .
As a
lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...
, he subsequently served on the
destroyer , battleship and , destroyer , cruiser , and battleship . He returned to school, graduating from the 26th class of
Naval War College (Japan) :''This article deals with the Empire of Japan's Naval War College. For other war colleges, see: War college.''
The , Short form: 海大 Kaidai) was the staff college of the Imperial Japanese Navy, responsible for training officers for command p ...
in 1928 and was promoted to
lieutenant commander
Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding ran ...
. After serving as chief gunnery officer on the battleship and the cruiser , Arima received his first command on 1 December 1937, the converted
seaplane tender . He was also promoted to
captain the same day.
Arima oversaw several naval air force bases in Japan from 1938–1942, and was then posted as captain of the
aircraft carrier on 25 May 1942. While on ''Shōkaku'', he was in the
Guadalcanal campaign, the
Battle of the Eastern Solomons
The naval Battle of the Eastern Solomons (also known as the Battle of the Stewart Islands and, in Japanese sources, as the Second Battle of the Solomon Sea) took place on 24–25 August 1942, and was the third carrier battle of the Pacific cam ...
, the
Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands
The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, fought during 25–27 October 1942, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Santa Cruz or Third Battle of Solomon Sea, in Japan as the Battle of the South Pacific ( ''Minamitaiheiyō kaisen''), was the fourt ...
, and the
Naval Battle of Guadalcanal
The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, sometimes referred to as the Third and Fourth Battles of Savo Island, the Battle of the Solomons, the Battle of Friday the 13th, or, in Japanese sources, the , took place from 12 to 15 November 1942, and was t ...
.
![USS Franklin (CV-13) and USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) afire 1944](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/USS_Franklin_%28CV-13%29_and_USS_Belleau_Wood_%28CVL-24%29_afire_1944.jpg)
Arima was promoted to
rear admiral on 1 May 1943. He was given a combat command on 9 April 1944, and was assigned the
26th Air Flotilla
The was a combat aviation unit of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS) during the Pacific Campaign of World War II.
History
The 26th Air Flotilla was established on 1 April 1942 as a part of the 11th Air Fleet, and was originally comp ...
, based at
Clark Air Base, on
Luzon
Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...
, in the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
. After the
Battle of Leyte Gulf, at some date between 13 October and 26 October (accounts vary), Arima personally led an air attack against
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
Task Force 38
The Fast Carrier Task Force (TF 38 when assigned to Third Fleet, TF 58 when assigned to Fifth Fleet), was the main striking force of the United States Navy in the Pacific War from January 1944 through the end of the war in August 1945. The tas ...
in the
Aerial Battle of Taiwan-Okinawa. Before taking off in a
Mitsubishi G4M
The Mitsubishi G4M was a twin-engine, land-based medium bomber formerly manufactured by the Mitsubishi Aircraft Company, a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1940 to 1945. Its official designat ...
"Betty" twin-engine bomber, he allegedly removed his rank and other insignia, and declared his intention to not return alive. Although Arima indeed did not return, and some damage was caused to the
''Essex''-class aircraft carrier , it is not clear that the damage was from a planned
suicide attack, and some accounts state that none of Arima's formation reached their targets.
Another source claims that the first ''kamikaze'' attack happened a month earlier. On 12 September 1944, a group of Army pilots of the 31st Fighter Squadron located on
Negros Island
Negros is the fourth largest and third most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of . Negros is one of the many islands of the Visayas, in the central part of the country. The predominant inhabitants of the island region a ...
decided to launch a suicide attack the following morning. First Lieutenant Takeshi Kosai and another sergeant were selected. Strapping two bombs onto two fighters, they took off on 13 September before dawn, determined to crash into aircraft carriers. They never returned, but there is no record of an enemy plane hitting an American ship on that day.
John Toland
John Toland (30 November 167011 March 1722) was an Irish rationalist philosopher and freethinker, and occasional satirist, who wrote numerous books and pamphlets on political philosophy and philosophy of religion, which are early expressions o ...
, '' The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire 1936-1945'' p.568
In the aftermath of the battle, however, Arima was officially credited by the Imperial Japanese Navy with introducing the use of the ''kamikaze'' attack, and he was publicized as a hero in the government-controlled Japanese press.
Arima was posthumously promoted to
vice admiral. His
cenotaph
A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...
is at the temple of Kozai-ji in his home town of Hioki, Kagoshima.
Notable positions held
*Secondary Gunnery Officer, ''Haruna'' - 10 December 1928 – 5 September 1929
*Senior Staff Officer, Battleship Division 3 – 15 November 1932 – 20 May 1933
*Senior Staff Officer, Cruiser Division 7 – 20 May 1933 – 15 November 1934
*Senior Staff Officer, Cruiser Division 10 – 12 July 1937 – 20 October 1937
*Senior Staff Officer, Cruiser Division 14 – 20 October 1937 – 1 December 1937
*Commanding Officer, ''Kamikawa Maru'' - 1 December 1937 – 1 September 1938
*Commanding Officer, Sasebo Air Group - 1 September 1938 - 15 December 1938
*Commanding Officer, Kisarazu Air Group - 15 December 1938 - 15 November 1939
*Commanding Officer, Yokohama Air Group - 15 November 1939 - 17 April 1941
*Executive Officer & Chief Instructor, Yokosuka Air Group - 17 April 1941 - 10 May 1942
*Commanding Officer, ''Shokaku'' - 17 May 1942 – 16 February 1943
*Commander-in-Chief, 26th Air Flotilla - 9 April 1944 - 15 October 1944 (KIA)
Dates of promotions
*Midshipman - 16 December 1915
*Ensign - 1 December 1916
*Sublieutenant - 1 December 1918
*Lieutenant - 1 December 1921
*Lieutenant Commander - 1 December 1927
*Commander - 15 November 1933
*Captain - 1 December 1937
*Rear Admiral - 1 May 1943
*Vice Admiral - 15 October 1944 (posthumous promotion)
References
Books
*
*
*
*
External links
*
Footnotes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arima, Masafumi
1895 births
1944 deaths
Military personnel from Kagoshima Prefecture
Kamikaze pilots
Imperial Japanese Navy admirals
Japanese admirals of World War II
Japanese military personnel killed in World War II
Aviators killed by being shot down