Career
He was responsible for the defenses of the four airfields on Tinian, as well as their anti-air weaponry and their artillery. He commanded 4,500 naval troops in total. Oya and Kiyochi Ogata, two of the Japanese commanders on the island, had their headquarters set up at Mountain.
Lasso, the highest point on the island.
When the United States Marine Corps attacked Tinian in late 1944, he resisted them with his big guns, which inflicted severe casualties on the United States troops and destroyed some of their LVTs before their troops could disembark. However, the United States troops that landed broke through to Mountain.
Lasso, which endangered Japanese control of the island. Kakuta, Ogata, and Oya committed suicide in the traditional fashion of seppuku, where they stabbed themselves with swords and disemboweled themselves.
The knife that Goichi Oya used to commit seppuku was retrieved by a United States Marine named Fred Osgood and sent home to the United States in 1944.
Brooks, Victor: "Hell is Upon Us: Doctorate-Day in the Pacific, June–August 1944", 2005.
