Goichi Oie (17 February 1897 – August 2, 1944) was a captain in the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

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 ...

, and died during the

Battle of Tinian The Battle of Tinian was part of the Pacific War, Pacific campaign of World War II. It was fought between the United States and Japan on the island of Tinian in the Mariana Islands from 24 July until 1 August 1944. The battle saw napalm used f ...

Biography

Goichi Oie was the subordinate to Admiral

Kakuji Kakuta , was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. He is noted for his role in commanding Japanese naval aviation units in the Pacific War. Biography Kakuta was a native of rural Minamikanbara, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. He gra ...

, the commander of the Tinian garrison. He was responsible for the defenses of the four airfields on Tinian, as well as their anti-air weaponry and their artillery. He commanded 4,500 naval troops in total. Oie and

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. H ...

, two of the Japanese commanders on the island, had their headquarters set up at Mt. Lasso, the highest point on the island. When the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

attacked Tinian in late 1944, he resisted them with his big guns, which inflicted severe casualties on the US troops and destroyed some of their LVTs before their troops could disembark. However, the US troops that landed broke through to Mt. Lasso, which endangered Japanese control of the island. Kakuta, Ogata, and Oie committed suicide in the traditional fashion of ''

seppuku , also known as , is a form of Japanese ritualistic suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honor, but was also practiced by other Japanese people during the Shōwa era (particularly officers near ...

'', where they stabbed themselves with swords and disemboweled themselves. The knife that Goichi Oie used to commit seppuku was retrieved by a US Marine named Fred Osgood and sent home to the US in 1944.

References

* Brooks, Victor: "''Hell is Upon Us: D-Day in the Pacific, June–August 1944''", 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Oya, Goichi 1897 births 1944 suicides 1944 deaths Imperial Japanese Navy officers Imperial Japanese Navy personnel killed in World War II Japanese military personnel who died by suicide Suicides by seppuku