Kiyochi Ogata

Kiyochi Ogata (died August 1, 1944) was a colonel in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. He committed seppuku after the Battle of Tinian.

Biography

Kiyochi Ogata was the commanding officer of Tinian, one of the Pacific Islands. He commanded 4,500 soldiers on the island, while the other troops were commanded either by the commander of the four airfields on Tinian, Captain Goichi Oya, or the commander of the naval forces stationed there, Admiral Kakuji Kakuta. Fortunately for the Japanese, the 50th Division arrived on the island after leaving Manchukuo. But when the United States invaded Tinian, Ogata's defenses were poor and the US troops made it onto the beaches without extensive resistance. He failed a counterattack, and was forced into the inner parts of the island. The Japanese were defeated in the battle, and Ogata and Oya committed ritual suicide.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 5/25/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.