specialization. There he married Katsumi Furuta; a woman he met during his training. In August 1943 he was transferred to Rabaul airbase in the South Pacific, where he saw extensive air combat for several months. There he served with 204th Air Group and 253rd Air Group, and fought alongside Tetsuzō Iwamoto in the defence of Rabaul, where they faced almost daily Allied raids that typically consisted of 100 or more aircraft. During the defence of Rabaul, he also helped to develop methods for using Type 3 air-bursting phosphorus bombs against enemy bomber formations, which were dropped from a Zero fighter above them. In February 1944, he was moved to Truk. He left Truk in June 1944 in order to participate in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. While he was about to land on an airfield on Guam, his fighter was shot down by USN F6F Hellcat fighters. He made an emergency landing on the coast and was afterwards evacuated to Japan as he sustained a severe burn injury. Komachi participated in the last Air engagement of World War II on 18 August 1945, when he attacked two B-32 Dominators on a photo-reconnaissance mission over Tokyo. One bomber received damage and suffered one crew fatality, but both aircraft returned to Yontan Airfield, Okinawa. Later life In 1992 Komachi attended a symposium at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida about the Battle of the Coral Sea, as a guest panelist. Komachi died of natural causes on 15 July 2012. He was 92. References Notes References Sources Combat reports 1920 births Japanese naval aviators Japanese World War II flying aces Military personnel from Ishikawa Prefecture Imperial Japanese Navy officers 2012 deaths