1. Matome Ugaki was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II, remembered for his extensive and revealing war diary, role at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and participation in one of the final kamikaze attacks hours after the surrender of Japan was announced.
Matome Ugaki placed ninth out of 144 cadets in his class, and was good friends with his Naval Academy classmates Tamon Yamaguchi and Yoshio Suzuki, both of whom were killed in action during World War II.
Matome Ugaki served as a midshipman on the armored cruiser Azuma and made a training cruise to Australia aboard her.
Matome Ugaki was assigned to the battlecruiser Ibuki on 27 May 1914.
Matome Ugaki was promoted to sub-lieutenant on 1 December 1915 while aboard Ibuki.
Matome Ugaki subsequently transferred to the battlecruiser Kongo on 1 December 1916.
Matome Ugaki was reassigned to the destroyer Nara on 1 August 1918, and was aboard her when the war ended on 11 November 1918.
On 1 December 1922, Matome Ugaki entered the Japanese Naval War College.
Matome Ugaki became an instructor at the Naval War College on 15 November 1932 and received a promotion to captain on 1 December 1932.
On 30 October 1935, Matome Ugaki was assigned to duty as a staff officer to the Combined Fleet, then received his first command on 1 December 1936 as commanding officer of the training ship Yakumo, From 7 June to 19 October 1937, Yakumo made a training cruise to Suez and the Mediterranean under his command with the 64th class of the Japanese Naval Academy embarked.
Matome Ugaki was promoted to rear admiral on 15 November 1938 and became Director, 1st Bureau on the Naval General Staff on 15 December 1938.
Matome Ugaki took command of the 8th Cruiser Division, consisting of the heavy cruisers Tone and Chikuma, on 10 April 1941.
The Pacific campaign of World War II began with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941, and Matome Ugaki was promoted to vice admiral on 1 November 1942.
Yamamoto was killed, his aircraft crashing in the jungle, while Matome Ugaki's plane fell into the sea at high speed.
Matome Ugaki was one of three survivors, the others being the bomber's pilot, Flight Petty Officer 2nd Class Hiroshi Hayashi, and the Combined Fleet's Paymaster, Captain Motoharu Kitamura.
On 22 May 1943, the injured Matome Ugaki was attached to the Naval General Staff for hospitalization.
Matome Ugaki's battleships saw action in two major engagements of the battle, the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea on 24 October 1944, in which US aircraft sank Musashi, and the Battle off Samar on 25 October 1944.
On 15 November 1944, Matome Ugaki was recalled to Japan and ordered to duty with the Naval General Staff.
Meanwhile, Matome Ugaki gathered more aircraft and hid them from Allied attack in Kyushu, planning to use them in kamikaze attacks during the expected Allied invasion of Japan.
Matome Ugaki planned to hit the invasion forces with hundreds of aircraft and Shin'yo suicide attack motorboats over the course of a few hours in Operation Ketsu-Go.
Matome Ugaki was posthumously awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.