Mikawa Gun'ichi

Vice Admiral Mikawa Gunichi

Mikawa Gun'ichi ( Japanese 三 川 軍 一 ; born August 29, 1888 - † February 25, 1981 ) was a Vice Admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy .

Life

Mikawa graduated from the Japanese Naval Academy by 1910 and graduated from there. After several years of service on various cruisers and battleships , between 1913 and 1914 he attended the naval school for torpedo and firing technology.

In 1914 he drove on a cruiser missions during the First World War , which also took him to the Republic of China . After that he had further missions on a destroyer and a transport ship , interrupted by studies at the naval college .

After the end of the war, Lieutenant Mikawa was a member of the Japanese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in France between 1919 and 1920 . In the 1920s, Mikawa served as a navigational officer on various ships and as an instructor at the Japanese torpedo school. In 1930 he took part in the London Naval Disarmament Conference as a member of the Japanese delegation . Shortly afterwards he became a naval attaché in Paris .

In the 1930s, Mikawa sailed with the rank of captain as a commander on two heavy cruisers and a battleship. In 1936 he was promoted to rear admiral and was given command of the Japanese Second Fleet as chief of staff . He worked at Imperial Headquarters and then commanded a squadron of cruisers and battleships in quick succession .

The service as squadron leader lasted until July 1942. Mikawa had meanwhile been promoted to vice admiral. Now he has been assigned to the Japanese Eighth Fleet in the Central and South Pacific . On August 9, 1942, he carried out a successful blow against the American escort ships in the battle of Savo Island . Although the escort of the transport and supply ships off Guadalcanal was destroyed, Mikawa then withdrew without attacking them.

By 1943, Mikawa led the Eighth Fleet through the long battles to reclaim Guadalcanal and defend New Guinea . He then commanded the Japanese Second South Sea Fleet in 1944 during the fighting for the Philippines .

Mikawa Gun'ichi retired from active service in the Japanese Navy in May 1945. He died in 1981.

literature

• Who's who in twentieth century warfare Spencer Tucker, Routledge Chapman & Hal, 2001, ISBN 0-415-23497-2

Web links

• Short biography on history.navy.mil

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Mikawa is the family name, Gun'ichi the first name.