Ships
- IJN Inazuma Captain from 15 September 1941
Hajime Takeuchi was an officer of the Imperial Japanese Navy and a graduate of the Naval Academy’s fifty-second class. On 15 September 1941 he was captain of the destroyer Inazuma, with the rank of lieutenant commander, after an earlier command of the destroyer Yuzuki. Inazuma belonged to Destroyer Division 6 with Hibiki, Akatsuki, and Ikazuchi, in Destroyer Squadron 1 of the First Fleet. Kosaku Aruga and Motoi Katsumi had both commanded her in the years before the Pacific war.
At the end of November 1941 the division left the Terashima Strait for Mako in the Pescadores and arrived on 2 December. From 4 December Inazuma sailed with the force covering the invasion of Hong Kong. Together with the light cruiser Isuzu she took part in the sinking of the British gunboats Cicada and Robin outside the harbor, and the ships then secured captured vessels in the port. Inazuma departed Hong Kong on 24 December.
In the first days of January 1942 she reached Takao with Ikazuchi and joined the heavy cruiser Ashigara, flagship of Vice Admiral Ibō Takahashi’s Third Fleet. The destroyers escorted Ashigara to Davao, arriving on 6 January, and through the middle of the month Inazuma worked from that base as distant cover for the landing at Menado. On 20 January, while at Davao, she collided with Sendai Maru and was badly damaged. The repair ship Akashi patched her, and she was returned to full service at Mako between 29 January and 17 February.
Takeuchi then took her into the action of 1 March 1942, the second battle of the Java Sea. Japanese heavy cruisers caught the British cruiser Exeter in company with the destroyers Encounter and Pope and brought Exeter under heavy gunfire. Inazuma opened fire as the range closed and, on orders, fired two torpedoes from about 3,700 yards. Both struck Exeter on the starboard side. The cruiser went down, and as Inazuma drew nearer she signaled a call for the ship to surrender.
Late in May 1942 Inazuma escorted the heavy cruisers Takao and Maya from Kure to Ominato. During the Battle of Midway, from 3 to 5 June, she screened the main body of Vice Admiral Boshirō Hosogaya’s Northern Force, the Aleutian part of the operation. Through the rest of June she patrolled and escorted between Kiska and Attu. From 28 June into early July she ran antisubmarine patrols off Kiska, and on 5 July she picked up thirty-six survivors of the destroyer Nenohi.
In September she trained in the Inland Sea with the carriers Junyo and Hiyo. From 4 to 9 October she escorted both carriers from Saeki to Truk and then joined fleet patrols north of the Solomons. Between 22 and 26 October she helped bring the disabled Hiyo back into Truk. Takeuchi was promoted to commander on 1 November 1942. On 6 November he turned Inazuma over to Masamichi Terauchi and left to command the destroyer Kuroshio. Inazuma fought on under later captains. Teizo Tokiwa was lost with her when the American submarine Bonefish sank the destroyer in the Celebes Sea on 14 May 1944.