Chuichi Nagumo commanded the Japanese First Air Fleet during the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941.
Nagumo led the carrier striking force that sailed from Japan to Hawaii and launched the aircraft used in the attack. The force included six fleet carriers, which carried fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes for the two main attack waves.
Nagumo was senior to many of the operation's aviation specialists, but planning responsibility belonged chiefly to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto and his Combined Fleet staff. This distinction can cause confusion: Yamamoto organized and championed the overall operation, while Nagumo commanded the carrier force that executed it.
After the attack, Nagumo continued to hold important commands in the Japanese Navy. He later commanded Japanese forces in the Indian Ocean and at Midway, where the Japanese carrier force suffered a major defeat in June 1942.