was a

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese freestyle swimmer who competed at the 1936 Olympics. He won a gold medal in 4 × 200 m freestyle relay, setting a world record. In the individual 100 m race he finished almost simultaneously with

Masanori Yusa was a Japanese freestyle swimmer. He won gold medals in the 4 × 200 m relay in the 1932 and 1936 Olympics, setting world records on both occasions. In 1936 he finished almost simultaneously with Shigeo Arai and Masaharu Taguchi in the 100 m ra ...

and

Masaharu Taguchi was a Japanese freestyle swimmer. At the 1936 Olympics, he won a gold medal in the 4 × 200 m relay, setting a new world record. In the individual 100 m race, he finished almost simultaneously with Masanori Yusa and Shigeo Arai and was placed ...

and was awarded a bronze medal. Those Games were the only international competition for Arai, though he won three national titles in the 100 m and four in the 200 m freestyle between 1937 and 1940. While serving in the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he was

killed in action Killed in action (KIA) is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their personnel at the hands of enemy or hostile forces at the moment of action. The United States Department of Defense, for example, ...

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

References

1916 births 1944 deaths Olympic swimmers for Japan Olympic gold medalists for Japan Olympic bronze medalists for Japan Swimmers at the 1936 Summer Olympics World record setters in swimming Olympic bronze medalists in swimming Rikkyo University alumni Japanese male freestyle swimmers Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in swimming Imperial Japanese Army personnel killed in World War II 20th-century Japanese sportsmen Swimmers from Shizuoka Prefecture {{Japan-Olympic-medalist-stub

See also

References