Ships
- IJN Hosho Captain from 30 November 1929 · Relieved on 1 December 1930
Hideho Wada was born in Kagoshima Prefecture on 2 January 1886, the second son of a pastor in the Japan Christian Church. An elder brother, Eisaku Wada, became a painter. Hideho Wada attended Kaijo Middle School in Tokyo, entered the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy, and graduated with the 34th class in November 1906. He was commissioned an ensign in December 1907.
His first sea appointments included a division officer's billet in the transport Takasaki Maru and duty as navigator of Matsue. He then moved into naval aviation. In 1914, during the siege of the German base at Qingdao, he flew French Maurice Farman seaplanes from the seaplane carrier Wakamiya, in some of the earliest combat flights made by Japanese naval airmen. After that campaign he was sent on duty to Britain, France, and Italy, and he instructed with Wakamiya and the Yokosuka Naval Air Group. He completed the Naval War College B course and a specialist course, and in December 1919 he finished the college's A course with its 17th class.
The assignments that followed stayed with the air arm. He was attached to the Yokosuka Naval District for work connected with the Navy Ministry's aviation office, served in the ministry's military affairs bureau, and became executive officer of the Kasumigaura Air Group, the navy's main flight-training station. He later commanded the Sasebo Air Group and the Yokosuka Air Group.
On 30 November 1929 Wada took command of the light carrier Hosho, relieving Goro Hara. Commissioned in 1922, Hosho was the first purpose-built aircraft carrier to enter service. By the time Wada came aboard, her small island had been removed and she operated as a flush-deck ship, with her pilots and deck crews practicing the landings and handling methods that the larger carriers would use. His command covered that training work. He was relieved on 1 December 1930 by Eijiro Kondo.
He next commanded the carrier Akagi. Shore duty followed, with the Yokosuka Naval District and as head of the aircraft department at the Naval Air Arsenal. Promoted rear admiral in December 1932, he commanded the Kasumigaura Air Group, and from June 1934 he commanded the 1st Carrier Division. In November 1935 he took command of the Ryojun Guard District, the navy's station at Port Arthur.
Wada was promoted vice admiral on 1 December 1936 and assigned to the Naval General Staff. In December 1937 he was placed on waiting orders and transferred to the reserve, so his active service closed before the Pacific War. In retirement he wrote Kaigun Koku Shiwa, a book of recollections on naval aviation. He died on 3 April 1972, at the age of eighty-six.