Ships
- IJN Natori Flag, not her captain, 1 March 1942
Kenzaburo Hara was born on 15 July 1887 and graduated from the Naval Academy on 19 November 1909, standing 146th in a class of 179. He went first to the cruiser Aso, then to the battleship Mikasa and the cruisers Nisshin and Hashidate. Commissioned an ensign in February 1911, he passed through the basic gunnery and torpedo courses and joined the cruiser Suzuya in 1912.
He was promoted lieutenant junior grade that December and served in the battleships Asahi and Hizen, in torpedo boats, and in the cruiser Otowa. He made lieutenant in December 1916. The next year he commanded Torpedo Boat Division 15, then served on the staff of the Second Special Task Fleet and in the destroyer Momo. From December 1920 he commanded the destroyer Hibiki. In 1921 he became an aide to Prince Yorihito, and in 1922 an aide to Admiral Yamaya Tanin. He was promoted lieutenant commander in December 1922.
Hara spent the rest of the 1920s with destroyers, commanding a succession of divisions and ships, among them Satsuki in 1928, and he completed the torpedo school's expert course. Promoted commander in December 1927, he later led Destroyer Division 1 and Destroyer Division 30. On 15 November 1933 he became a captain and took Destroyer Division 10. He commanded the light cruiser Jintsu from November 1934 and the heavy cruiser Takao from November 1935. Shore appointments followed, as manager of Kure harbor and then of the First Harbor. On 15 November 1939 he was promoted rear admiral and given command of the Yokosuka Defense Squadron.
On 15 November 1940 he took Destroyer Squadron 5 and flew his flag in the light cruiser Natori. The squadron then belonged to the Second China Expeditionary Fleet. In 1941 it moved to the Third Fleet and took part in the occupation of southern French Indochina. At the start of the Pacific War his flag was still in Natori, with Destroyer Divisions 5 and 22 under him, and the squadron formed the first surprise-attack unit of the force sent against the Philippines.
In December 1941 he covered the landings on northern Luzon. On 10 December, off that coast, United States Army bombers attacked the convoy. A near miss damaged Natori, killed seven of her men, and wounded fifteen. Hara shifted his flag to the destroyer Nagatsuki while the cruiser went to Mako for repair. He was at sea again for the Lingayen Gulf landing on 22 December, escorting transports that carried infantry and tanks of the 48th Division. Late in the month his squadron became the second escort unit of the Malaya force and took a large convoy south, reaching Singora in early January 1942.
In February he commanded the close escort for the western landing on Java. On the night of 28 February his ships were screening transports bound for Bantam Bay when the Australian cruiser Perth and the American cruiser Houston entered the strait. On 1 March 1942 his flag flew in Natori. He was not her captain. Command of the ship rested with Seigo Sasaki. Natori and the destroyers with her engaged the two Allied cruisers, and the torpedoes they fired did not hit either ship. The heavy cruisers Mogami and Mikuma came up and sank Perth and Houston. During the same action torpedoes ran into Bantam Bay and struck Japanese transports, and Lieutenant General Hitoshi Imamura of the Sixteenth Army went into the water.
Destroyer Squadron 5 was dissolved on 10 March 1942. Hara then commanded Cruiser Division 16, with his flag still in Natori and with Nagara and Kinu in the division, on guard duty in the occupied Indies. He was promoted vice admiral on 1 November 1942 and on 15 November took command of the Ryojun Special Base Force at Port Arthur. He gave up that post in January 1944 and retired on 20 March 1944. He died on 20 September 1971.