Takeo Kurita
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| Takeo Kurita | |
|---|---|
| April 28, 1889 - December 19, 1977[1] | |
 Japanese Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita |
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| Place of birth | Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan |
| Allegiance | Empire of Japan |
| Rank | Vice Admiral |
| Commands | Second Fleet |
| Battles/wars | World War II oBattle of Midway oGuadalcanal campaign oBattle of the Philippine Sea oBattle of Leyte Gulf |
Takeo Kurita (Japanese: 栗田 健男; April 28, 1889 - December 19, 1977 was a vice-admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.
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[edit] Early life
Kurita, born in 1889, graduated in 1910 from the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy. Being appointed to destroyer duty, Kurita followed the artillery school in 1912 and the torpedo school in 1913 and 1918. Kurita was given command of a destroyer in 1920. The following years he commanded several destroyers and destroyer squadrons. In 1937, Kurita was given command of the battleship Kongō and the following year he was promoted to rear-admiral.
[edit] World War II
[edit] Early campaigns
Rear Admiral Kurita commanded a cruiser division during the East Indies invasion and during the Battle of Midway (serving under Nobutake Kondo) where he lost the cruiser Mikuma. As a Vice Admiral, Kurita led a battleship division in the Guadalcanal campaign, 1942, conducting an intense bombardment of the American air base at Henderson Field, on October 14th. He commanded major naval forces during the Central Solomons campaign and the Battle of Philippine Sea.
[edit] Battle of Leyte Gulf
It was as Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Second Fleet during the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea and the Battle off Samar (Both part of the Battle of Leyte Gulf) for which Admiral Kurita is best known. The Second Fleet included the Super Battleships Yamato and Musashi. At 64,000 tones they were the largest battleships in the world, and carried nine 18-inch guns. In comparison, the largest U.S. battleships, which were of the Iowa class were 57,000 tones and carried nine 16-inch guns. Additionally, Second Fleet included the battleships Nagato, Kongō, and Haruna and ten cruisers and thirteen destroyers. Critically, however, the Second Fleet of the IJN did not include any carriers. Kurita was a dedicated officer but did share in the fanaticism that characterized the Japanese military. Kurita believed in and hoped for a glorious death in battle, but like admiral Yamamoto, not one in vain. And like Admiral Yamamoto, Admiral Kurita believed that captains going down with their ships was a wasteful lose of valuable naval experience and leadership. When ordered by Admiral Toyoda to take his fleet through the San Bernardino Strait in the central Philippines and attack the American landings at Leyte, Kurita thought the effort a waste of ships and lives, especially since he could not get his fleet to Leyte Gulf until after the landings, leaving little more than empty transports for his huge battleships to attack. He bitterly resented his superiors, who, while safe in bunkers in Tokyo, ordered Kurita to fight-to-the-death against hopeless odds and without air cover.
[edit] Battle of the Sibuyan Sea
While in the confines of the Sibuyan Sea and approaching the San Bernardino Strait, Kurita's ships were attacked by two American submarines, which sunk two cruisers and damaged several other ships, including the Yamato. Constant air attacks from Admiral William "Bull" Halsey's Third Fleet scored a number of torpedo and dive bomber hits on the Yamato, mortally wounding the Yamato's sister ship, Musashi, and scoring a number of hits on other vessels. These attacks caused Kurita to call off his attack and turn his fleet west, away from Leyte Gulf. This began a chain of events that continues to engage historians and biographers to this day. Halsey, believing that he had mauled Kurita's fleet and that the Japanese "Central Forces" were retreating, and believing that he had the orders and authorization to do so, abandoned his station guarding General MacArthur's landing at Leyte Gulf and the San Bernardino Strait, in order to pursue Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa’s Northern Fleet of Japanese carriers that were sent as a decoy to lure the Americans away from Leyte. But before doing so, Halsey sent a message that seemed to state that he was detaching Task Force 34 - four Battleships and four Essex Class Carriers- to defend the San Bernardino Strait.
[edit] Battle off Samar
Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid had been assigned to General MacArthur and was commanding 18 small escort carriers, a number of destroyers and a few old battleships salvaged from Pearl Harbor. Because of Halsey's message, Kincaid concentrated his older battleships to the south in order to face the Japanese "Southern Force." During the night of October 24-25, Kurita changed his mind again, and turned his ships east toward Leyte Gulf. On the morning of October 25, 1944, Kurita's fleet, lead by the super battleship Yamato exited the San Bernardino Straight and sailed south along the coast of Samar. The large battleships of the Imperial Japanese Naval fell upon "Taffy 3" -part of Kincaid's command that consisted of six escort carriers, three destroyers and four small destroyer escorts. Taffy 3 was designed to provide shore support and anti-submarine patrols; not to engage in fleet action against battleships. The planes of Taffy 3 were loaded with anti-submarine depth-charges, which would have no affect against the thick steel plating of the Japanese battleships.
