Ships
- IJN Hosho Captain from 1 November 1927 · Relieved on 10 December 1928
Kiyoshi Kitagawa was born on 2 April 1883 and spent his career in the Imperial Japanese Navy. He entered the Naval Academy with the thirty-third class and finished twenty-seventh in an order of merit of 171. After the academy he passed through the gunnery school, the torpedo school, and the Naval Staff College, the course expected of a line officer who would later hold a seagoing command. His rise coincided with the years in which the navy was learning to operate aircraft from ships, alongside the gunnery and torpedo work that still shaped most commands.
On 1 November 1927 he became captain of the aircraft carrier Hosho, relieving Giichiro Kawamura. Hosho was the first carrier the navy completed for that purpose from the design stage. Ordered at first as a fleet auxiliary, she was recast while building, laid down at Tsurumi in December 1920, launched in November 1921, and completed at Yokosuka in December 1922. In standard condition she displaced about 7,470 tons, measured a little over 550 feet, and could steam at about 25 knots. Her air group was a handful of biplanes. A small starboard island and funnels that folded flat for flying had been fitted at completion, then taken off after early trials showed that they crowded the narrow deck, so flying was directed from a platform at the deck edge.
His command lasted a little more than thirteen months, and in that time Hosho was a training and trials ship. Akagi had joined the fleet earlier in 1927, and the larger carrier took the prominent place in the Combined Fleet, while Hosho kept working through deck landings, arresting gear, barriers, and the daily routine of a small air group. The deck left little room for error, and the habits formed there were carried onto the carriers that followed. Jiro Toshima, Heizaburo Fukuyo, Ryutaro Kaizu, and Seizaburo Kobayashi had commanded her through the first years of that work. Kitagawa held her to the same duty through 1928.
He was relieved on 10 December 1928 by Goro Hara. Hosho stayed in commission long after that. Hideho Wada commanded her within the next two years, and Seigo Yamagata held her in the mid-1930s, as the navy's carrier force grew around the little ship that had taught it the trade. She later operated off Shanghai, served in the war with China, and in June 1942 took a supporting part at Midway. She came through the Pacific War, carried Japanese personnel home after the surrender, and was broken up in 1947. Kitagawa's own time in her ended with the turnover to Hara.
After Hosho his appointments were at Kure. On 26 October 1930 he took command of the Kure Defense Unit. From 2 February 1932 he also served as commandant of the Submarine School, and on 28 June 1932 he continued with the defense unit after leaving the school. He was promoted rear admiral on 1 December 1932. On 15 November 1933 he was attached to the Kure Naval District, and on 11 December 1933 he became commander of the Kure Guard Squadron, a local command concerned with the defense of the naval port rather than with a fleet carrier.
On 15 November 1934 he was attached to the Naval General Staff. He was placed awaiting orders on 25 March 1935 and transferred to the reserve on 30 March 1935, so his active service closed well before the Pacific War. Kiyoshi Kitagawa died on 18 March 1952.