Ships
- IJN Ikazuchi Captain from 13 August 1942
Lieutenant Commander Hagemi Ishii of the Imperial Japanese Navy became captain of the destroyer Ikazuchi on 13 August 1942, in the summer when the Pacific War was turning from the Dutch East Indies and the Aleutians toward the Solomon Islands.
Ikazuchi was a Special Type destroyer of the Akatsuki group, completed at Uraga in August 1932, a ship of about 1,680 tons with a heavy gun and torpedo armament for her size. She had served on the China coast after fighting began there in 1937. At the opening of the Pacific War she was with Destroyer Division 6. In December 1941 she covered the landings at Hong Kong and, working with the light cruiser Isuzu, took part in the sinking of the British gunboats Cicada and Robin. Through the early months of 1942 she screened advances in the East Indies, among them Menado, Ambon, and Timor, and she was in the Java Sea on 1 March when Allied ships, including the cruiser Exeter, were overwhelmed.
On 2 March 1942, with Shunsaku Kudo still in command, Ikazuchi stopped in the Java Sea and took 442 survivors of Exeter, the British destroyer Encounter, and the American destroyer Pope out of the water. Kudo kept that rescue private for the rest of his life. In June the destroyer went north with the Fifth Fleet for the seizures of Attu and Kiska. Late in July she took the badly damaged destroyer Kasumi in tow and brought her to Shimushu by 3 August, then entered the Yokosuka Navy Yard.
Ishii relieved Kudo while Ikazuchi was already alongside at Yokosuka. The overhaul ran from 8 August through the end of the month, and his days as captain were the days of a ship in dock: hull and machinery work, replenishment, and a crew just back from the northern cruise. On 27 August 1942 Saneho Maeda, likewise a lieutenant commander, relieved him.
Ikazuchi left the yard at the end of August and went south into the fight for Guadalcanal. On 25 October 1942 she, Akatsuki, and Shiratsuyu made a daylight run into the waters off the island. In that action the American fast minesweeper Zane was damaged, and the fleet tug Seminole and patrol craft YP-284 were sunk, before United States Marine coastal guns drove the Japanese destroyers off. On the night of 13 November she stood on the right flank, with two other destroyers, beside the battleships Hiei and Kirishima in the first night battle off Guadalcanal, exchanged fire with American ships including the cruiser Atlanta, and came out with her forward gun mount on fire. She was in northern waters again for the battle of the Komandorski Islands on 26 March 1943. The submarine Harder sank Ikazuchi on 13 April 1944 south of Guam.