Ships
- IJN Hosho Captain from 10 December 1928 · Relieved on 30 November 1929
Goro Hara was an Imperial Japanese Navy officer who spent his later career in naval aviation and rose to vice admiral. He was born in Tokyo Prefecture on 21 January 1886 and died on 31 October 1940, while carried on the rolls of the Naval General Staff.
He graduated from the Naval Academy with the 35th class in November 1907 and was commissioned an ensign in December 1908. After the Naval War College B-course and the advanced course at the Torpedo School, he became a division officer in the battlecruiser Hiei in December 1913. Staff appointments followed at the temporary naval port at Qingdao, with the 3rd Squadron, and with the 2nd Fleet. In December 1919 he completed the A-course of the Naval War College in the 17th class, was promoted to lieutenant commander, and joined the staff of the 3rd Torpedo Squadron.
From there his assignments moved into the air arm. He was attached to the Yokosuka Naval Air Group and sent on a tour of Europe and the United States. He then served at the Yokosuka Naval District and in the Navy Ministry, with duties in the Naval Affairs Bureau and the Education Bureau, and was promoted to commander in December 1923. From December 1924 he was again posted to the Naval Affairs Bureau, made a second trip abroad, and joined the technical department of the Naval Aviation Department. He was promoted to captain in December 1927.
On 10 December 1928 Hara assumed command of the aircraft carrier Hosho, relieving Kiyoshi Kitagawa. Hosho had been completed in 1922 as Japan's first carrier laid down for that role, and she had already been used to settle how aircraft were landed, parked, and maintained on a narrow flight deck. In April 1928 she had entered the First Carrier Division beside the much larger Akagi, so Hara's tenure fell inside the navy's first standing carrier formation, on peacetime training duty. He was relieved on 30 November 1929 by Hideho Wada. Among the officers who had commanded the ship before him was Jiro Toshima, who took her through fitting out and into commission.
After Hosho he commanded the Yokosuka Naval Air Group and, concurrently, the carrier Akagi. He next served as fitting-out officer of the new carrier Ryujo, spent a period attached to the Yokosuka Naval District, and became director of general affairs at the Naval Air Arsenal. Command of Kaga followed. In November 1933 he was promoted to rear admiral.
His flag appointments stayed with aviation and technical administration. He served as a shipbuilding and ordnance inspector for the Navy Technical Department and the Naval Aviation Department, later as chief inspector, then as head of the technical department at Naval Aviation Headquarters, and as superintendent of the Naval Air Arsenal. Promotion to vice admiral came in December 1937. In November 1938 he took command of the Mako Guard District in the Pescadores. He afterward commanded the Maizuru Guard District and became commander-in-chief of the Maizuru Naval District. In April 1940 he was assigned to the Naval General Staff, and he died that October at the age of fifty-four.