Rinosuke Ichimaru

In July 1926, during a test flight on a fighter, he was involved in an accident that caused him serious fractures to the femur and other injuries to both the skull and the face.[1] He took a long time to recover : according to the testimony of his daughter, Haruko Ichimaru, he spent three years recovering from his surgery until 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.[4] 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 joined to the General Staff of the 1st Aircraft Division. On May 25, 1935, still as an executive officer, he was boarded on the Kaga aircraft carrier.

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, and 4 months later on November 15, 1937, he became commander of the Yokohama Air Group. He held this position for only one month, being 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.[2] He then participated in the war on the Asian continent, coordinating the bombing of the city of Wuhan.[1] 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. Sent into the war theater of the South Pacific Ocean, he took part in the battle of the Eastern Solomon and the subsequent fighting of the long and exhausting campaign of Guadalcanal, in command of the 1st Attack Force. The force suffered heavy losses.[3]

On September 1, 1942, he assumed command of the 21st Air Flotilla,[3] 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.[1]

Admiral Ichimaru landed on the island on August 10 and replaced Rear Admiral Teiichi Matsunaga who was in disagreement with the garrison commander, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi about the defensive strategy to be adopted.[5] 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.[1] Ichimaru did not share the defensive strategy of Kuribayashi,[6] which included a defense in depth.[7] The admiral would have preferred to immediately counter the landings, fighting on the beaches[7] and defending the airfield of Minamiburaki.[6] Despite the differences of opinion with the commander in chief, the men of Ichimaru actively collaborated in the defense and built 135 casemates.[6]

When the US landings began on February 19, Ichimaru led 7,347 imperial navy men.[8] 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.[1] However, he was still alive and the following day he led a desperate attack at the head of the last sixty Marines [9] and still survived. Admiral Ichimaru is believed to have been killed by a barrage of machine gun on March 26,[10] while trying to abandon the cave in which he had taken refuge.[1] On his body was found a letter he had written a few days before and addressed to US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt,[10] in which Ichimaru 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.[1][10] The letter was published in the New York Herald Tribune on 11 July and is today kept at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.[1]

Photograph of Ichimaru and his sword

During the battle, the admiral wore his family sword, an excellent 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.[11] 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[11] 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 war, read the book and suspected that the sword he had bought for $25 as a war souvenir in New Jersey many years ago was that of the admiral. He carried out further research to identify the sword, and discovered that it was indeed the sword of Ichimaru. It was brought back to Japan by a Japanese war veteran who was visiting New York. The NHK TV organized a meeting that allowed the sword to be returned to the admiral's wife, Sueko. She donated the sword to the Karatsu Castle museum for public exhibition. Unfortunately, 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, where it is still located today.