World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseChiaki Matsuda was born in Kamoto (now a part of Yamaga), Kunamoto Prefecture, Japan in 1896. He entered the Japanese Naval Academy in Sep 1913 and graduated in Dec 1916. In Aug 1917, he was assigned to battleship Haruna. In Dec 1917, he was promoted to the rank of ensign and was assigned to battleship Kawachi. After Kawachi was lost to an accidental magazine explosion in Jul 1918, he returned to Haruna in the following month. In Nov 1918, he was assigned to cruiser Azuma as a supplementary guidance officer. In Dec 1919, he was promoted to the rank of sub-lieutenant and was assigned to the Torpedo School. In May 1920, he entered the Gunnery School. In Dec 1920, he was assigned to cruiser Yudachi. In Dec 1921, he was made the squadron strategy officer with his post aboard battleship Kongo. In Dec 1922, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. Between Dec 1922 and Nov 1923, he studied graduate level courses at the Gunnery School. Upon graduation, he was made the chief gunnery officer of the destroyer Kamikaze. In Dec 1924, he was made a squad leader aboard battleship Mutsu. In Dec 1925, he was made an instructor at the Gunnery School. Between Dec 1926 and Nov 1928, he studied at the Naval War College. In Dec 1928, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander and was assigned to the Bureau of Personnel in the Navy Ministry. In May 1930, he was made a military attaché and aide at the US embassy. In May 1931, he was assigned to cruiser Kiso as the chief gunnery officer. In Sep 1931, he was assigned to the first division of the Naval General Staff. In Nov 1933, he was promoted to the rank of commander. In Apr 1934, he was appointed to the Army General Staff as a naval liaison officer. In Nov 1934, he was assigned to the second division of the Naval General Staff. In this role, he was involved in the planning and design of the Yamato-class battleships. In 1935, he was made the executive officer of light cruiser Abukuma. In Nov 1935, he was made a faculty member at the Naval War College. In Dec 1935, he was promoted to the rank of captain. In early 1936, he was placed on a watch list by the Japanese secret police for having possible links to the mutineers of the 26 Feb Incident, in which a group of young Japanese Army officers attempted to overthrow the government. In Aug 1938, he was made the commanding officer of seaplane carrier Kamoi. In 1940, he was made a section chief a the Naval General Staff headquarters. Later in the same year, he traveled to Europe and North America. In Oct 1940, he was made a staff member at the Institute for Total War. In Sep 1941, he was made the commanding officer of old battleship Settsu; in this role, he developed a manual to prevent air attacks. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he made comments that the seemingly successful raid might actually be a strategic failure. Between Feb and Dec 1942, he was the commanding officer of battleship Hyuga. Between Dec 1942 and Sep 1943, he was the commanding officer of battleship Yamato. In May 1943, he was promoted to the rank of rear admiral. After some time as the chief staff officer of the first division of the Naval General Staff, he was assigned the commanding officer of the Carrier Division 4 along with the 4th Aircraft Squadron in May 1944; Carrier Division 4 contained, among other ships, his former command Hyuga, although the ship had since been converted into a battleship-carrier hybrid. In Feb 1945, he successfully completed Operation Kita, which brought warships and oil and other important raw materials from Singapore to Japan. He was made the commanding officer of the Yokosuka Naval Air Corp in Feb 1945; he would be at this position at the end of the war. After the war, he was interrogated by Lieutenant Commander J. A. Field, Jr. of the United States Naval Reserves in Tokyo on 12 Nov 1945, and was commented by Field as "an exceedingly agreeable and cooperative witness and his testimony was considered generally accurate". Matsuda shared his less-than-enthusiastic personal opinion of the hybrid battleship-carrier platform such as Ise and Hyuga, and the theoretical doctrine for operating such hybrids. He indicated that Hyuga and Ise were never fully used as hybrids because they never received sufficient number of carrier pilots. Matsuda also shared his observation that when a Japanese air unit was placed in combat, all pilots stay on the front lines until all pilots were lost; had some pilots been withdrawn to the rear for reorganization of new units, the veterans could have formed nuclei of the new units, providing experience to new units and guidance to newly trained pilots. After the war, he became an inventor and a businessman. Matsuda passed away in 1995.

Chiaki Matsuda Interactive Map

Chiaki Matsuda Timeline