Who is kazuo sakamaki

After his capture, the sailor requested the means to commit suicide; his request was denied. When the war ended, Sakamaki was repatriated to Japan, where he became a pacifist and refused to talk about the war and his part in the Pearl Harbor assault. Sakamaki survived his time in the POW camp and immediately left his career in the military.

After writing a memoir, Sakamaki opened up about his time in the camps in during a Texas historical conference. With the war behind him, Sakamaki went on to work with the Toyota Motor Company, where he worked his way up to president of the Brazilian subsidiary. In , the former sailor retired and lived in Japan until the age of As for the miniature sub that Sakamaki failed to sink entirely, it was paraded throughout the United States, used as a means of promoting the sale of war bonds to assist in the fight against Japan.

To stay up to date on the latest information about Pearl Harbor, please follow us! He spent the rest of his life in Japan until his death in at the age of He was survived by his wife and two children. He told of receiving mail from some Japanese denouncing him for not having committed suicide when it appeared he could be captured.

His memoirs were translated and published in the United States on the eighth anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack under the title I Attacked Pearl Harbor. Fukui said, "I think he had a lot of feelings he could not put in words about becoming the first prisoner of war at a time when falling into the hands of the enemy was the biggest shame. James Dorsey. A study of Japanese wartime media representations of Sakamaki's submarine mission at Pearl Harbor.

Military Wiki Explore. Popular pages. Project maintenance. Register Don't have an account? Kazuo Sakamaki. Edit source History Talk 0. The attack inflicted no damage on the American fleet. After the war, he found work with the Toyota Motor Corp. In , he returned to Japan and worked for Toyota before retiring in In , Sakamaki attended a historical conference in Texas and was reunited with his submarine for the first time in 50 years. During the Japanese invasion of Hawaii in , Kazuo Sakamaki was captured during the initial attack by Japanese midget submarines on U.

He was liberated during the subsequent conquest of the islands. However, he was promptly taken into custody by the Japanese military for having dishonored himself by being captured. He was tried and immediately sentenced to death by firing squad - his surrender was too dishonorable to permit him to commit seppuku.