Admiral Kurita thought he had chanced upon the carriers of the American Third Fleet and ordered his battleships to open fire, including the Yamato's 18-inch guns. Kurita's forces mauled the American ships, sinking two of the small carriers, two destroyers, including the USS Johnston, commanded by Captain Ernest E. Evans. But the planes from Taffy 3 and Taffy 2, stationed farther south, fought hard. And although the American destroyers had only 5-inch guns they attacked and laid smoke. Captain Evans, a Cherokee Indian and 1931 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, did not hesitate. He immediately turned the USS Johnston toward the enemy and attacked with all guns, laying smoke and closing to within 8,000 yards, at which point he launched her ten torpedoes. Two struck and sank a Japanese cruiser. The USS Johnston was badly mauled. Ernest Evans died when his ship went down shortly there after, and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
By this time, the Japanese "Southern Fleet", which was to attack Leyte Gulf from the south, had already been destroyed by Kincaid's aging battleships, which were too far south to attack Kurita's forces. Admiral Kurita's "Central Force" had fewer than half its ships. With the Musashi gone, Kurita had 3 battleships but only 4 cruisers remaining, and all of his ships were damaged and low on fuel. Admiral Halsey had sunk the four carriers of the "Northern Force" and was racing back to Leyte with his battleships to confront the Japanese fleet. Kurita was ordered to stand and fight. He decided to retire and retreated back through the San Bernardino Strait.
Admiral Halsey’s Third Fleet included a total of 8 Fleet Carriers, 8 Light Carriers, 6 Battleships including the new, fast Iowa class battleships USS Iowa and USS New Jersey, 6 heavy cruisers, 9 light cruisers and 58 destroyers. And though Kincaid's escort carriers were small, there were still 15 of them remaining. This meant there were more than one thousand attack planes available to battle Kurita's fleet, which had no air cover. Retiring saved the Yamato and the remainder of the Second Fleet from certain destruction.
[edit] After Leyte
In December, Kurita was removed from command. In order to protect him against assassination, he was assigned to be president of the Japanese Navy War College at Etajima (江田島市), located on an island in the Hiroshima Prefecture of the Inland Sea. Admiral Kurita was criticized by the Japanese military for not fighting to the death. It was not until he was in his eighties that Takeo Kurita admitted privately to a former Etajima student that he withdrew the fleet from the battle because he did not believe in wasting the lives of his men in a futile effort, having long since believed that the war was lost.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Nishida, Imperial Japanese Navy.
[edit] References
- Evan Thomas, "Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign, 1941-1945." New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. ISBN 0743252217.)
- Cutler, Thomas (2001). The Battle of Leyte Gulf: 23–26 October 1944. Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-243-9.
- D'Albas, Andrieu (1965). Death of a Navy: Japanese Naval Action in World War II. Devin-Adair Pub. ISBN 0-8159-5302-X.
- Dull, Paul S. (1978). A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1941–1945. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-097-1.
- Field, James A. (1947). The Japanese at Leyte Gulf;: The Sho operation. Princeton University Press. ASIN B0006AR6LA.
- Friedman, Kenneth (2001). Afternoon of the Rising Sun: The Battle of Leyte Gulf. Presidio Press. ISBN 0-89141-756-7.
- Halsey, William Frederick (1983) The Battle for Leyte Gulf. U.S. Naval Institute ASIN B0006YBQU8
- Hornfischer, James D. (2004). The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. Bantam. ISBN 0-553-80257-7.
- Hoyt, Edwin P.; Thomas H Moorer (Introduction) (2003). The Men of the Gambier Bay: The Amazing True Story of the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-643-6.
- Lacroix, Eric; Linton Wells (1997). Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-311-3.
- Morison, Samuel Eliot (2001) Leyte: June 1944-January 1945 (History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volume 12. Castle Books; Reprint ISBN 0785813136
- Nishida, Hiroshi. Imperial Japanese Navy. Retrieved on 2007-02-25.
- Potter, E. B. (2005). Admiral Arleigh Burke. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-692-5.
- Potter, E. B. (2003). Bull Halsey. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-691-7.
- David Sears. The Last Epic Naval Battle: Voices from Leyte Gulf. Praeger Publishers (2005) ISBN 0275985202
- Thomas, Evan (2006). Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign 1941–1945. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-5221-7.
- Willmott, H. P. (2005). The Battle Of Leyte Gulf: The Last Fleet Action. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-34528-6.
- Woodward, C. Vann (1989) The Battle for Leyte Gulf (Naval Series) Battery Press ISBN 0898391342
A list of the U.S. Naval Interrogations of Japanese Officials, conducted after the war, with full texts of the interviews is available at: www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/USSBS/IJO/index.html
A number of these interviews are available on line and provide interesting insight from the Japanese commanders, who, many for first time, are openly critical of the war and their superiors. Admiral Kurita and his role in the war is discussed in a number of different interrogations.
[edit] Promotions
Midshipman - 18 July 1910
Ensign - 1 December 1911
Sublieutenant - 1 December 1913
Lieutenant - 1 December 1916
Lieutenant Commander - 1 December 1922
Commander - 1 December 1927
Captain - 1 December 1932
Rear Admiral - 15 November 1938
Vice Admiral - 1 May 1942
