Kiyoto Furuta

Kiyoto Furuta (古田 清人) was a dive bomber pilot in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II.

He flew Aichi D3A dive bomber from carrier Akagi during the Attack on Pearl Harbor and the Indian Ocean Raid, and later from carrier Shōkaku in both carrier battles during Solomon Islands Campaign, where he scored bomb hits on United States Navy (USN) carrier Enterprise on two separate occasions.

Kiyoto Furuta was born in 1914 in Yamaguchi Prefecture to a poor farmer family with five children.

In his youth, he often worked hard in the field to help his father.

In order to escape the hard farming life, he volunteered for the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1931.

He went through the training at Kure naval base and eventually became a mechanic.

He aspired to become a pilot and passed a pre-test for naval pilot training.

However, he was initially rejected during the physical exam due to a problem with his eardrum.

The problem was eventually resolved after six months and he was then accepted for the naval pilot training program at Kasumigaura Air Group near Tokyo.

He graduated from the 32nd class in 1936 and specialized in dive bombing.

In 1937, Furuta was first assigned to the 12th Air Group to fight in Central China before he was transferred to the newest carrier Sōryū.

He was eventually promoted to Petty Officer.

He wanted to leave the navy in order to pursue civil aviation career, however, Japan was about to enter the war with the United States and needed all available pilots.

In October 1941, he was transferred to Akagi in preparation for the Attack on Pearl Harbor.

During the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Petty Officer Furuta flew as pilot Akagi's dive bomber squadron leader (Hikōtaichō), Lieutenant Takehiko Chihaya.

Since the US carriers, which were their intended targets, were not present at the time of the attack, they hit the battleships instead.

The element of surprise was long gone by the time the second wave arrived, leading them to face an intense anti-aircraft fire.

After releasing the bomb, Furuta's aircraft was hit in the left fuel tank and started leaking.

He barely managed to return to Akagi before his fuel ran out.

In February 1942, Furuta took part in the Bombing of Darwin.

In April, he participated in the Indian Ocean Raid, where he was part of the strike against the British carrier Hermes.

By the time the Akagi pilots' turn arrived, the leading strike formation, under Lieutenant Commander Kakuichi Takahashi, had already effectively sunk Hermes with numerous bomb hits.

Therefore, they attacked the Australian destroyer Vampire instead, sinking her within ten minutes.

During the Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942, Furuta was part of the strike force against the USN airfield and installations on Midway Atoll.

On the way to the atoll, they were intercepted by a large group of Midway-based Marine fighters (six Grumman F4F Wildcats and 20 Brewster F2A Buffalos) led by Major Floyd B. Parks.

In the ensuing air battle, four Nakajima B5N bombers and one Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter were shot down by the Americans.

In return, two F4Fs and 13 F2As were shot down, while most of the remaining were damaged beyond airworthiness.

Furuta and his group of dive bombers hit the Midway airfield and headed back to the IJN fleet.

Upon returning, he witnessed the unsuccessful attack on IJN carriers by the Midway-based Marine Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers.

After the attack was over, he landed on Akagi, which was preparing to launch a strike against the USN carrier detected in the North-East.

However, before the preparation could be finished, Akagi was hit and set ablaze by a bomb dropped by Lieutenant Dick Best during the USN dive bomber attack.

Furuta and the rest of the crew were given an order to abandon the ship and were evacuated.

In July 1942, Petty Officer Furuta was transferred to Shōkaku.

He severed as a pilot of dive bomber division leader (Buntaichō) Lieutenant Keiichi Arima.

In late August 1942, Shōkaku participated in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons.

During the attack on USN carriers, Furuta was part of the first strike wave that consisted of 27 D3A dive bombers and 10 A6M Zero fighters, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Mamoru Seki (Hikōtaichō).

Arima led one of the three divisions (chūtai), with nine dive bombers under his command.

A USN Combat Air Patrol (CAP) of Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters intercepted the formation of dive bombers, but Furuta and Arima's division managed to escape into cumulonimbus clouds and approached the US carrier Enterprise unharmed.

Furuta made a dive-bombing attack on Enterprise and released his 250-kilogram semi-AP bomb around an altitude of 500 meters.

The bomb, the first ever to hit Enterprise, penetrated the starboard forward corner of her number 3 elevator aft and sliced through to the third deck before detonating inside the ship.