He was the commander of the Japanese garrison on the island of Betio of the Tarawa atoll during World War II.

As a Kaigun Chūi (Lieutenant junior grade), he served on the cruiser Chikuma, destroyer Kaba and battleship Yamashiro.

Promoted to Kaigun Taisa (captain) in 1937, he served in various staff positions, primarily in Kure and in Shanghai.

He arrived on Betio in Tarawa in September 1943 to take command of the Japanese garrison, including 1,122 naval infantry in the 3rd Special Base Force (a reorganized of the 6th Yokosuka SNLF), 1,497 sailors forming the 7th Sasebo Special Naval Landing Force, and 1,427 (mostly Korean and Chinese) laborers forming the 111th Pioneers construction unit, and a detachment of 970 laborers from the 4th Fleet Construction Unit.

He built extensive defenses on Betio to defend its strategically important airfield, and famously boasted to his troops that "it would take one million men one hundred years" to conquer the island.