During the Battle of Midway in June 1942, Kakuta commanded a task force consisting of carriers Ryūjō and Jun'yō that conducted air raids against Dutch Harbor as part of the initial stages of the Aleutian Islands Campaign.

Following the death of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the new Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet, Mineichi Koga, restructured the Imperial Japanese Navy around the American carrier task force concept.

On 1 July 1943, Kakuta was assigned command of the First Air Fleet which included all land-based naval aircraft units located throughout the Philippines and Japanese-held islands in the central Pacific.

Under Kakuta's direction from his headquarters on Tinian, many of the remaining aircraft units participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944, but were unable to play a decisive role, suffering further heavy losses.

As the Americans closed in on Tinian, Kakuta and his staff made repeated efforts to escape in rubber boats at prearranged rendezvous with a Japanese submarine.