Ships
- IJN Shigure Captain from 20 November 1942
Kamesaburo Yamagami was a lieutenant commander in the Imperial Japanese Navy. On 20 November 1942 he became captain of the destroyer Shigure at Truk, relieving Noboru Seo. Before that appointment he had commanded the destroyers Kisaragi and Numakaze.
The ship he joined had just come out of the November fighting off Guadalcanal. With Destroyer Division 27 she had stood by the crippled battleship Hiei and taken off part of the battleship's crew. Strafing during that work left Shigure lightly damaged and killed one of her men. Emergency repairs were made at Truk, and Yamagami took command there.
His first season in the ship was escort duty. On 13 December 1942 Shigure and Asagumo left Truk, met the escort carrier Chuyo and the destroyer Uzuki off Saipan on the 15th, and returned to Truk on the 18th. On 21 December they took Chuyo on to Yokosuka, arriving on the 26th. Shigure was back at Truk on 8 January 1943. She sailed again on 15 January with a convoy for the Shortland Islands, where part of the 6th Infantry Division went ashore, and she reentered Truk on the 20th. From 31 January to 9 February she moved with the Second Fleet north of the Solomons, a diversion in support of the evacuation of Guadalcanal, which was finished on 7 February. The covering force was not brought to action. Shigure returned to Truk on 9 February. From 15 to 20 February she escorted the battleships Kongo and Haruna into Sasebo for a hull refit.
On 8 March 1943 Tameichi Hara took command of Destroyer Division 27 and made Shigure his flagship. Yamagami remained captain of the destroyer. Hara directed the division from the ship. Yamagami commanded Shigure herself.
The division stayed in the Solomons through the autumn. On 6 and 7 October 1943 Shigure and Samidare were off Bougainville and then in the night battle off Vella Lavella, fought while Japanese troops were being taken off that island. On the night of 1–2 November Shigure fought off Empress Augusta Bay while screening the light cruiser Sendai. Sendai was lost. Shigure came through the action and remained in service under Yamagami.
Yamagami left the ship on 8 December 1943. Shigeru Nishino succeeded him as captain. Manabu Hagiwara later commanded Shigure, from 1 December 1944, and was her captain when the American submarine Blackfin torpedoed and sank her on 24 January 1945 off Kota Bharu, during a convoy run from Hainan toward Singapore. Yamagami lived through the war. In the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force he commanded the Osaka base unit and the 1st Minesweeping Flotilla, and he retired as a rear admiral.