Following the Battle of Midway in June 1942, downed American aircrew SBD Ensign Frank W. O'Flaherty and AMM1c Bruno Gaido were pulled from the water by Makigumo. After an interrogation, the crew tied weights around the feet of O'Flaherty and Gaido and threw them into the Pacific to drown, instead of keeping them prisoner until they reached Japan. Makigumos crew thought of it as payback for the loss in the battle of Midway of the aircraft carriers Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, and Hiryū, which had formed two-thirds of the Kidō Butai Pearl Harbor attack force.
