Shigekazu Shimazaki

Infobox Military Person
name= Shigekazu Shimazaki
lived= 9 September 1908 - 9 January 1945 [ [http://homepage2.nifty.com/nishidah/e/px57.htm#r001 Nishida, "Imperial Japanese Navy"] ]
placeofbirth=Ōita, Japan
placeofdeath=near Taiwan (†KIA)


caption=
nickname=
allegiance=Empire of Japan
branch=navy|Empire of Japan
serviceyears=1929-1945
rank=Rear Admiral
unit=
commands=Wing Leader "Zuikaku",
Senior Air Officer "752nd" "Kokutai" (based in Taiwan),
Senior Air Officer "Nagoya" "Kokutai",
Staff officer "2nd Air Fleet",
Staff officer "3rd Air Fleet"
battles=World War II
(Attack on Pearl Harbor, Indian Ocean raid, Battle of the Coral Sea, Aerial Battle of Taiwan-Okinawa)

Shigekazu Shimazaki (嶋崎重和, 9 September 1908 - 9 January 1945), was a Rear Admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service.

After graduating from the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy in 1929, Shimazaki was a trainee of the flight course in 1932, becoming the torpedo bomber pilot in 1933.

He was the division commander (: 分隊長) of the carrier "Kaga" when his group was deployed to the gound base in Shanghai, where he experienced a number of bombing missions as the war between Japan and China hopelessly escalated.

In September 1941 he was assigned the post of an equipping officer of the brand new carrier "Zuikaku". His job was to form the new air wing, himself becoming its leader when the ship was ready for duty.

Shimazaki is best known as the leader of the second wave of the air attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 [ [http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/pearlharbor/totsugeskiseyo.aspx Military History Online "Pearl Harbor - "Totsugeskiseyo!"] ] . He was piloting Nakajima B5N2 "Kate" and led the attack group of 54 torpedo bombers and 81 dive bombers [源田實 (Minoru Genda) 『真珠湾作戦回顧録』 文春文庫 p279.] . For this success he and Mitsuo Fuchida, the leader of the 1st wave of attack, were allowed an audience with Emperor Showa at the Imperial Palace on December 25.

Four months later Shimazaki was again on board "Zuikaku" and participated in the raid on Trinkomalee on April 9, 1942, as he led eighteen B5N "Kate"s and bombed the ground facilities of the port city of the British-ruled Ceylon [ [http://sidenkai21.cocot.jp/m636.html "インド洋作戦・Ⅱ"] (written in Japanese)] .

A month later Shimazaki was at the Battle of the Coral Sea, where he again scored a notable success. In the morning of May 7 his attack group took off "Zuikaku" in search of the US aircraft carriers. Although there were no carriers, they found U.S. fleet oiler "Neosho" and its escort detroyer "Sims" instead. Shimazaki immediately ordered the dive bombers to attack them, letting "Sims" sink and "Neosho" heavily damaged [also see [http://www.users.bigpond.com/pacificwar/CoralSea/May.8th.html Military History Online "BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA"] ] .

In July 1942 Shimazaki was transferred to Kure and departed with "Zuikaku" for ever. He spent the rest of his career as a ground based air officer.

Shimazaki was killed in action in January 1945, near Taiwan, while being a staff officer of the 3rd Air Fleet. He was posthumously promoted 2 ranks from Commander to Rear Admiral, and also awarded the class 4 order (従四位) [ [http://pukurinno1.blog4.fc2.com/blog-entry-369.html 西京子 "戦没者叙位について"] (written in Japanese)] .

Notes