Naoshi Kanno

Naoshi Kanno (, 23 September 1921 – 1 August 1945) was a Japanese fighter ace in World War II. He is credited with 25 confirmed kills.

Piloting his Shiden-Kai, which had yellow stripes painted on its fuselage, he invented the "anti-large bomber tactic" of flipping over and diving headfirst vertically into the enemy aircraft from an altitude of more than 1,000 meters ahead of it, attacking it from directly above. So, he was feared by the pilots of large fighter planes of the US military and was nicknamed the "Yellow Fighter."

Life and career Kanno's Kawanishi N1K had extra stripes painted on it; he hoped they would lure enemies into attacking him. Kanno was born on 23 September 1921, as the second son in Ryukou, Korea under Japanese rule (now near Pyongyang, North Korea), where his father was posted as the police chief. He grew up in Edano Village, Igu District, Miyagi Prefecture; his parents were from the same area. In his diary from that time, he wrote, "I wonder if Takuboku was a person like me," and in his diary entry for September 14, 1938, he wrote, "The reason Napoleon does not interest me is because he is a materialist who does not understand the pathos of things." He was thinking about studying literature, and when he was in the fourth year of junior high school, he was studying for university entrance exams, but for financial reasons, decided to join the military.

Kanno enrolled in the Japanese Navy Academy in December 1938, graduating in February 1943 in the 70th class. Drifters by Kouta Hirano Kanno is one of the protagonists of this manga and anime, where he was voiced by Tatsuhisa Suzuki. Shiden-Kai 343 by Souichi Moto