Ijūin Matsuji

Ijūin Matsuji

Ijūin Matsuji ( Japanese伊 集 院 松 治; * April 21, 1893 ; † May 24, 1944 ) was an officer in the Japanese Navy during World War II . He was involved in several sea battles.

He was born in Tokyo and attended the Naval Academy, which he graduated from in 1915. Although he had focused on submarine warfare and torpedo teaching, he was given command of a destroyer several times during the 1920s and early 1930s . This changed after he was appointed advisor to Puyi , the Emperor of Manchukuo .

In 1938 he was promoted to captain and several destroyer fleets were placed under him. In the first months of the war he was not involved in any combat. In December 1942 he was given command of the battle cruiser Kongo . Later, when he commanded the 3rd destroyer squadron in Rabaul , he led the Japanese troops into the fighting at Horaniu and Vella Lavella . There he was able to successfully relieve the crews of the island even though he was attacked on October 6th and 7th, 1943 by American ships under the leadership of Frank R. Walker . When he was coordinating the reconnaissance during the sea ​​battle at Kaiserin Augusta Bay on November 2, 1943, his ship, the Sendai , was sunk. Ijūin was rescued by the submarine RO-104 with a few other survivors. On May 24, 1944, he died north of Saipan when the patrol boat Iki , which served as his flagship, sank after a torpedo hit.

Posthumously he was promoted to Vice Admiral.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Ijūin is the family name, Matsuji the first name.