 He served as Director of the Training Department in the Tokorozawa Army Aviation School, as Commandant of the same school and the Akeno Army Aviation School, and was later attached to the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff.Tokugawa came to be known in Japan as "the Grandfather of Flight"

He entered the active reserve from 1939, and was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun in 1940.He was recalled to command the Imperial Army Aviation School in March 1944, before finally retiring the following year.