Tozuka was a native of the former
Sendagaya Village in
Tokyo, now part of
Shibuya. He graduated 33rd out of 149 cadets in the 38th class of the
Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in July 1910. He served his
midshipman tour on the
armored cruiser Asama on its circumpacific voyage to
Honolulu,
San Francisco,
Acapulco and
Panama. Heb was subsequently assigned to
Kurama and
Naniwa. After attending gunnery and torpedo schools, he was promoted to
lieutenant in 1913, and assigned to
Kasagi. During
World War I, he was attending junior officer courses at
Naval Staff College, from which he emerged in 1917. He subsequently served on
Tsushima,
Mishima, and
Hirado. He returned to the Naval Staff College in 1920, graduating 23rd out of 26 students, and with the rank of
lieutenant commander. He subsequently served on the
Ōi,
Kiso and as cadet instructor on the training cruiser
Iwate on its
Shanghai –
Hong Kong –
Manila –
Singapore –
Batavia –
Fremantle –
Adelaide –
Melbourne -
Hobart -
Sydney –
Wellington -
Auckland -
Suva -
Truk -
Saipan voyage of 1925. On his return, Tozuka was promoted to
commander, and in 1928 was sent to
Europe and the
United States for a year to tour various countries and to learn about their naval operations. On his return, he served as
Chief of staff of the
Sasebo Naval District, and in 1931, received his first command:
Tama. From 1932-1933, he served on the
Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff, returning to sea as captain of
Nachi. In 1936, Tozuka was given command of the
Tateyama Naval Air Detachment. This became the
IJN 1st Air Fleet in 1937, and was subordinated to the
China Area Fleet with the start of the
China Incident. The same year, Tozuka was promoted to
rear admiral. He is noted for pioneering transoceanic bombing from the
Japanese home islands to
Shanghai at the start of the
Second Sino-Japanese War. Tozuka remained involved with
naval aviation for the rest of his career, commanding the
1st,
2nd, and
12th Air Fleets into
World War II; he also was commander of both carrier air wings involved in the
attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. On 4–5 August 1943,
Imperial General Headquarters reorganized the military command structure in the
North Pacific Ocean, abolishing the
Northern Area Force and placing him in command of a new
Northeast Area Fleet, which combined the forces of the
5th Fleet and the 12th Air Fleet and was responsible for the defense of the
Kurile Islands. In September 1944, he became commander in chief of the
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service. In May 1945, he became final commander of the
Yokosuka Naval District, which he formally surrendered to
Rear Admiral Robert Carney, acting for
Fleet Admiral William Halsey, Jr., and Rear Admiral
Oscar C. Badger II on 28 August 1945. After the war, Tozuka went into retirement, but was later called upon by the post-war Japanese government to assist in the establishment of the naval academy of the
Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force. He also served as an honorary professor at
Senshu University and assisted in establishing air routes for
Japan Airlines. He died in 1966. ==References==