Akira Yamamoto was an officer and ace

Ace

An ace is a playing card. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the case of the Ace of Spades...

 fighter

Fighter aircraft

A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...

 pilot in the Imperial Japanese Navy

Imperial Japanese Navy

The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...

 (IJN) during the Second Sino-Japanese War

Second Sino-Japanese War

The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...

 and the Pacific theater

Pacific War

The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...

 of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. In aerial combat over China, the Pacific, and Japan, he was officially credited with destroying 13 enemy aircraft.

Flying from the aircraft carrier Kaga

Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga

Kaga was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy , named after the former Kaga Province in present-day Ishikawa Prefecture...

 during the attack on Pearl Harbor

Attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...

 in December 1941, Yamamoto claimed to have destroyed a civilian sight-seeing aircraft over Oahu which had happened into the path of the Japanese first strike wave. In June 1942, during the Battle of Midway

Battle of Midway

The Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated...

, Kaga was fatally damaged by enemy action while Yamamoto was participating in the fleet's combat air patrol

Combat air patrol

Combat air patrol is a type of flying mission for fighter aircraft.A combat air patrol is an aircraft patrol provided over an objective area, over the force protected, over the critical area of a combat zone, or over an air defense area, for the purpose of intercepting and destroying hostile...

. Yamamoto landed his fighter on Hiryū

Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryu

was a modified Sōryū-class aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was one of the carriers that began the Pacific War with the attack on Pearl Harbor...

 and subsequently joined that carrier's successful retaliatory strike on the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 carrier Yorktown

USS Yorktown (CV-5)

was an aircraft carrier commissioned in the United States Navy from 1937 until she was sunk at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. She was named after the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 and the lead ship of the Yorktown class which was designed after lessons learned from operations with the large...

. Yamamoto claimed to have destroyed four of Yorktown's fighter aircraft in the attack.

In October 1942, Yamamoto participated in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands

Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands

The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, 26 October 1942, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Santa Cruz or in Japanese sources as the , was the fourth carrier battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II and the fourth major naval engagement fought between the United States Navy and the Imperial...

 as a member of Zuihō

Japanese aircraft carrier Zuiho

was a light aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy. During the Second World War, she participated in many operations, including the battles of Santa Cruz, Philippine Sea and Leyte Gulf where she was finally sunk by American aircraft.-Design:...

's fighter group. He was subsequently transferred to the home islands and participated in aerial battles over Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima, officially , is an island of the Japanese Volcano Islands chain, which lie south of the Ogasawara Islands and together with them form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The island is located south of mainland Tokyo and administered as part of Ogasawara, one of eight villages of Tokyo...

, during which he was wounded in June 1944. After recovering from his injuries, Yamamoto took part in the interception of a B-29 bombing mission over Japan on 24 November 1944. Defensive fire from the B-29s crippled Yamamoto's aircraft and he bailed out over Yachimata, Chiba

Yachimata, Chiba

is a city located in northern Chiba Prefecture, Japan. As of February 2011, the town had an estimated population of 73,118 and a population density of 977 persons per km²...

. His parachute failed to open and Yamamoto plunged to his death.