Ships
- IJN Amagiri Captain from 1 December 1937
- IJN Tokitsukaze Captain from 15 December 1940
- IJN Nagara Captain from 8 May 1944
Giichiro Nakahara was an officer of the Imperial Japanese Navy who spent most of his seagoing career in destroyers and died in command of a light cruiser. As a commander he brought a new fleet destroyer into service, and in the last months of his life he was captain of Nagara. He went down with that ship on 7 August 1944 and was promoted two grades after his death.
His earlier commands were in the destroyer force. He had already served as fitting-out officer and first captain of the Shiratsuyu-class destroyer Yūdachi. On 1 December 1937 he took command of Amagiri, a Fubuki-class destroyer completed in 1930. During his years in her she worked with the fleet in exercises and in operations connected with the war in China. He was still her captain on 1 September 1940, when he was named fitting-out officer of a destroyer then finishing at the Uraga yard.
That ship was Tokitsukaze, tenth of the Kagerō class. She entered service on 15 December 1940, and Nakahara became her first captain the same day. She was assigned to the Kure Naval District and joined Destroyer Division 16 of Destroyer Squadron 2 in the Second Fleet. In December 1941 the division left Palau to screen the carrier Ryūjō for the landings in the southern Philippines. Through January and February 1942 Tokitsukaze escorted invasion forces into Menado, Kendari, Ambon, Timor, and eastern Java. At the close of February she fought in the Battle of the Java Sea and joined the Japanese torpedo attack on the Allied ships.
In the Midway operation of June 1942 her work was the screen for transports carrying the Ichiki Detachment and a naval landing party. On 11 July she sailed from Kure with Yukikaze, escorting the transport Nankai Maru. On 14 July Destroyer Division 16 passed into the Tenth Squadron under Rear Admiral Susumu Kimura, who flew his flag in Nagara. Nakahara left Tokitsukaze on 3 September 1942. He was appointed commander of Destroyer Division 24, the division of Umikaze, Kawakaze, and Suzukaze, and he reported on 10 September. Masayoshi Motokura succeeded him in Tokitsukaze. The destroyer was sunk in the Bismarck Sea on 3 March 1943.
On 8 May 1944 Nakahara returned to a ship command as captain of Nagara, relieving Shinichi Kondo. The cruiser was the name ship of her class, named for the Nagara River, and she had served through the war as flagship of a destroyer squadron, from the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies through Midway and the Solomon Islands. On 15 May 1944 she became flagship of Destroyer Squadron 11 in the Combined Fleet. In July she was at Yokosuka to receive more antiaircraft guns.
On 7 August 1944 Nagara was steaming from Kagoshima toward Sasebo after carrying evacuees. Off Ushibuka, in the Amakusa islands, the American submarine Croaker hit her on the starboard side with one of four torpedoes. She sank by the stern. Fishing boats saved 235 of her company. Nakahara was among the 348 who were lost. The wreck lies in about 100 meters of water off Amakusa, and a memorial service has been held on the anniversary of the sinking. His grandson, Seiichiro Nishinaka, has spoken of coming late to the story of his grandfather's life.