World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseNaoshi Kanno was born in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan as the second son of a senior police official. He enrolled in the Japanese Navy Academy in Dec 1938, graduating in Feb 1943. Upon completion of flight school, he was assigned to the airfield at Oita in southern Japan. He was assigned to the front lines in Apr 1943 with 343rd Air Group, and by Jul 1944 he would be made a squadron commander. He was known as a rebellious but skillful fighter pilot Initially based in the Palau Islands, his unit would be moved back to Kyushu in the Japanese home islands toward the end of the war. His final mission took place on 1 Aug 1945 when he took off to intercept a group of US B-24 bombers; he was shot down by escorting P-51 Mustang fighters off the island of Yakushima south of Kyushu. His remains were never found. He was posthumously promoted to the captain in the following month, and he was subsequently enshrined at Yasukuni in Tokyo, Japan.

Naoshi Kanno Interactive Map

Photographs

Naoshi Kanno Timeline