Kondō Nobutake

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Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondo

Kondō Nobutake ( Japanese近藤 信 竹; born September 25, 1886 in Osaka , Japan ; † February 19, 1953 ) was a Japanese admiral .

He graduated from the Japanese Naval Academy in 1907 as the best in his class. From 1912 to 1913 he served as a naval attaché in Great Britain. After the end of the First World War he attended the naval college and became a corvette captain in December 1919 . From 1920 to 1923 he was a member of the Naval Interallied Commission of Control in Germany. In 1929 he became commander of the heavy cruiser Kako and in 1932 of the battleship Kongo . In November 1933 he was promoted to Rear Admiral. In 1935 he became Chief of Staff of the United Fleet and was promoted to Vice Admiral in 1937. After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War , he commanded the 5th Fleet in the invasion of Hainan and the blockade of Swatow .

At the beginning of the Pacific War he commanded the 2nd Fleet. He took part in the Japanese invasions of the Malay Peninsula , the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies . At the Battle of Midway , Kondo commanded the landing and cover group. But here he had to cope with the first defeat of his career, as his troops had to retreat halfway .

With the Eastern Solomon Islands in August 1942, the Santa Cruz Islands in October 1942 and in the sea ​​battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942, he had other missions.

He was later recalled to the Japanese Ministry of Navy in Tokyo . As commander-in-chief of the China Fleet, he received one last front mission. At the end of the war he was back in the Navy Ministry. Since he was not a senior citizen at the time, he was not charged in the Tokyo trials . He died in 1953.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Kondō is the family name, Nobutake the first name.