Rinosuke Ichimaru

Admiral Rinosuke Ichimaru (市丸利之助), also known as Toshinosuke Ichimaru, was a Japanese officer and aviator in the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Second World War.

He was an early pioneer, then a fighter pilot, with the Dai-Nippon Teikoku Kaigun Kōkū Hombu, the aeronautical service of the Japanese Imperial Navy. During the Second World War, he commanded numerous air units, and participated in the Guadalcanal Campaign. In August 1944 he assumed command of the Imperial Naval forces present on the island of Iwo Jima, and died in combat against the US Marines on March 26, 1945.

Biography
Rinosuke Ichimaru was born in Karatsu, Saga Prefecture, on 20 September 1891. He graduated high school on 31 March 1910 and entered the Etajima Naval Academy that same year. He finished his studies on December 19, 1913 ranking 46th out of 118 cadets, and earning the rank of Ensign. He then embarked on the armored cruiser Azuma. On 11 August 1914, he started serving on the battle cruiser Kongō. On 24 October, he was transferred to the armored cruiser Izumo.

Rinosuke Ichimaru was promoted to the rank of sub-lieutenant on 1 December 1914. On May 26, 1915, he was assigned again to the armored cruiser Azuma, remaining on board until September 1, 1916, when he was switched back to the Kongō again. On 1 December 1916, he began to attend basic course at the naval artillery school. On 1 June 1917, he started to study torpedoes. Passionate about the world of aviation, Rinosuke attended the course for pilots students of the Japanese Imperial Navy on 1 December 1917. On 1 January 1918 he was assigned as a military fighter pilot to the Yokosuka-based Air Group. On September 25, 1919, Rinosuke was transferred to the boarded air group, operating from the new aircraft carrier Hōshō. On 1 December he was promoted to lieutenant and became an instructor at the Yokosuka Air Group. Four years later, on 1 December 1923, he was placed in charge of the Omura Aircraft Group. He was later transferred to the Kasumigaura Aircraft Group on 7 January 1925. On 1 December of the same year he was appointed to the rank of lieutenant commander.

Flight instructor
In July 1926, he was involved in an accident during a test flight on a fighter that caused him serious fractures to the femur and other injuries to both the skull and the face. He took a long time to recover; according to the testimony of his daughter, Haruko Ichimaru, he spent three years recovering from his surgery and rehabilitation. However, he kept a limp all his life from this incident. During his recovery, he read many books, painted pictures and wrote poetry in Japanese and Chinese classic style, and became famous in poetry. On 1 December 1927 he returned to active service as an instructor at the Kasumigaura flight school. He then returned to Yokosuka in November 1929, where on 1 December 1930 he was promoted to commander and became an official instructor. Three years later, on 1 December 1933, he became an executive officer at the Sasebo Air Group and on 1 November 1934, he was assigned to the General Staff of the 1st Aircraft Division. On May 25, 1935, still as an executive officer, he boarded the aircraft carrier Kaga.

Second Sino-Japanese War and Second World War
On 15 October 1935, Rinosuke Ichimaru was assigned to the Chinkai Guard District in Korea, where he later took command of the Air Group on October 1, 1936. Exactly two months later, he was elevated to the rank of captain. The Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in July 1937, and four months later on November 15, he became commander of the Yokohama Air Group. He held this position for only one month, and was then transferred on December 15 to the 1st Naval District where he took command. On 1 April 1939 he was transferred to take command of the Chichi Jima Aircraft Group. On 6 November he changed units again and was placed in command of the 13th Air Group. He then participated in the war on the Asian continent, coordinating the bombing of the city of Wuhan. On November 15, 1940 he moved to the Suzuka Air Group and on 1 May 1942 he was promoted to the rank of rear admiral.

He was then sent to the South Pacific theater, where he took part in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons and the subsequent fighting in the long and exhausting campaign of Guadalcanal, in command of the 1st Attack Force. The force suffered heavy losses. On September 1, 1942, he assumed command of the 21st Air Flotilla, but in 1943 he was recalled to Japan, where on November 15 he became commander of the 13th airborne group. On 5 August 1944 he was transferred to the General Staff of the 3rd Air Fleet and on the 10th he took command of the 27th Air Flotilla based on the island of Iwo Jima, south of the metropolitan archipelago.

Battle of Iwo Jima
Admiral Ichimaru landed on the island on August 10 and replaced Vice Admiral Sadaichi Matsunaga who was in disagreement with the garrison commander, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi about the defensive strategy to be adopted. In the days that followed, 2,126 sailors, aviators, and marines were placed under his orders. When all the planes of his flotilla were lost in the preliminary US bombing, he decided to place his troops under the command of Kuribayashi. Ichimaru did not share the defensive strategy of Kuribayashi, which included a defense in depth. The admiral would have preferred to immediately counter the landings, fighting on the beaches and defending the airfield of Minamiburaku. Despite the differences of opinion with the commander in chief, the men of Ichimaru actively collaborated in the defense and built 135 casemates.

When the US landings began on February 19, Ichimaru led 7,347 Imperial Naval men. On March 17, towards the end of the battle, he was believed to have been killed, and was promoted to the posthumous rank of vice admiral. However, he was still alive and the following day he led a desperate attack at the head of the last sixty Marines and still survived. Admiral Ichimaru is believed to have been killed by a barrage of machine gun fire on March 26, while trying to abandon the cave in which he had taken refuge.

In the final days of the battle, Ichimaru wrote a letter addressed to US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in which Ichimaru charged Roosevelt with vilifying pre-war Japan, and justified the decision of the Japanese government to enter the war as a reaction to the policy put in place by the United States that forced Japan on the offensive. The letter was placed in the stomach band of his communications officer, and an English version entrusted to Lieutenant Commander Kunio Akada. The letter was published in the New York Herald Tribune on 11 July, one week before the Potsdam Conference, and is today kept at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

Ichimaru's letter to President Roosevelt:

Ichimaru's katana
During the battle, the admiral wore his family sword, a blade from the Edo period. According to the testimony of his daughter Haruko, the sword had saved his life three times in the past. The first was when he was on board a plane, and got hit by a bullet that bounced off the bottom of the sword, therefore saving him. The blade was broken but Ichimaru had it repaired by a specialized blacksmith. During the fighting at Iwo Jima, he always kept his sword with him, but when his body was identified at the end of the attack, it had been taken. There was no news about the katana and in the agitation of the battle, the body of the admiral was lost, as was that of General Kuribayashi.

Twenty years after the battle, many books on Iwo Jima were published in the United States. One of these, Iwo Jima by Richard F. Newcomb, published in New York in 1965, included an annotation on the sword of Ichimaru. A history professor who had participated in the battle of Iwo Jima read the book and suspected that the sword he had bought for $25 as a war souvenir in New Jersey many years earlier was the admiral's sword. He carried out further research to identify the sword, and discovered that it was indeed the sword of Ichimaru. It was taken back to Japan by a Japanese war veteran who was visiting New York. The television network NHK TV organized a meeting in which the sword was presented to the admiral's widow, Sueko. She donated the sword to Karatsu Castle museum for public exhibition. However, the museum was robbed and the sword was stolen along with other objects on display. Sueko died shortly after the robbery. About three years later a doctor bought a sword at an antique shop and, noticing its uniqueness, had it examined. The weapon was identified as the sword of Ichimaru and was returned to the family, who still have custody of it today.

In popular culture
Ichimaru is portrayed in Clint Eastwood's film Letters From Iwo Jima (2006). He is played by actor Masashi Nagadoi.