was a warrant officer and ace

Ace

An ace is a playing card. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit symbol located in the middle of the card, sometimes large and decorated, especially in the case of the Ace of Spades...

 fighter

Fighter aircraft

A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...

 pilot in the Imperial Japanese Navy

Imperial Japanese Navy

The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...

 (IJN) during the January 28 Incident

January 28 Incident

The January 28 Incident was a short war between the armies of the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan, before official hostilities of the Second Sino-Japanese War commenced in 1937.- Naming :...

 and the Second Sino-Japanese War

Second Sino-Japanese War

The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...

. During the January 28 Incident on 22 February 1932, while assigned to the aircraft carrier Kaga's

Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga

Kaga was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy , named after the former Kaga Province in present-day Ishikawa Prefecture...

 fighter group, Kuroiwa participated in the IJN's first official shootdown of an enemy aircraft in combat. In the shootdown, Kuroiwa and two other fighters from his unit destroyed a Chinese fighter aircraft piloted by American mercenary Robert Short.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938, assigned to the 12th Air Group, Kuroiwa saw considerable action against Chinese air opponents. During his combat career, Kuroiwa was officially credited with shooting down 13 enemy aircraft. In 1939 he was deemed too old to continue with combat duty so Kuroiwa left the IJN and became a civilian pilot for Imperial Japanese Airways

Imperial Japanese Airways

was the national airline of the Empire of Japan before World War II, and was the forerunner of the modern Japan Airlines.-History:With the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, there was a tremendous need for air transport capability by the Japanese military, which had traditionally drawn on the...

. On 26 August 1944 the civilian transport aircraft he was flying disappeared off the Malay Peninsula

Malay Peninsula

The Malay Peninsula or Thai-Malay Peninsula is a peninsula in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southern-most point of the Asian mainland...

and neither the aircraft nor Kuroiwa was ever found.