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...

. In action in the war, Nangō was officially credited with destroying eight enemy aircraft.

Nangō graduated from the Naval Academy Etajima in 1927 and completed flight training in November 1932. After a tour of duty with the aircraft carrier Akagi's

Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi

Akagi was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy , originally begun as an . She was converted while still under construction to an aircraft carrier under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty...

 fighter group, he spent two years in London as the assistant naval attache in the Japanese embassy.

After returning to Japan, Nangō was posted to the 13th Air Group in October 1937 soon after the outbreak of renewed hostilities with China. In a single engagement over Nanking on 2 December 1937, he was credited with destroying two Chinese aircraft. Later that month, Nangō was assigned as a division commander in the carrier Sōryū's

Japanese aircraft carrier Soryu

was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy. During the Second World War, she took part in the attack on Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, Port Darwin and raids in the Indian Ocean before being sunk at the Battle of Midway.-Design:...

 fighter group.

In July 1938, Nangō assumed command of the 15th Air Group, based in Anqing

Anqing

Anqing is a prefecture-level city in southwestern Anhui province, East China. It borders Lu'an to the north, Chaohu to the northeast, Tongling to the east, Chizhou to the southeast, and the provinces of Jiangxi and Hubei to the south and west respectively....

. He led his fighter group in air operations supporting ground forces around Hankow and protecting shipping in the Yangtze River. Unsanitary conditions at Anqing contributed to ill health in many of the 15th's pilots, including Nangō, but he refused to be taken off flying duty. On 18 July 1938, he was killed during an aerial battle when his aircraft collided with a Chinese Polikarpov I-15

Polikarpov I-15

The Polikarpov I-15 was a Soviet biplane fighter aircraft of the 1930s. Nicknamed Chaika because of its gulled upper wings, it was operated in large numbers by the Soviet Air Force, and together with the Polikarpov I-16 monoplane, was one of the standard fighters of the Spanish Republicans during...

 fighter flown by Soviet volunteer Valentin Dudonov. Nangō's death in battle was widely publicized in Japan and his funeral was attended by the vice minister of the navy, Isoroku Yamamoto

Isoroku Yamamoto

was a Japanese Naval Marshal General and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II, a graduate of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and a student of Harvard University ....

.