Vice-Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi (山口 多聞 1892-June 4, 1942), was one of Japan's most able admirals. A graduate of Princeton, he died during the Battle of Midway, choosing to go down with his flagship the Hiryu.

Born in the Japanese Shimane prefecture in 1892 Tamon Yamaguchi graduated from the Japanese Naval Academy in 1912. By 1918 he had become a senior Lieutenant later assigned to a navigation unit with the naval squadron escorting German submarines as repatriation payments at the end of WWI in 1919. He later traveled to the United States attending Princeton University from 1921-1923 returning to Japan the following year graduating from Naval Staff College in 1924. A member of the Navy General Staff in 1927 Yamaguchi was promoted commander the next year and later assigned to the Japanese delegation at the London Naval Conference in 1929-1930. Made a Captain in 1932 Yamaguchi was the naval attache in Washington, DC from 1934-1937 and later Chief of Staff for the Japanese 5th Fleet from 1938-1940 until appointed commander of the 2nd Carrier Division, consisting of the IJN Hiryu and Soryu, as a rear admiral shortly before WWII in 1940. Yamaguchi took part in directing naval operations on the surprise attack on United States naval base of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and in operations driving the remaining British naval forces from the Indian Ocean on April 9-12, 1942 before he was killed in action on June 4, 1942 at the Battle of Midway after his flagship the Hiryu was sunk by American aircraft.

Further Reading

Fuchida Mitsuo (with C.H. Kawakami and Roger Pineau), Midway - The Battle that Doomed Japan: The Japanese Navy's Story, Annapolis, 1955

External links

• WW2DB: Yamaguchi, Tamon
• Nihon Kaigun Yamaguchi Biography