World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseTatsunosuke Ariizumi was born in 1904 into a wealthy family with a history of naval service. Upon graduation with the 51st class of the Japanese Navy Academy at Etajima, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan in Jul 1923, he served aboard a number of warships, including carrier Akagi. He ultimately ended up in the submarine service, being assigned to RO-64 in Apr 1931, and then moving on to serve as the torpedo officer aboard I-51, I-56, and I-70 through the 1930s. In Jul 1937, he completed his studies at the Naval War College. In Aug 1937, he was assigned to Sasebo, Japan as the chief of staff to the 3rd Submarine Squadron. By the end of the 1930s, his knowledge of submarine warfare would take him to the First Bureau of the First Section of the Naval General Staff, where he was responsible for strategic planning. In Nov 1940, he was promoted to the rank of commander. As a staff officer with Japanese 6th Fleet, he participated in the planning of the midget submarine attack on Pearl Harbor in the US Territory of Hawaii at the opening chapter of the Pacific War and participated in the design of the I-400-class carrier submarine during the war. On 26 Mar 1944, as the commanding officer of submarine I-8, he ordered the brutal execution of the 98 survivors of Dutch merchant ship Tjisalak, which had just been sunk by I-8 in the Indian Ocean; he personally executed a number of the ship's officers by sword or pistol. On 29 Jun 1944, I-8 sank Australian merchant ship Nellore by torpedo and gunfire; of the 7 survivors captured by Ariizumi, he only permitted a Javanese mother and her young child to live, executing the other 5. When the stories of these atrocities began to flow back to Britain by means of the lucky survivors, Ariizumi was given the nickname of "The Butcher". In Oct 1944, he was promoted to the rank of captain. In Dec 1944, he was made the commanding officer of the 631st Naval Air Corps with simultaneous command of a group of special aircraft carrier submarines; these weapons together were originally meant to deliver a demoralizing attack in the American rear, but ultimately Ariizumi, personally overseeing Operation Arashi ("Storm") aboard I-401, would only be able to strike at the American anchorage at Ulithi in the Caroline Islands, much closer to Japanese waters. En route to Ulithi, he received Emperor Showa's surrender message, but at the same time also received conflicting orders from admirals who refused to give up; known as a ruthlessly aggressive officer, Ariizumi chose to obey the latter, but within two days he would change his mind. Shamed with defeat and burdened with the possibility of being tried as a war criminal, he committed suicide by taking a pistol to his mouth before I-401 arrived in Japan. He was buried at sea by the crew of I-401 in a ceremony that somehow escaped the notice of the American prize crew aboard the Japanese submarine.

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Tatsunosuke Ariizumi Timeline

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