Ships
- IJN Harusame Captain from 15 December 1938
Lieutenant Commander Hiroshi Hirose of the Imperial Japanese Navy became captain of the destroyer Harusame on 15 December 1938. He took her as a lieutenant commander, and the ship was still new, having joined the fleet only the summer before. Japan was already at war in China.
Harusame was a Shiratsuyu-class destroyer built at the Maizuru Naval Arsenal. Her keel was laid on 3 February 1935, she was launched on 21 September 1935, and she was completed on 26 August 1937. The name means spring rain, and the navy had already used it for an earlier destroyer that fought in the Russo-Japanese War. The new ship displaced about 1,700 tons and carried 12.7-centimeter guns, eight torpedo tubes, and depth charges. She served in Destroyer Division 2 with Murasame, Yudachi, and Samidare, in Destroyer Squadron 4 of the Second Fleet.
Hirose commanded Harusame from 15 December 1938 into 1940. Those were the last years before the Pacific War. The China conflict was still going on, and the Second Fleet's destroyer squadrons were training for a wider fight. His captaincy fell between the ship's early service off the China coast and the campaigns that opened in December 1941.
Later captains of Harusame included Sutezo Tomita and Masao Kamiyama. With the Second Fleet she went into the opening operations in the south, the Midway operation, and the Guadalcanal campaign, including the night actions and the supply runs to the island. On 24 January 1943 the American submarine Wahoo torpedoed her off Wewak, New Guinea, and broke her back. She was brought home, repaired, and returned to service late in 1943.
On 8 June 1944 Harusame was steaming toward Biak in the attempt to reinforce the island when American aircraft attacked and sank her. Toshihiko Tomita was her captain. The navy removed her from the register on 10 August 1944.