On 7 August 1942, the Japanese navy launched nine Aichi D3A1 ‘Val’ dive bombers (kanbaku) on a mission from which they could not return due to their aircraft's limited fuel range. The mission had no ‘kamikaze’ intentions; rather it was planned on the aspiration that, whilst the aircraft would be sacrificed, the aircrews would not. There was no precedent for it, and no similar raids would follow. Only three of the nine crews would survive the day. Six kanbaku were shot down, and three were ditched offshore Bougainville.

The previous day the carrier Unyo had delivered sixteen Val dive-bombers to Vunakanau, all assigned to the Japanese Navy’s 2nd Air Group (Kokutai). The next day nine of them flew the fateful mission, led by Lt Fumita Inoue, whose kanbaku is profiled above, and which was one of the three ditched offshore.