Career

In early 1942, at the age of 22, he flew a Mitsubishi A6M Zero with the Lae based Tainan Air Group. There the young petty officer, 1st class became one of the so-called "Clean-up Trio" of Japanese aces, along with his squadron mates Saburo Sakai and Hiroyoshi Nishizawa. Ōta"s first confirmed kill, of a United States. Army Air Force P-40E Warhawk, was over New Guinea on April 11, 1942.

Transferred to Rabaul in August, Ōta was killed in a dogfight with United States. Marine Corps F4F Wildcats over Guadalcanal on October 21, shortly after shooting down a Wildcat himself.

Ōta is credited with 34 victories, making him the Imperial Japanese Navy"s sixth-ranking ace. In his autobiography, Sakai described Ōta as outgoing and amiable, in contrast to the more reserved Nishizawa, and said he would have been "more at home in a nightclub" than in Lae.